Skip to main content

Monster

Editorial illustration about the Maguindanao massacre; Digital

Monthly bills. Snarling traffic. Breakneck deadlines. I had thought that these were the only monsters people like myself would have to face in today's modern world. I was wrong.

Monsters do live amongst us. The massacre at Maguindanao -- now known as the Ampatuan Massacre -- earlier this week proves it. Men who could perpetrate such atrocities are monsters -- no doubt about it.  What they have done should frighten men such as us. It should shake us to our core.

What these monsters have perpetrated -- call it as it is -- a savage and terrifying bloodbath,  sickens me. Their barbarity angers me. As it should every man. I realize now that we must fight such darkness. No ifs. No buts. To cower in fear in face of such atrocities leaves us impotent, to turn away from it in revulsion is escapist and to seek a political compromise is inutile.

Justice is owed the victims. Justice must be sought, even fought for. Relentlessly, because we must. Viciously, if we must. From the thugs who actually pulled the triggers, decapitated, raped and mutilated more than 50 people on a lonely road to the people in power who ordered the gruesome killings and the people who helped perpetrate them. The results of their monstrosity have been captured on film and video for people such as us to see. We must not turn away in fright. Let those images force us to realize that these monsters do indeed exist and have no place in our world. We owe it to ourselves to battle such evil with no hesitation-- if only to preserve our own humanity.

Yes, Pepe. Grendel is indeed real. 

Popular posts from this blog

NAPOLEON ABUEVA

"Mang Billy" Filipino National Artist for Sculpture Napoleon Abueva. Brush and ink portrait. Napoleon Abueva (January 26, 1930 – February 16, 2018), more popularly known as NapoleĆ³n Abueva, was a Filipino artist. He was a sculptor given the distinction as the Philippines' National Artist for Sculpture. He was also entitled as the "Father of Modern Philippine Sculpture". He was awarded National Artist of the Philippines in the field of Visual Arts.

Halo-halo

Digital illustration; 2014 Halo-halo (Tagalog language for "Hodge-Podge") is a popular Filipino dessert with mixtures of shaved ice and evaporated milk to which are added various boiled sweet beans, jello and fruits, and served in a tall glass or bowl. from wikipedia

Edith Tiempo

Filipino National Artist for Literature Edith Tiempo. Ballpen and markers. Edith L. Tiempo (April 22, 1919 – August 21, 2011), poet, fiction writer, teacher and literary critic was a Filipino writer in the English language.Her poems are intricate verbal transfigurations of significant experiences as revealed, in two of her much anthologized pieces, "Lament for the Littlest Fellow" and "Bonsai." As fictionist, Tiempo is as morally profound. Her language has been marked as "descriptive but unburdened by scrupulous detailing." She is an influential tradition in Philippine Literature in English. Together with her late husband, writer and critic Edilberto K. Tiempo, they founded (in 1962) and directed the Silliman National Writers Workshop in Dumaguete City, which has produced some of the Philippines' best writers.She was conferred the National Artist Award for Literature in 1999.