Human Rights Against Human Wrongs

“The conception, the idea of Right asserted its authority all at once, and the old framework of injustice could offer no resistance to its onslaught.” – Hegel, Philosophy of History

           Why is it that humans feature and point out what is wrong rather what is right?

            Whatever happened in Pangantucan, Bukidnon in 2000 that resulted to the deaths of 16 cult members of the Catholic God’s Spirit and 4 militiamen is up to the prayers to justice to both victims? While the public is painstakingly dragged to blur the truth, the authorities are digging holes to justify the unspeakable acts of their subordinates. They are trying to cheat the TV footages that bear the raw images of people being killed. The veracity of those shots of film could equal the law of gravity that all things that go up must come down. Yet they have the face to declare that what happened should be viewed in its entire context, not in a few minutes of footages. Conversely the public cannot be told to think in which way the authorities will want them to think. Those film shots sonorously unveil the only piece of truth the public can get hold of the gory incidence in Bukidnon, the Philippines.

            It is defined in the Rules of Engagement of the Philippine National Police that the use of force is justified only if it becomes the last resort when all other peaceful and non-violent means have been exhausted. With guns ready for action anytime, the authorities expose themselves to the slightest provocation of using force not as the last resort but the first line of defense. The two excuses are mutually dichotomized and yet can be referred interchangeably as if each one were of the same kind. These two are being invoked by the authorities as the justification of the enraged overkill of 16 people that should have been a simple arrest of one wanted person. Any concerned citizen would like to think that this becomes an exception rather than a rule with the activation of the CAFGUs. Otherwise the authorities are implicitly inviting citizens to arm themselves if confronted by the same undisciplined and haphazardly trained units of militiamen. This implication runs counter with the current drive of Dept. Interior Local Government in getting rid of the unlicensed and loose firearms, which are normally used in illegal activities and crimes. While the authorities are trying to confiscate the loose firearms and encouraging the citizens not to arm in order to protect themselves, they should also observe the discipline and training of those who are tasked and supposedly to protect the public. Unless this is achieved, they cannot talk peace and have guns at the same time.

            Anyway, what on earth has compelled man to do such ferocious act against another man? I am tempted to dismiss the notion that man is inherently evil but it brings me to light that we like to watch boxing and cockfighting, two figures scalping, hitting bloodily. It is further reinforced when Echegaray was sentenced to die and how we all waited for its consummation. Interestingly, the sight of blood and conflict excite the vulnerability of giving in easily to our temporal indulgence. However, the great Rousseau helps me to come to a personal conviction, that man is naturally good and that it is by institutions alone that he becomes evil.