What happens to a society where killing is permitted?

Through the sanctioned summary executions being perpetrated daily before our eyes in the Philippines by those whose first duty is supposed to be to uphold, protect and preserve life, citizens are in effect being told, taught and goaded to commit murder. It is being made easy for anybody to submit to his vile instincts to take another human being’s life even at the slightest provocation, for whatever reason or even for none at all.

God forbid that we one day become a country of heartless, ruthless, proud criminals who instead of being condemned for our crimes are praised and adored for them. 

The words of Filipino nationalist hero and poet Jose Rizal were never more prescient:

“The glory of saving a country doesn’t mean having to use the measures that contributed to its ruin … On this battlefield, man has no better weapon than his intelligence, no other force but his heart.”

Reni M Valenzuela

(From the Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN)