rock on

Sunday, October 28, 2007

On Death and Terrorism

My AP193 teacher loves giving lectures by expecting us, the students, to ask questions. So, one day since he finished his lecture in 15 mins, he went on threatening us that if we don't ask questions, he's sure that we will fail. So i asked a question. Which was really far from the subject.

I asked about Anarchism.

I never really understood it. Even if one of my favorite films is V for Vendetta, I couldn't grasp that it could be reality.

Everytime there's news about a bombing in the Philippines, it didn't really bother me that much. Not that I'm used to it or anything. But it's just that it never happened before my eyes or somewhere near or it wasn't a cause of the death or injury of anyone I know.

Until the Glorietta 2 bombing.

My tito, Niño Caesar Vidamo, was one of the first people that the rescuers carried from the rubble of Glorietta 2. He was dead on the spot. He was eating lunch with two of his workmates and friends that day. They were already at the door, trying to find a taxi to ride back to their work when the bomb/gas (we still don't know what triggered the explosion) accident happened.

They were instantly killed.

I didn't even know that there was a bombing until my mom mentioned it over our late lunch. I haven't seen the news. I didn't get text messages.

By 6:00 pm, my tito Kaka (Tito Niño's brother) texted me if my family knew anyone working in Makati Medical Center. His brother's name appeared and they wanted to know if he was ok while his parents were on the way to Makati (they live in Malabon).

We can't give a name since we don't know anyone working in Makati Medical Center. Although we were alarmed, we didn't think it was serious since it was said in the news that only 4 people were dead.

Finally when we were having dinner, my mom's cousin called and told us that tito Niño was already dead. That's when we learned that he was one of the first killed by the explosion.

We were suppose to visit them (their whole family) on Oct.29 since it would be tito Niño's 28th bday. we didn't know that we were going to see them mourning over his dead body last Oct.24.

I loved V for Vendetta because of the political issues and the triumph of the people over the bad government through V's plans. It was glorious.

But then I realize that when it was shown in the movies, dead people killed by V's actions weren't magnified. People who were civilians. People who were just working at that particular place.

It's sad that my tito is dead.

But what makes it more sad is the known fact that true justice will never be served... not only in the Philippines, but in the whole world.

-Lo-