Decentralization, A Way Out. Part 8

It is but normal for one to be shocked by the cold blooded murder done by bank robbers recently. But for Secretary Raul Gonzales to react so methinks the lady doth protests too much. There was this prostitute who, for fear of being discovered, cried ouch rather too loudly and too often.

Actually, the good Justice Secretary need not go into dramatics to hide his apathy. Hindi siya nag-iisa. We too are now inured to the violence that hounds us day in and day out. Just to prove this point hereunder is a piece inspired Neale Donald Walsch, author of several best selling books.

Allowing people to go hungry is a form of violence. We make people go hungry by stealing millions from the government through a process we call graft and corruption. We further make people go hungry when we block investigations intended to prevent such crimes and punish all those responsible for it. Investigators make people hungrier and angrier when they do not do it right. We allow people to go hungry when we refuse to lift a finger to prevent or assuage such hunger.

Placing life-saving drugs and the finest medical care out of reach of millions is a form of violence. For several decades we have been guilty of this form of violence. We are even guiltier with each day of delay in the signing of the bill into law that would somehow address this problem.

Underpaying laborers while taking huge front office profits is a form of violence. No comment.

Mistreating, underpaying, denying promotions to, and mutilating females is a form of violence. No comment.

Racial prejudice is a form of violence. No comment.

Child abuse, child labor, child slavery, child prostitution, child trafficking, and child soldiering is a form of violence. Many infants do not receive the nutrition they need to develop their brains. They will be societies' liabilities when they grow up, if they grow up at all. Our starving school children are packed in ill-equipped along with a hungry teacher in what we pass off as an educational process. Therefore we have so many high school graduates who are illiterates. This happens because our loans continue piling up, and do not go where it should.

The death penalty is a form of violence. Just a reminder for those who want it revived.

Denying civil rights to people because of their sexual preference or their religion or their ethnicity is a form of violence. Denying civil rights for whatever reason is a form of violence. More so if we kill with impunity to do it.

Creating and maintaining a worldwide society in which exploitation, oppression, and injustice are commonplace is a form of violence. No comment.

Ignoring suffering is as much a form of violence as inducing it. In other words, apathy is also a form of violence.

And if we may add one too, allowing senior citizens to fall in endless lines at the GSIS for needed services, even as it ignores urgent pleas through email, is a form of violence.

While Gloria may be guilty of these forms of violence, Congress, is also guilty by omission. It allowed her to maintain and use so much power when it could have made the legislation that could have curb it. Now Senator Pimentel would poise upon the nation the scourge of federalism though he knowa very well that all he had to do was push for greater local autonomy to reap the benefits of the strange and dangerous order he spouses.