I AM writing this in response to an article about the “golf incident” involving members of the Pangandaman and De la Paz families. (Inquirer, 1/1/09)

A member of the De la Paz family “blogged” the incident on the web and soon the story caught fire in the Filipino blogosphere. Bambee de la Paz cried that an injustice had been committed against her family. There’s no problem with that.

The issue is that in her demand for justice, acts of injustice are being committed against the Pangandamans. Everyone knows that there’s a “B-side” to every story (to borrow the words of Ely Buendia), yet people seem to have already judged that all the blame falls squarely on the Pangandamans, even without hearing yet from their side. Bambee wrote very convincingly on her blog, and readers considered her account above scrutiny.

Did she include every detail of the incident, such as the fact that it was reportedly her father who first berated Nasser Pangandaman Jr. with a cuss phrase; and the fact that other members of the De la Paz family went to the golf club with a bat and an ice pick? (By the way, consider yourself lucky if no harm befalls you when you say such things about a Muslim’s mother.)

Everyone’s calling for the Pangandamans’ heads to roll. In Bambee’s blog, many “posters” hurled abusive words, threats and expletives (and insults against the women folk of the Pangandamans). Their invectives remain without censure on that blog as of this writing, as if they have been given approval. These are blatant acts of bullying, which the bloggers themselves claim to condemn. One of the bloggers even threatened to send the Ilagas—the Muslim-killing savages—to go after the Pangandaman clan, no doubt because they are Muslims. Plain bigotry! Where is due process?

There has yet to be an adjudication on this matter in a court of law. Until then both sides have the right to be heard and to explain their side. But people have quickly accused the Pangandamans of excesses sans a full and impartial investigation of the incident—perhaps because they are Muslim and come from Mindanao.

The bloggers betray their own prejudice and distorted sense of justice—for which they are violently clamoring.

—MOHAMMAD TAYUAN (via e-mail)