Culture of death

CHRISTIANS are preparing for the birth of their Lord and Savior, the Infant Jesus.

Now we have something to mark December 2016. And it won’t be festive. It will not a time of sorrow. People won’t have the extra money to buy presents for their children, family, and friends.

Or find themselves away from home, where the only celebration will be Christmas with loved ones will be in their dreams. Many of them might be forcibly permanently removed from earth when vigilantes give them a oneway ticket to the blues.

No, it will be because as San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza said this week of the Duterte administration’s intent to re-impose the death penalty. The Bishop issued a call for prayer and collective mass action against these moves.

“Thou shall not kill is as valid for the guilty as for the innocent. In resisting the threat of the restoration of the death penalty, we cannot be disunited or indifferent. On this pro-life issue let us truly unite. Come out and make a stand,” he said.

Added Bishop Alminaza, “The death penalty is ‘prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour’(1Peter 5:8). I am calling on the God-loving people of the Diocese of San Carlos to come together in prayer to resist the threat of the death penalty in our country.”

Well that might be the call of all the Dioceses in the country.

Actually, capital punishment has already made a de facto comeback. The almost daily extra-judicial killings come to mind. Ditto the blatant rubout of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa by no less than police officers from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Eastern Visayas led by Superintendent Marvin Mar cos.

“It’s a rubout. Our findings show there was no shootout between Mayor Espinosa and the policemen,” NBI’s spokesman and deputy director Ferdinand Lavin told reporters in a press conference.

The country can forget that the Department of Justice will file multiple murder charges against Marcos and 23 others from the CIDG and Maritime Unit Operatives.

The president who took an oath to uphold the fundamental law made no bones that he “will not allow these guys to go to prison. Maski na sabihin ng NBI [na] murder. Eh tutal ano naman ang NBI, under ko rin yan eh, Department of Justice.”

So as the millennial hashtags would say, #killpamore. What a way to celebrate Christmas. No peace on earth nor goodwill to all of us. How can we celebrate not a birth but a culture of death?