Something terrible has happened in Bohol.
In case you haven’t heard the news, a 15-year-old boy allegedly killed his 46-year-old mother by bludgeoning her with a hammer and then dumped her body in a septic tank. It was only after a foul smell alerted neighbors that her body was found.
According to reports, the killing happened after the mother and the boy got into an argument over his alleged habitual cutting of classes.
He is now facing charges for parricide.
The typical knee-jerk reaction to such a development would be to demand swift justice then move on. Yes, we should ask for swift justice, this is something we leave to the policemen and the prosecutors.
But in this case we feel we should also go beyond this and try to determine what led to it so that we can figure out how to prevent this from happening again. For this task we call upon the social workers.
To say that killing your own mother is an extreme reaction would be an understatement. Everyone who is now an adult has experienced being a teenager and all the hormonal changes and mood swings that came with it, as well as being argumentative with our parents at some point.
A shouting match is a normal reaction to an argument, even a walkout to blow off steam, or even running away from home for a while to stay with others, but killing isn’t.
What societal and environmental factors led the boy to think what he was about to do in killing his mother would be normal and acceptable? Or did he just do it at the spur of the moment, in a fit of blind rage? If so then that decision was also influenced by something.
This isn’t to say we condone the actions of the boy or that we should show him mercy and excuse what he did. He must be held responsible for his actions.
But to prevent future similar incidents we must also get to “why” and not just stop at the “how” and the “what”.