THIS past week, we read stories of the lives that were cut short from Roxas Boulevard and also of victims of the Davao Airport blast in 2003.
As we go along with the narrative of loss the city bore in the bomb attacks, I remember other victims in relation to the bombings.
There is the story of Terso Sudang from Kabacan, North Cotabato, who lost his son Montazer during the Davao Airport bombing on March 4, 2003. He and his brother Undungan also almost lost their freedoms on that day.
Terso and Undungan along with other relatives were at the airport to welcome a relative who came from abroad. That joyous day ended with tragedy when Montazer was among those killed at the airport.
That tragedy was compounded when the elder Sudangs tried to claim Montazer’s body from the hospital and instead were arrested by authorities. They were charged as the prime suspects of the bombings, and Montazer was tagged as a “suicide bomber”.
The authorities spun a story that the Sudangs were MILF members ordered by their leaders to stage the attack.
This claim was rebuffed by relatives and townsfolk of the Sudangs, as they said Undungan was barangay captain and Terso is barangay kagawad of Barangay Simone in Kabacan.
Forty days in detention, Undungan and Terso were ordered by the courts to be released.
Another similar story is that of Jejhon Macalinsal, Abubakar Amilhasan and Arsul Ginta, three activists in General Santos City, who were framed as suspects on the bombing of Gensan’s Fitmart Department Store on April 24, 2002.
On that same night, police raided their NGO staff house, arrested them and recovered “explosives” in the compound. Amilhasan was presented to the media as an alias “Abu Muslim”.
For eight years, the three fought in courts until they earned their acquittal. The court found the police committed human rights violations against the three. Jejhon and others were tortured, and the court found out that the police could not even identify in court who Macalinsal and Amilhasan was, nor could they give exact details on how they retrieved the so-called explosives in the house.
These are experiences in the past decade that reflected the government’s war on terror only brought the resentment of the Moro people for being labeled and judged as terrorists, where they can be arrested, abducted or sent away from entering certain countries. As one professor from MSU Gensan said, “You are innocent until proven Muslim.”
I do wonder if these views have changed in a decade. We have found out that the Abu Sayyaf have been in cahoots with the military and politicians, but still these bombings continue. We had Al Qaeda throwing fears a decade ago, and now there is a new group called Isis.
I think of the Moro people, how do they feel about groups who misrepresent their faith? How do they feel that once again, those fears in the past may come back again?
A sign hanging on ground zero along Roxas Boulevard said “give peace a chance”. It really goes out to them too. It’s time to stop the recycling of fear and terror. Give peace for all in Mindanao a chance.
tyvelez@gmail.com
