Monster in our midst

Everything has changed in Dumaguete City.
The peace, the security, are gone.
Vanished.
I got a call early this week about the bomb scare at the Dumaguete hall of justice, while it was happening.
Lawyers, court employees, litigants were scampering to safety. Judges were seen getting out of the courtrooms, while still wearing their judicial robes, the caller told me.
I immediately alerted the news team.
I think we have to start accepting the realty that Dumaguete city is no longer a safe place to be, unlike what it was when we were growing up.
Growing up as a kid, you can walk along the streets of Alfonso XIII, without fear of anything.
The phrase “bomb threat” was even unheard of.
Now in Dumaguete, extrajudicial killings have become a cottage industry.
Some people brush this aside and accept it, saying “Ok lang, criminal bitaw”, “Ok lang, drug pusher bitaw”
Politicians, aside from keeping quiet, turn a blind eye.
Hear-no-evil, see-no-evil.
It seems they accept extrajudicial killings, as a short-cut method of dispensing justice.
Perhaps, some politicians’ children fell victim of prohibited drugs, that is why they don’t lift any finger in stopping extrajudicial killings.
Unfortunately, it seems that tolerated vigilantes have metamorphosed into a much deadlier monster.
We are now unsure whether the so-called vigilantes, welcomed by some, have graduated to become hired guns.
Being a hired gun is a more logical career-advancement, from being a mere executioner.
At least, there is money in being a hired gun.
I fear what has been tolerated as a necessary evil, has transformed
into an uncontrollable monster.
The 'solution' has become the problem.
Who will now determine who deserves to die extra judicially?
Not the courts anymore.
Who will determine whether the target is a criminal?
Not the courts anymore.
It is now the one who hires an assassin who determines who must be extra-judicially exterminated like a cockroach.
That is a total breakdown of the rule of law.
Now, with the recent bomb scare, the local judiciary is not being spared.
The judiciary is the strongest pillar in maintaining order in society.
If the judiciary becomes ineffective because of a breakdown in security, law and order, anarchy will ensue.
Beware, I think were seeing a monster in our midst.