More of Maguindanao

Yesterday, I (with Justin, Ken, Gio, and, behind us, Sasha) attended the mass for the victims of Maguindanao presided by Fr. Jun Viray, sj. This just compelled me to address the Samahan sa Pilosopiya in view of the current situation, and so I write in the groups:

"I'm sure that almost everyone of us in the philosophy family have already read and heard about the recent incident in Maguindanao involving the murder (and for some, rape) of more than sixty men and women. I would not go into further details, as I believe that it is our responsibility to know more about it (on which I will discuss further later on), but I would just like to call your attention to what happened and how we would react against it.

We are not philosophy students for nothing, just doing our own mental gymnastics and not caring about what is happening in this world that we live in (after all, we philosophize for this world… and of course I do not believe that we are doing silly mental games), and in these times that we are most needed, that we ought to make a stand regarding these matters and do something about it. What just happened goes against what we envision for our country as philo majors. This act is a sign of grave disrespect towards the value of man and society, those that we consider of high value in virtue of their existence. What has just transpired goes against the very lessons in life that we learn in four years of philosophizing.

Hence, an answer, an active and dynamic response is needed, and perhaps it would help if we ask ourselves the three questions that one of our great philosophers Immanuel Kant asked himself (although we put these questions in the light of our own context and of this situation. Our friend Imman asked this according to his own background and situation, which eventually led him to answers different from our own).

What can I know? Perhaps we could start by constantly informing ourselves of what has happened so far. Besides knowing the events as we read them in the Internet or in the papers, we are challenged to broader our horizon. We are called to look at it from different sides and perspectives, as well as think and reflect about it, to figure out the implications of this event. I encourage everyone to take a little time off just to probe into this event (in spite of the heavy school requirements) and be up-to-date.

What ought I to do? In our current situation, we have to act according to our own contexts and situations, sa kung ano ang napapaloob sa ating abot-tanaw. The closest thing that we can do is to attend different activities that address concern for this event (e.g. masses, candle lighting ceremonies, talks and seminars, etc.). For most of us, we could show our stand by committing ourselves to vote wisely (after all, this was an event rooted in the upcoming 2010 elections), keeping in mind that the change that we long for in the system (which goes with a personal conviction to always choose what is good for our country and our fellow Filipinos, in view of the greater common good) could only be decided upon by us people. And hey, idling in Facebook and Multiply would help too. I encourage you to put your blog posts and views regarding this issue in our Yahoo! Groups, so we could start discussing amongst ourselves that we could bring greater light into this situation.

What can I hope for? And of course, we have to project everything that we have been doing in the future which in two or three years' time, we take the center stage and do our roles as, possibly lawyers, teachers, priests, and other professions that we could think of pursuing. In spite of these happenings, we should never stop dreaming for a better Philippines and a better future for all of us, when the world would be close to what we envision it to be. In our continuous response to the call of our times, let us always remember that we are doing these things with a certain end in mind.

I hope that what I have written here, as a member of the core group of the Samahan sa Pilosopiya where we all belong, would encourage us to participate in the constant efforts of our fellow Ateneans in doing everything that we can to respond to this situation."

I hope this message would reach to the farthest bounds of the earth, that we may be able to do things together and hope for the better.