Hooded killers have turned the bloody anti-illegal drug war of the Duterte government into an art form.
That’s no exaggeration. One stark evidence is the front-page photograph by Raffy Lerma—a sidestreet Filipino Pieta—that shows a grieving wife, rain-soaked and in rags, cradling her bloodied freshly murdered husband.
This picture also threatens to be the emblem of the Duterte regime’s deathly drive against illegal drugs.
Last weekend, this grim theme dimmed a bit with the start of the dawn masses, the Simbang Gabi, that also ushered in the official period of holiday caroling, a season of good tidings.
There was pure innocent gladness among loitering kids around our humble neighborhood by the Pasig with children trying to outdo one another singing out loud for loose change.
The happy restiveness would rise and ring into a raw and colorful serenade by bunches of sun-smelling earth angels.
There has been a change in the repertoire: The all-time favorite “Ang Pasko ay Sumapit” has been upstaged by “Isang Pamilya Tayo Ngayong Pasko.”
The minimum fare for each household (serenaded) has gone up from one to a couple of pesos.
There has also been a sad twist. Since four days ago, the carolers have started to thin out, the angel voices in our neighborhood all but stilled. The number of overeager carolers dwindled almost overnight.
Maybe, it was pure coincidence, but most of the carolers refused to come back and do their holiday thing out in the open on the same day it was reported that “8 of 10 Pinoys fear dying in the drug war.”
Then, yesterday, there came a report that at least four suspected addicts/pushers had been gunned down in two hours in nearby Addition Hills in Mandaluyong City, cramped and overcrowded scene of successive fires recently.
It was unsure how the news would be treated in our community.
Amy, the dusky and robust trash collection monitor, said the carolers could just return in full force today, Christmas Eve.
Meanwhile, nosy Nick B., a trusted exclusive recorder of dreaded behind-the-scenes developments, swears that the price of “shabu” has doubled in many neighborhoods around the city; although the trade of illegal drugs has barely subsided despite the rash of killings.
All told, it would appear that hooded killers, despite their crude on-street death theater, have succeeded more in driving away angelic Christmas carolers, while at the same time failing in their mission to eradicate the secret marketing of illegal drugs.