JUSTICE FOR OMAN AND THE INNOCENT VICTIMS OF DIGONG's NARCO WAR.
I am writing this piece barely five hours before President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his First State of the Nation Address before the joint session of the 17th Congress.
I am here in my birthplace, Carael, an island barangay in the coastal city of Dagupan. Aside from driving to Dagupan yesterday some relatives from Perth, Australia to pay their respect to my eldest brother Wilfredo "Joe" Velasco who passed on last February 14, 2011 and was finally rested at the family lot at Eternal Gardens, I came home to pay my respect to my 20 year old relative grandson Roman Clifford "OMAN" Fernandez Manaois who was mercilessly killed at 10 p.m. Tuesday on July 19, 2016. His alleged crime: suspected drug user.
"Oman" was about to graduate from a seaman's course this month and was due for deployment this November as service crew in Dubai following another training from Tesda. He was a good son, a former sacristan and had big dreams for himself and his family.
His grandparents, Manuel and Leonarda whom we fondly call "Ate Leoning," just arrived last July 17 from Oakland, California for a family vacation. Growing up, we were a close knit family between the Velascos and Fernandez. Ate Leoning's father, Tatay Roman Bautista Fernandez, was my mother Marcela Bautista Tirao Velasco's elder brother from my grandmother Procesa.
Indeed, it was a tragic experience for vacationing grandparents for them to experience such painful death of their beloved grandson who was invariably taking care of them upon their arrival, doing little errands, serving them food and helping out in some minor repairs in their own unfinished house.
On that fateful night, Oman just finished serving food to his granny Leoning who is now half blind at age 71 after working hard in the US. He was invited by a tricycle driver friend named Marvin "Moymoy" de Vera to go to "kaleskesan," (a famous native fare in Bangus City featuring beef innards to include soup No. 5) in the old Galvan Market, a 30 minute drive from Carael passing through Binmaley town since we are cut off by the Calmay River from the main city (the promised bridge remains forever a promise by politicians).
On their way to buy 'kaleskes,' a guy named Zaldy Abalos hitched a ride as any ordinary passenger would do at the city limit (between Dagupan City and Binmaley). Zaldy requested to be alighted along Lucao District, DC near the Missionaries of Charities. As Zaldy was paying his fare, two men riding in tandem a motorcycle suddenly shot Zaldy at close range and then riddled other parts of his body. Then the assailants shot at Oman - initially at the back that pierced through his heart - and wanting to make sure that he was dead, shot him at the right side of his temple. The trike driver Marvin was lucky enough to escape and ran from the killers as he sustained a minor gush wound on his right leg.
Here's the catch. Oman's autopsy yielded negative result on any trace of any drug use or abuse and he came out clean. On the other hand, Zaldy Abalos was among those suspected drug pushers and he was in the Order of Battle from intel operatives.
So how come innocent lives like Oman are being summarily executed?
Ate Leoning was crying and she was asking me why President Duterte is allowing the killing of innocent persons like her beloved Oman?
I was lost for words to answer Ate Leoning's question on Duterte's reign of terror as media reports of other summary killings have risen in the guise of anti-drug campaign.
How many more shall we hear of the similar cases of innocent lives lost and killed mercilessly disguised as drug addicts, pushers and users?
I only have words of comfort for my cousin and relatives regarding the loss of Oman who at 20 has gone ahead of us leaving behind all his dreams and plans to emancipate his family's living condition whose parents are sickly and are out of job but have been supported by Ate Leoning all these years working and toiling in Oakland.
For those of us who have witnessed and lived through the senseless death of Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. at the tarmac of the Manila International Airport on August 21, 1983 and "desaparecidos," one can only reflect and meditate on the senseless death of Oman in this ongoing war against drugs and criminality.
While there are plus points in the raging war against illegal drugs with over 90 percent of barangays already infested by the drug menace, methinks that as a humane and just society, we can only create a better Philippines if we root the real Public Enemy No. 1: widespread poverty.
