Ignorance the predominant factor in the Bukidnon cultists killing

MANILA: Ignorance is the preeminent factor in the killing of 16 cultists in Bukidnon last week, an abysmal state that has long gripped much of this country and continues to do so under the aegis of state indifference. It was ignorance that led the cultists to believe that amulets and pig Latin inscribed on bond paper would protect them from the storm of bullets, and it was ignorance that caused some of the lawmen to fear these same amulets and subsequently unleash firepower so excessive as to shock even those who would normally swear by the use of superior force.

It is also ignorance that is breeding cults like the Catholic God's Spirit based in Barangay Kimanait, Pangantucan, Bukidnon. Couple this ignorance with poverty so deep, so terrible, and you have a lethal mix that guarantees a Dark Age existence for much of the population (This is, of course, not to say that the dirt- poor have a monopoly on ignorance. The attentive observer would point out, correctly, that even those born to immense wealth or caught in the trappings of power are marked by it.)

And yet the rules that members of this cult are said to live by -- as enunciated recently by their leader, Alfredo Obsioma -- are, by and large, on the up and up. What can be so wrong with such rules as no adultery, no smoking, no drinking, no judging of others, no village dances and no gambling? The taboo against adultery and gambling is an injunction the Catholic Church could have, and indeed has, issued; that against judging others is as motherhood as they come. As for the ban on smoking, drinking and village dances, the worst that can be said of it is that it is anti-hedonism.

If it is true, as Obsioma declared, that the talismans the cult members carried were solely "for the good," and that all they wanted was to "live in peace," the damage -- that is to say, the abject surrender to benightedness -- would seem to be directed only at themselves. But then again, surrender implies choice, which ignorance effectively precludes.

Obsioma said the cult's belief in the "word of God" was "the only way to freedom." In the remote villages, the government's gross neglect shapes the quality of human life. The escape to the divine, or what passes for it, is a people's attempt to choose, as Faulkner did, "between grief and nothing."

Before the graphic footage of the killings inures everyone to the level of violence that can occur in what cameraman Peterson Bergara has described as a "legitimate encounter," it behooves authorities to settle the burning questions. Did the concerned lawmen employ excessive force? Did they violate the rules of engagement?

These are fundamental issues that the footage in itself settles, and in civilized countries thus confronted, punishment is swift. To be sure, a slew of investigations is being, or about to be, conducted by agencies eager to show that they are earning their keep (As well they should. There are, after all, 20 corpses, including four of militiamen. Besides, it's election year next year.) But the public will also have to be assured that the various inquiries will lead to something, and not peter out in the long run.

Furthermore, authorities would do well to ensure that the inquiries do not deteriorate into a sparring match between the police and the military. The two agencies were almost equally represented in the composite team that tried to serve a warrant of arrest on cult member Roberto Madrina, who was supposedly wanted for frustrated murder. And PNP Director General Panfilo Lacson appears to be suggesting that if there are liable parties, the soldiers, and not his boys, are it.

During the dark years of martial law, Marcos and his minions encouraged the formation of cults such as the Tadtad and used these for anti-insurgency operations. These cultists were in a fashion clothed in the raiments of the law, and partook of the privileged position that the military enjoyed then.

As though caught in a time warp, cults are still flourishing in these days of democratic space, and they are still being employed in the government's campaign to crush dissent, particularly that posed by the secessionist movement in Mindanao. Alfredo Obsioma has, of course, protested the way the Catholic God's Spirit was being linked to the Tadtad, but how ironic that it should come to this: lawmen killing cultists, their longtime allies.

-- The Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network