Thought: Assassination Nation
I was browsing through HBO shows and I came across a program called Vice. In its pilot, the show has named the Philippines as one of the deadliest places on earth for politicians having more than 1,200 political assassinations in the last decade alone. Most of which are seen during election season. The show focused on an interesting angle about the bloody politics existing between the famous rival Mangudadatu and Ampatuan clans from Maguindanao. It showed how the incumbent Governor Mangudadatu prepares for filing his candidacy for re-election. With fifty cars filled with bodyguards and supporters as part of his convoy and with almost everyone heavily armed, one would beg to ask how one is able to build his own private militia. It then touched on how rampant illegal untraceable non-registered weapons manufactured from shipyard scrap metals by underground networks of gunsmiths right in their own backyards. Now this part I quite can't fathom. Horrendous... something that has shaken me to my core. I am aware of the horror and repugnance the Maguindanao massacre has brought the Filipino people and the world. But I am surprised to realize that there has not been a local news body or group that discussed how guns have become easily accessible to the Filipino. Not one I think, during the hype of this political issue, has discussed about the existence of the underground network of backyard gunsmiths. No political analyst, as far as I know, has discussed why guns have been so rampant, how politicians are able to put up their own private militias and who is responsible why such underground market exists. What's unfortunate is that no one, no law enforcement agency, is putting a stop to such kind of illegal activity. Call me naive, sheltered or ignorant to the real ways of the world, but are guns really the nation's most effective form of political communication? The show, however, made a big generalization, painting a horrible picture for the Philippines to which I think is a bit unfair. The town of Maguindanao is not the whole of the Philippines and what happens there definitely does not happen all throughout the country. But nonetheless, Maguindanao is a part of the Philippines. So this gives the Philippines an image not to be proud of. I have never been to Maguindanao. I may never know how the psychology behind the lives of people living in a war-torn place works but seeing and realizing that this kind of rampage exists in your own country just blows my little truncated mind. How does the government tolerate such enterprise with impunity?
