We need to start calling it the Ampatuan Massacre, because it occurred in the town the Ampatuans named after themselves. Maguindanao is a big province with much to be proud of -- ancient culture with beautiful music, fertile land. It doesn't deserve to forever be associated with an atrocity that can only happen in a place called Ampatuan. - Howie Severino (copied from the Facebook post of one Muslim brother)
Some have commented that the suspect in question is just the fall guy, that the main mastermind has already fled. Some have said that all suspects should be given the death penalty immediately, and that it should be aired live so that there is no question that they were the ones killed. Some are challenging our administration to close this case quickly to prove that they are not favoring the suspects and that political "utang na loob" does not exist.
As bleak as events look today, we must not lose hope. We have just come from an extreme high --- two consecutive successes: Pacquiao and Peñaflorida --- both acts of human compassion and achievement against almost impossible adversity. Let not these successes have been awarded for nothing. It is true that the Ampatuan murderers must be punished, maybe as severely as their crime, and that they should not be allowed rights as Filipinos because they took it upon themselves to take away the rights of our innocent countrymen. But let us not forget that there is a Supreme Being watching over us. It has been written in His Book of Life that we must live through this tragedy. For what purpose? For a reward much greater than anyone has ever seen. I believe, as low as we are now in human eyes, our country will bounce back up again, much higher than ever before, much stronger and much more intelligent.
Even as we speak, people are banding together, forming groups on social networks and in churches of all religions all over the country, creating forces that, even if we are far apart, we are still united through mind, heart and spirit. The murderers think they have won, that they are untouchable. But they are wrong. They will be punished. If not by human hands, then by something Greater and by a means which they would never foresee in their lifetimes.
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