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ANORAMA
EDITORIAL STAFF 2020-2021
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MA. RHEANNA TUAZON Editor in Chief
SAMANTHA GUTIERREZ Associate Editor
ADRIAN POUL BLANDO Managing Editor
EDITORS COMMITTEE DOROTHY ANN RAE REYES News Editor
KEVIN VALEN ARCELO Literary Editor
TRISHA LINDO Sports Editor
ANN CLARISE MERCADO Features Editor
ALLEN DAVE TUBANGUI Circulations Manager
CHRISTIAN ANDREW TORRES DENZEL DIZON RALPH LAURENCE PERALTA Photojournalists
KIAN FRANCIS PERALTA Cartoonist
KAYE CASTRO Layout Artist
EDITORIAL
MA. CLARIZ ISABELLE MAGLALANG TRISHA MAE CHU THOMAS JEFFERSON OVIVIR News Correspondents
Our defender, the murderer
JOHN LESLIE LAYUG SAIRA BOGNOT CARL DAVE SANTOS GERINE GONZALES YANCY MORON
As deafening sounds of gunfire reverberated through the oncepeaceful municipality of Paniqui, Tarlac, the entire Philippines trembled in its wake. Days before Christmas, a video of Police Senior Master Sergeant Jonel Nuezca mercilessly killing two unarmed civilians in said province went viral. The unarmed civilians were later named as Sonya Gregorio and her son Frank, whom Nuezca tried to arrest and was reportedly drunk. Meanwhile, social media users took to Twitter and Facebook to ridicule Nuezca’s daughter, a minor, who was heard screaming “My father is a policeman!” prior the shooting. These words clearly reflected how Nuezca, without thought, killed Sonya and Frank in point-blank range, as his daughter, unflinching, watched.
Features Correspondents
ANGELO FERNANDEZ RAHUL MODY CHELSEA GALANG Literary Correspondents
JOHN VINCENT MIGUEL CHRISTLE BERNARDO Sports Correspondents
MS. CRISTINA REYES
Prior the incident, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief General Debold Sinas announced that gun muzzling is no longer necessary; cops are allowed to be in possession of their guns during periods of leisure. The gun muzzling tradition was effective until it was stopped in 2016, 2017, and 2018 by then-PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa and President Rodrigo Duterte. This decision was wholly supported by Tarlac police chief Police Colonel Renante Cabic, who stated that, “There are incidents which we know about when a crime happens when we least expect it.”
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Civilian authority is, at all times, supreme over the military. The Armed Forces of the Philippines is the protector of the people and the State. Its goal is to secure the sovereignty of the State and the integrity of the national territory.” Similar to the Philippine government, the supreme duty of the AFP is to serve and protect the Filipino people. However, who else should we cling to, when the very protector of our being has turned on us?
As this gun muzzling tradition turned to an alarming halt, Filipinos grew warier of the extrajudicial killings happening in the country. Human Rights Watch reported that the Duterte administration’s “war on drugs” conceals deaths caused by the PNP as “homicides under investigation.” With the failure to disclose official documents regarding these deaths, and the lack of justice served for the families of the victims, the Philippines has been branded as one of the most dangerous countries in the world according to the Global Peace Index. Reports that masked gunmen taking part in these extrajudicial killings are closely working with the police, with evidence-planting as a continual pattern, are no longer new to Filipinos. This is why anger turned to rage when
Sinas warned that citizens must not take photos or videos of crime incidents. Fresh memories of the case of Kian Delos Santos resurface, as the case initially declared Delos Santos as a drug runner, killed for contradicting the police. Police desperately tried to cover-up the murder by accusing him of being a drug runner, and that the incident was a case of self-defense—the police, who were grown, armed men, reasoned they felt the need to protect themselves from an unarmed minor. CCTV footage and witnesses claim otherwise; Delos Santos was seen begging for mercy, and was forced to fire a gun before he was shot by the police.
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Philippines has been branded as one of the most dangerous countries in the world according to the Global Peace Index.
“How many were not filmed?” was the outcry of Filipinos, citing that these victims could have ended up like the others, had the incident not been filmed—murdered in broad daylight, with packets of drugs forced upon their lifeless bodies, or accused of fighting and resisting the police. Another family would have been denied justice, a policeman would have gone away with murder, and another child would have been brought up believing power is to be spent on abusing the defenseless. My father is a policeman—he is the defender, the murderer.
VOX POPULI
To PH’s murderous system— there will never be silence
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MA. RHEANNA TUAZON
gonizingly, the state knows no humanity, compassion, nor uprightness; it jails guiltless people and no longer has respect for human rights. This administration stands as a bully and imposes double standard and impunity among many others. Statutory justice is transformed and weaponized into an inutile defense system for the rich and powerful. The Philippines is deeply flawed; its justice system— a crackled structure which murdered an innocent baby.
of the state’s heedlessness. When she was incarcerated last November, she found out that she was pregnant. Even with the justifiable grounds of fear for herself and unborn Baby River, her petition for temporary release due to the Pandemic was also denied last April. The court did not even give her the chance to nurture the baby during early post-natal stages; as well as to extract breast milk because the city jail did not exactly have the proper facilities. Far from her mother’s reach, Baby River was taken into the custody of her grandmother. However, she was hospitalized last September 24 and was declared dead on October 9 when her lungs gave out due to bacterial infection.
Authorities certainly do not have conscience. Even with infant blood already spilled, hearts of immediate people concerned are as frozen as bergs. A furlough was approved, granting Nasino a 3-day visit to her baby’s funeral rites; but Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) cannily impeded with the duration of temporary release and managed to cut it down to six hours due to “personnel shortage and fear of spreading Coronavirus inside the jail facility.” However, a battalion of 40 defense forces escorting a single handcuffed woman would not cut that claim. These guards were also terribly inhuman as they refused to even remove Nasino’s handcuffs— the poor woman could not even wipe her own tears. Cops even pilfered the casket of the baby and buried it immediately in Manila North
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This administration stands as a bully and imposes double standard and impunity among many others.
Reina Nasino, a political prisoner under Bagong Alyansa Makabayan whose charge is also under the trial of public opinion, lost her daughter, Baby River because
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Cemetery leaving the baby’s grandmother crying on the road. It is obvious that the wardens and Judge were only finding loopholes to keep Nasino from acquiring any humanitarian considerations. If anything, they are naturally hostile to the political prisoner. Moreso, the fact alone remains, that Baby River was killed by the government’s red-tagging system. The reason why the rich and mighty are untouched is because the system has a natural target-lock for activists. Instead of hearing the grievances of activists, such as Reina Nasino, the administration seeks to silence them all. With alleged “evidence-planting,” times are sure that no one, at least those who are critical of the government, is safe. Let the words etch down the minds of all: Baby River, an innocent baby, was killed by the state. She was killed by the state who jailed her mother with trumped-up charges— she was killed by the political fury of the government against activists and critics. Even with the judicial system specifically designed to give protection to the helpless, they turned to become animals and led to the murder of not one, but countless innocent people. Continued on next page...
