"The Wrong Focus"

"The Wrong Focus"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. MD

I read a story the other day about an OFW mother who had to rush back home from Kuwait to look for justice for her dead son.

The story goes that the son was wrongly accused as a drug supplier in their area. The 19 year old had a heated argument with another person named Pejie and they were brought to the baranggay to settle their dispute and this is where it turns weird. According to the story Pejie with his accusations and all was recorded by the barrangay official who was mediating their fight. That same night some armed men covered in bonnets picked up the boy and shot him in the head. He was asked to run first but since he had clubbed foot could not and therefore had to be executed that way.

The mother who had to beg her employer to go home for her son , the article even mentioning how she had to kiss her employers feet 3 times and how she was not able to bring anything home as assurance that she would go back to her employer. 

The mother then began complaining to the baranggay official , claiming that her son died because they did not verify if he was selling drugs or not. 

While I am horrified at the thought of being identified as a drug addict or drug supplier I am more horrified at the way this story was presented in such a dramatic way as to tug at the common peoples heart strings like it was some telenovela material. 

It is insinuating in not so subtle ways that since the baranggay official known of the boy as a drug pusher he then ordered a death squad to go after him in the night and kill him to have one less problem in the community. The thing I found odd is that the mother did not blame the prime suspect in all of this. Pejie whom her son had an argument with and was actually the one who made the accusations. 

I understand that people would always want to find others to blame and it has come to a point in our society that it is best to blame the official who could have done this and not the prime suspect who might have had the means or contacts to have the boy killed. It saddens me that I read such tabloid material in a full spread of a broadsheet. Painting more hues on the current/suspended drug war of the President.

I am not for murder but I am for the right person to be brought to justice. The mother in her grief might be barking up the wrong tree and seeing nothing else at the moment. I know how that feels but maybe those who were reading this could actually think first before jumping into any conclusions.

Then again people's opinions are already colored so in the end it might not even matter.