EVIL IN MODERN PHILIPPINE TIMES

When Pilar Pilapil, former beauty queen was hacked and left for dead by criminals in an isolated area in Antipolo, and then rescued by kindhearted individuals whom she had approached after the incident, her description of her attackers was classic. She was assaulted by devils.

Now some quarters have asked why use the word, devil, instead of criminals? Her background was unearthed and she was found out to be very spiritual, married to a pastor and has been active in many undertakings related to spiritual upliftment.

But is it simply thus, that she would describe her enemies as devils? Why should she not use that word at all, devils or evil?

In our times, we seem to gloat on the fact that we are well read, that our vocabulary, our social consciousness is so deep that we can analyze to death any issue from a philosophical or sociological perspective and come out erudite. But no, no longer at this time when there are drugs that make the mind convoluted.

That's it, the attackers of Pilar could have been drug-induced and so they could use all kinds of murderous methods to kill life. And those drugs destroy the brain cells to make the human less human, or probably to make the human beastly, no longer thinking, caring or humane.

And so with those drugs, the word devil, and its real character has surfaced in our era because of those drugs that cause hallucinations, murderous thoughts, and unleash inhibitions to make the individual feel all powerful over his or her reality and over other people.

Why not call any murder an evil act? After all, if we believe that life is God-given, then we must also accept that evil, the devil, still exists among us. Why for are there greedy people, who would destroy our legal institutions just so they could pockets millions of dollars, not pesos, but dollars?

I am sure those people are taking drugs that make then crave for more and more material things so that their lust for wealth becomes insatiable. And that's a pity nowadays.

Instead of focussing on what are evil acts in our country, the Catholic Church chooses to debate and earn enemies by concentrating on the Reproductive Health bill, which only pertains to the unborn. Why could they not focus on the real crimes against the soul, against humanity, against those who kill people and dreams of a better life?

We should not make the devil so powerful in our land that we could no longer distinguish between good and evil. Evil should not be allowed to exist, persist, especially in the higher echelons of power.

To cite an instance, I have been asking for water connection to my condo units since October. The barangay denied they have the power to make the governor of the building connect the water line. Then I went to the Department of Interior and Local Government and from the public information unit my request was farmed out to the legal office which then assigned it to the trial division whose officer then asked me to appear there. I asked what for? To massage their egoes again? I had gone there three times already, and even typed my legal arguments for my request, that water is a BASIC RIGHT. But the lawyer insisted that I go there.
And so I called up the office of Secretary Robredo for intervention. Now, I have been told to wait for a reply from the Undersecretary.

How would you call this? Is this humane at all, to be denied water? Why doesn't the governor provide water to my unit? The governor told me that I owe them something like 4 thousand since many years back, when actually I had not lived there since 2002, simply because some residents there made my stay untenable. Unscrupulous individuals entered my unit to pilfer my articles in the computer, to steal the locks, to make me feel unsafe, and this was at the time I was writing for the Philippine Post about the unconstitutionality of deposing Erap, for Manila Times Kabayan when I was writing against the invasion of Iraq and my preference for FPJ who had his heart in the right place.

I had to leave the place, as I was living alone there, because as a writer, I felt very much unsafe with my life, my things, my writings. On top of that, I was writing my dissertation.

How else could we describe those intruders except as devils out to make life hellish for me in the name of gross power so that the political leaders at the time could insure their hold on the people's coffers?

Of course, I refuse to pay condominium association fees when there was only a loose organization headed by someone then with a convoluted sense of power and who could not insure my safe there. And so to day, I have used all legal arguments to make my case: that my unit deserves a water connection if only to make me reside there humanely. Hopefully, the new governor under a newly registered organization will be able to see the light and finally give me the water connection that I need.

Maybe it is time to resurrect the word "evil" and "devils" so that we could be clearer on what we are up against in our society. We have been mincing our words too much, thus failing to provide accurate solutions to our problems.

Words are important in understanding how our realities become so, and thus allow us to act accordingly. They provide us with images, and meaning that will give us the imopetus to act on our lot with dispatch or to wait for sometime meditating on how to act to effect our desired ends.