When slay bells ring at NAIA 3, is anyone listening?

They flew into town, eager to spend the holidays in the big city and frolic and play the Filipino way, in the Christmas wonderland of brightly-lit and gaily-decorated shopping malls. But Ukol Talumpa, his wife Lea, and others around them that fateful day did not know that they came to Manila, not to celebrate but to die.

Talumpa was the mayor of Labangan, Zamboanga del Sur. He, his wife, and nephew Salipuddin Talumpa were shot outside NAIA Terminal 3 on December 20, along with a bystander, 18-month old Phil Thomas Lirasan.

 

Five others were injured, including a relative of the mayor and baby Phil’s mother, grandmother, and a toddler cousin.

 

Witnesses say the hitmen wore police uniforms and rode a motorcycle. Around 15 shots were heard.

 

According to media reports, at least two previous attempts had been made on Talumpa’s life – in 2010, he and his nephew were shot at in Manila, and in 2012, a grenade attack was made on him and his wife in Pagadian City.

 

“Mayor, Mayor, para kay Kitty Nandang ito!” one of the slayers was heard to yell before the bullets ripped.

 

“Kitty” is Wilson Nandang, a former mayor of the town.

 

Talumpa’s daughter Rayyam later pointed to Nandang associate Marrox Amlong as the killer. She said her parents were campaigning against drug trafficking, which provoked the ire of Nandang, who is said to run the Nandang-Afdal-Malaco drug group. 

“Afdal”, said Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, refers to Abu Bakar Afdal, another former mayor of Labangan.

 

The police are investigating the crime from the drug war, clan feud, and political rivalry angles. It is obvious that their efforts will be hampered by the lack of security camera footage, for the reason that there are no CCTV cameras installed in the airport’s arrival area, and will have to rely on physical evidence found on the scene – bullet casings, cellphones – and eyewitness accounts.

 

The cultural aspect of the crime may be traced to  the “rido,” blood feuds between clans, “rooted in the Muslim culture of honor and exacerbated by poverty, poor governance, corruption, and the proliferation of firearms,” according to the International Displacement Monitoring Center.

 

The reason for such vendettas has been extended to encompass disputes between enemies, not necessarily family, but business, political, and social rivals. Vengeance will be satisfied only with the imposition of the ultimate sanction: ubusan ng lahi.
 

In the context of present-day feuds, ubusan ng lahi can mean the total destruction of an enemy, where his life and that of his family must be taken to avenge an insult, a defeat, a setback in politics or business, or a loss – of profit, ascendancy, face, or power.

 

But this attitude runs counter to the norm. Florentino T. Timbreza, in an essay on the Filipino value of non-violence, gives an example of the confrontational Filipino from Jose Rizal’s "Noli Me Tangere": “It is clear that what Ibarra wants is the destruction of each other’s race, dead or alive, force against force, and survival of the fittest: ubusan ng lahi, dahas laban sa dahas, matira ang matibay.” 

 

Timbreza adds, “Despite their religious and socio-cultural disparities, not to mention their varied languages, Filipinos in general, except for some over-ambitious politicians and terrorists, regard as priceless the value of peace and reconciliation. . .”

 

Perhaps the most notorious recent instance of rido occurred in December 2009, when 57 people were massacred in Maguindanao and dumped in a mass grave.

 

Among them were people from the Mangundadatu clan and from the media. Members of the powerful Ampatuan family were charged with the crime. 

 

Ubusan ng lahi is not a phenomenon confined to Mindanao. Last August, five armed men ambushed businessman Emerson Pascual in Gapan, Nueva Ecija. An 86-year-old woman, Consuelo Magno-Mance, was sitting in front of her house near the scene when a stray bullet took her life.

 

A statement read by her family’s lawyer urged the unnamed warring factions, “especially those enjoying the perks of power and authority, influence, guns, goons, and gold to settle your differences among yourselves. . .If you cannot get rid of the culture of war freak [sic] “ubusan ng lahi” syndrome, do not involve innocent civilians who have nothing to do with your conflicts.”

 

In that incident, three other people aside from Consuelo were killed by suspects “armed with M-14 and AK-47 assault rifles.” So vicious was the assault that “some 243 cartridges were recovered from the road where the gunmen were positioned.”

 

It was not the first time that the Pascual family had been attacked. Pascual’s two other brothers were killed seven years ago.

 

The Talumpa story, then, is not unique. It is an old story, a familiar one. And it is the bystanders, such as baby Phil and Consuelo, and the media people in Maguindanao, who suffer so that those feuding may wield their power and influence with impunity.

 

One thing that allows them to get away with such crimes is the ease with which one can procure high-powered weapons. A CNN report says Philippine authorities admitted “there were more than 1.2 million registered firearms in the country last year and estimate there were another 600,000 unlicensed firearms in circulation nationwide.”

 

Feuding is part of the culture, and it is difficult to change cultural behaviors and beliefs. It will take a long time and a massive, concerted effort to construct a new mindset that uplifts the value of non-violence and repudiates vengeance killings.

 

Perhaps the only response government can make now is to tighten security, install CCTV cameras in all public offices and establishments, and impose stiffer laws and penalties that will make would-be assassins rethink the risk.

 

Firearms should be more strictly regulated. Instances of poor governance that allow prominent families or personalities to literally get away with murder and other crimes should be firmly corrected.

 

The justice system must move swiftly and decisively, and punish such acts with severity. Political dynasties and the concomitant sense of entitlement and abuse of power that their members tend to develop need to be done away with.
 

Until then, it is certain that again and again, the innocent will pay the price when slay bells ring.

Is anyone listening? — KDM, GMA News 

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