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BY OSCAR CRUZ
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IN THE PHILIPPINES these times, human life has become so insignificant and so cheap such that killing night and day from Monday to Sunday are looked upon as with nonchalance and thus considered by some as a matter of course.
This is not only because of the illegal drug phenomenon, the blatant criminality nationwide, but also on account of increasing local and imported killing ideologies, particularly in Mindanao. So it is that there are not a few Filipinos who say that taking into serious account the customary downright killings all over the Country, it has in effect become foolish to think of and work for socio-economic development which is precisely in favor of enhancing life.
Those who really believe in God know well that He gave but Ten Commandments for the people in the whole world to respect and obey precisely so that they can live in unity and peace, in harmony and understanding, in love and care.
In fact, among the said fundamental ten mandates of the Good Lord, only but three thereof have reference to His Divinity, His Name and His Day – all of which are about the Love of God. All the other remaining seven Commandments are about the Love of Neighbor – concern, deference, care – specifically in favor of respect for life, viz., “Do not kill.” (Exodus 20:13)
The profound significance and the immediate relevance of the above said basic Commandments about respect for human life are so elementary in implications and consequences that anyone with but a functional use of reason will readily and easily understand the following: With the absence of human life, what is there left to think and speak about?
So it is that with the fatal violation of the Right to Life, what other Human Rights are there to be concerned and worried about. To defend and protect. In other words, deny or remove the Right to Life and all other Human Rights become irrelevant. Death is an ending – all other Human Rights included.
By the way, it might be good to point out that killing to defend one’s own life is precisely intended to save life thus made possible only by doing away with the life of someone with the intention to kill. In other words, the truth that is key to such an event is that the fundamental intent is precisely to save one’s own life made possible only by doing away with the life of someone who decided to kill the former.
So it is that even suicide is contrary to the universal mandate not to kill anyone –oneself well-included. One may not take away one’s life precisely because he did not give it to himself, he is not in anyway the origin thereof.
So it is that after centuries of existence in the world and experience of living, all now considered civilized Nations have done away with the Death Penalty. What is definitely mandatory is the observance of justice – with the joys of unity and peace as its composite reward. Whoever dares say that the State is the origin of any human life? Wherefore, what gives the State the right to do away with it?
Public authority is meant to safeguard and enhance, defend and protect human life – not to do away with it – through firing squad, electrocution, hanging, through head-chopping, guillotine, poisoning, and all conceivable ways of killing conceived and promoted by downright uncivilized people pretending to be otherwise.
Woe to those supposedly honorable members of the Legislative Department who dare shamelessly assume the role of God who gives and takes away human life through a Death Penalty Law!/PN
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