So much evil happening this Lenten season

Nine days ago, Cebu and later on the entire nation, was visibly disturbed by the brutal murder of Christine Lee Silawan, a Grade 9 student of Maribago National High School, who would have celebrated her 17th birthday on March 12. It was on early Sunday, March 10 morning that authorities recovered Christine’s body in a vacant lot in Sitio Mahayahay, Barangay Bankal, Lapu-Lapu City. She was barely recognizable as the skin on half of her face was ripped off and her neck was damaged badly. Her esophagus was exposed eventually, we learned that the perpetrators also removed her tongue.

Her remains was identified by her mother only from what was left of the clothes Christine wore at the time she left their house. Cebu has witnessed many murders this year alone…but this killing of Christine Silawan horrified so many people to the point that many of our social media users condemned this killing on Facebook and the internet. Netizens offered no sympathies like the murder of the sister of the Drug Queen that happened a few days earlier. But this brutal murder of Christine Silawan has had the citizenry demanding for the return of the death penalty. You could feel the anguish of many people who are demanding literally an eye for an eye in the sense that if and when the culprits are caught they should have their faces disfigured like what they did to poor Christine.

Lapu-Lapu City Police Office Director Lemuel Obon said that initial investigation revealed that she was last seen in church (she was a church collector and disappeared after that). No doubt, this is one of the most horrible crimes that has ever happened in Cebu and I guess also in the Philippines. Then we had a big breaking news that a combined team of policemen and agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested Jonas Bueno in Barangay Matina Pangi in Davao City, who was wanted for the killing of a farmer in Danao City, Cebu last January… whose face was also skinned.

Police authorities closed in on Bueno as he was identified through social media. NBI Assistant Regional Director Jonathan Balite said Bueno admitted faking his identity to evade arrest. Although Bueno admitted participating in other killings notably the farmer in Danao City with similar circumstances in the killing of Christine Silawan. However, while Bueno admitted to the killing of the farmer (he was a member of a cult), he denied killing Silawan.

At this point the NBI should look into whether or not Bueno was in Cebu, specifically in Lapu-Lapu on March 10 when Christine Silawan was killed. I mean, it would be downright reckless for our police authorities to inform the media that the killer of Silawan has been arrested when Bueno confessed to the killing of the farmer in Danao. Just for your information, there was a reward in finding the killer of Christine Silawan offered by so many people, but no reward for the killing of the farmer in Danao City. Are there people suddenly pinning the blame on Bueno so they could collect the bounty, and let the real culprit go scot free? I hope not! For the sake of justice, the police should find the real killers because if it wasn’t Bueno, then that evil killer is still on the loose and dangerous to girls.

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Speaking of the evil one killing people, last Friday we saw uploaded on social media the mass murder of people inside two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. That video was uploaded by no less than the perpetrator of the gruesome crime, an Australian national named Brendon Tarrant. This was truly a vicious way of showing how to kill people using an automatic weapon while playing a video footage of the dastardly deed.

When finally the international news media got hold of this big breaking news, the first thing they showed was New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who announced that they would be changing their gun laws in the aftermath of this massacre. She also announced that two “rural community cops” arrested the killer 36 minutes after the first emergency call was made on Friday. At this point, 50 people have already died in that attack while 46 people remain in the hospital, 11 of whom are in critical condition in an intensive care unit. A four-year-old child in a critical condition was flown to the children’s Starship hospital in Auckland.

 The problem with world leaders is that they find that the solution to such criminality is to put limits to the use of guns when in truth, both Australia and New Zealand have been asked to review why the suspect Tarrant was not listed on any counter-terrorism watchlist, despite reportedly planning the attack for several years. Tarrant identified himself as a member of online far-right extremist networks and the massacre was live-streamed on social media. So much evil has happened this time of the Lenten season!

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