Affirmation

Except for the part about “utak pulbura” being translated, rather literally, as “minds made up of gunpowder”, Nikko Dizon’s story on anonymous sources within the Armed Forces acknowledging what we have known all along — that the military has been implementing a wide-scale campaign to extra-judicially execute perceived enemies of the state — is a welcome investigative study on the phenomenon of political killings. I could quarrel with the title-quote (What the hell is “unintended policy?”), but I’d rather not, because the more substantial portions of the story are pretty much accurate. I’d rather say that these type of stories in the mainstream media are long overdue. More specifically, seven years overdue. It was during 2001, after all, when Jovito Palparan first made his presence palpable in the island of Mindoro. 2001 was also the year when Romeo Tolentino first made his mark as a go-to butcher in Sulu.