As Mahatma Ghandi once said: "I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent."
I am here in my birthplace, Carael, an island barangay in the coastal city of Dagupan. Aside from driving to Dagupan yesterday some relatives from Perth, Australia to pay their respect to my eldest brother Wilfredo "Joe" Velasco who passed on last February 14, 2011 and was finally rested at the family lot at Eternal Gardens, I came home to pay my respect to my 20 year old relative grandson Roman Clifford "OMAN" Fernandez Manaois who was mercilessly killed at 10 p.m. Tuesday on July 19, 2016. His alleged crime: suspected drug user.
"Oman" was about to graduate from a seaman's course this month and was due for deployment this November as service crew in Dubai following another training from Tesda. He was a good son, a former sacristan and had big dreams for himself and his family.
His grandparents, Manuel and Leonarda whom we fondly call "Ate Leoning," just arrived last July 17 from Oakland, California for a family vacation. Growing up, we were a close knit family between the Velascos and Fernandez. Ate Leoning's father, Tatay Roman Bautista Fernandez, was my mother Marcela Bautista Tirao Velasco's elder brother from my grandmother Procesa.
Indeed, it was a tragic experience for vacationing grandparents for them to experience such painful death of their beloved grandson who was invariably taking care of them upon their arrival, doing little errands, serving them food and helping out in some minor repairs in their own unfinished house.
On that fateful night, Oman just finished serving food to his granny Leoning who is now half blind at age 71 after working hard in the US. He was invited by a tricycle driver friend named Marvin "Moymoy" de Vera to go to "kaleskesan," (a famous native fare in Bangus City featuring beef innards to include soup No. 5) in the old Galvan Market, a 30 minute drive from Carael passing through Binmaley town since we are cut off by the Calmay River from the main city (the promised bridge remains forever a promise by politicians).
On their way to buy 'kaleskes,' a guy named Zaldy Abalos hitched a ride as any ordinary passenger would do at the city limit (between Dagupan City and Binmaley). Zaldy requested to be alighted along Lucao District, DC near the Missionaries of Charities. As Zaldy was paying his fare, two men riding in tandem a motorcycle suddenly shot Zaldy at close range and then riddled other parts of his body. Then the assailants shot at Oman - initially at the back that pierced through his heart - and wanting to make sure that he was dead, shot him at the right side of his temple. The trike driver Marvin was lucky enough to escape and ran from the killers as he sustained a minor gush wound on his right leg.
Here's the catch. Oman's autopsy yielded negative result on any trace of any drug use or abuse and he came out clean. On the other hand, Zaldy Abalos was among those suspected drug pushers and he was in the Order of Battle from intel operatives.
So how come innocent lives like Oman are being summarily executed?
Ate Leoning was crying and she was asking me why President Duterte is allowing the killing of innocent persons like her beloved Oman?
I was lost for words to answer Ate Leoning's question on Duterte's reign of terror as media reports of other summary killings have risen in the guise of anti-drug campaign.
How many more shall we hear of the similar cases of innocent lives lost and killed mercilessly disguised as drug addicts, pushers and users?
I only have words of comfort for my cousin and relatives regarding the loss of Oman who at 20 has gone ahead of us leaving behind all his dreams and plans to emancipate his family's living condition whose parents are sickly and are out of job but have been supported by Ate Leoning all these years working and toiling in Oakland.
For those of us who have witnessed and lived through the senseless death of Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. at the tarmac of the Manila International Airport on August 21, 1983 and "desaparecidos," one can only reflect and meditate on the senseless death of Oman in this ongoing war against drugs and criminality.
While there are plus points in the raging war against illegal drugs with over 90 percent of barangays already infested by the drug menace, methinks that as a humane and just society, we can only create a better Philippines if we root the real Public Enemy No. 1: widespread poverty.
As Mahatma Ghandi once said: "I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent."
Source :
https://www.facebook.com/melandrew.velasco/posts/10207998426373191?pnref=story
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