The killings of three male teenagers, ages ranging from 12 to 15 years old, have sparked loud protests from local civil society groups, and from international donor agencies, like the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). The three other victims included a local bakery owner who was killed on Feb. 9; a tricycle driver killed on Feb. 13; and a 42-year-old farmer gunned down on Feb. 16, and now in critical condition at a hospital in Cotabato. All victims were shot at in broad daylight, in public spaces in different barangays here.
Local media have reported at least 30 individuals have been killed since September 2022 in Pikit. All these killings have remained unresolved. A regional official, who originally hails from Pikit, has decried the spate of killings as a manifestation that the culture of impunity is still a daily reality in his hometown.
In a recent press briefing, Interim Chief Minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Ahod Balawag, aka Hadji Murad Ebrahim, belied claims that the series of killings in Pikit is the result of a continuing “Muslim-Christian war.” Pikit’s local chief executive, Mayor Sumulong Sultan, concurred with the view that the killings are not caused by a “religious war” between the Christians and Muslims.
Ebrahim noted that the recent killings are quite different from those that happened in the early 1970s, just before and immediately after martial law. He recalled that the series of violent retaliations in the early 1970s in Pikit and other towns that are now part of Cotabato province, like Carmen, was done to avenge the massacre of at least 70 people inside a mosque in Barangay Manili, just before martial law was declared. This gory incident showed some human beings’ beastly behavior enabled by equally inhuman and draconian policies carried out during martial law.
A few days after the reported killings, the Philippine National Police, through the Cotabato provincial commander, ordered beefing up security in Pikit and its nearby areas. Local police authorities were also ordered to speed up a thorough investigation of the killings in the municipality.
We are quite baffled by the motives of the killings that have primarily targeted teenagers. The motives for these dastardly acts are quite nebulous.
But there are issues regarding this recent tragedy that are quite clear to many. On top of these is that the security of the communities there (and perhaps true to all grassroots communities in the country) seems to be taken for granted by local security officers.
Ironically, the PNP motto is “to serve and to protect.” Who are the PNP serving and whose interests are they protecting? Why will the PNP and the local government order a “beefing up of security elements in the area” only after several killings have taken place? Why have they not put in place some safeguards to prevent these crimes from happening? And why are young individuals being targeted as victims in this recent surge of killings in Pikit?
Gunning down teenagers or children, or those below 18 as categorized by Unicef, is downright detestable, condemnable, and deserves the stiffest of all punishments legally allowable. This does not mean that random killings of grown-ups are of lesser gravity; it is just easier to explain (or perhaps rationalize) than the killing of children. Children and the youth are among the most vulnerable sectors of the population, and governments are mandated to ensure their safety and protection at all times.
The protection of children is a universally accepted moral principle among human populations. Even animals are known to fiercely protect their young, and they do not even have constitutions or organic laws that dictate them to do so.
Why have some human beings become even more beastly than beasts?
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