Brother against brother

Dark beneath this white —
Thoughts curdle the mind;
I was lost, searching among ghosts.
Where have you been, my brother,
What springs have you tasted,
What mountains have you scaled?

— from My Brother, My Executioner,
by F. Sionil Jose

“Dark beneath this white” paints the stark conflict between good and evil, truth and untruth — murked and muddied by erratic strokes of human loyalties and prejudices. The protagonists in National Artist F. Sionil Jose’s novel My Brother, My Executioner are two brothers — one a mestizo (the white one) grappling with the purer motivations of his dark (ethnic Filipino) half-brother who has “tasted the springs” of freedom from “scaling the mountains” (the residual feudalism from historic colonialism — “searching among ghosts”) that make brothers Master and Slave in one beloved country.

My Brother, My Executioner (1972) was banned during Ferdinand Marcos’s martial law (1972-1986), as it was considered too incendiary, and “too close to home” because it spoke of protest and rebellion against the establishment in the 1950s by the leftist Hukbalahap, a straggler-rebel group from the World War II Japanese occupation.

In eerie déjà vu, President Rodrigo Duterte warned leftists from “committing the mistake of staging a rebellion” otherwise he would impose martial law over the entire country (The Philippine Star, 09.15.2017). Martial law in Mindanao (only) has already been declared on May 23 because of the rebellion of the Maute group, allegedly aided by the international terrorist group, the ISIS. Marawi City has not yet been freed from the rebels, and Congress has approved that martial law in Mindanao can stay until the end of the year, unless peace is sooner attained.

We are one in a pod
But one will wither.

Brother against brother. More than 500 have been killed in almost five months of fierce and bloody fighting in Marawi, but the statistics of July which are from the Philippine military are suspected to be underrated (philstar.com, 07.10.2017). Militants killed are said to be 379, as 89 security and military forces are admitted to have been killed in action. However, an estimated 1,723 have been rescued by government troops, LGUs and CSOs as at July (Ibid.).

I do not think there will be meaning
To an end as trite as death

But the more ghastly killings of brother against brother are those on suspected extrajudicial killings. The Human Rights Watch thinks that “since taking office on June 30, 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has carried out a “war on drugs” that has led to the death of about 7,000 Filipinos to date, mostly urban poor. At least 2,555 of these have been attributed to the Philippine National Police (https://hrw.org/tag/philippines-war-drugs).” “Police in the Philippines defended the country’s ongoing and deadly war on drugs as they accused the international media of overstating death tolls, CNN reported (05.02.2017).

And what about the 68 farmers who have been killed in the first year of the Duterte administration, the human rights group Karapatan asks (philstar.com, 07.21.2017). Killings in the agricultural areas are linked to ancestral lands issues like the Lumad minorities in Mindanao, and the farmers’ struggles against big mining companies (Ibid.).

Truth burns the mind, but how —
Yes, how to utter it!

Do the Senate and Congressional investigations in aid of legislation help to ferret out the truth about the killings, the graft and corruption, and the other commissions and omissions of government that have cheated the Filipino people of their rights and liberties? A contributing op-ed writer at The New York Times, Miguel Syjuco, estimated that the pro-administration congressional bloc is 267 out of the total 297 seats (nytimes.com, 08.08.2017). He lamented that “In Philippine politics, it seems that loyalty is first always to the self, and a far second to the country. Our rulers, however, would have us believe they are our heroes.”

Yet President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to create a commission to investigate alleged corruption activities at the Ombudsman, amid the Ombudsman’s probe into his (Duterte’s) wealth that allegedly amounts to billions of pesos (newsinfo.inquirer.net, 09.28.2017). At a Senate hearing on the smuggling of P6.4-billion worth of shabu, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV accused Duterte’s son Paolo and son-in-law Manasas Carpio, alleged members of the so-called Davao Group, of using their influence to clear shipments at the Bureau of Customs (BoC) in exchange for money (Rappler, 09.07.2017).

And the Justice department is set to consolidate the drug trafficking raps filed by the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency against ex-Customs commissioner Nicanor Faeldon et al. in relation to that shabu shipment that slipped through the Bureau of Customs (BoC) in May (philstar, 09.25.2017).

Faeldon formally sought the suspension or expulsion of Sen. Panfilo Lacson for violating his constitutional rights and abuse of privilege in accusing him of involvement in corruption at the BoC (philstar, 09.19.2017). Senator Antonio Trillanes accused Faeldon, a fellow mutineer in the 2003 Oakwood siege and 2007 Manila Peninsula Siege, of being at the heart of the smuggling of illegal drugs from China (philstar, 09.25.2017). What, no more the brotherhood in the military? But of course, Faeldon is not a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy, like Lacson and Trillanes are, together with Senator Gregorio Honasan. Sorry for Faeldon’s ex-PMA co-accused.

We all slept late last night
And now it is morning, but, God —
Where is the sun?

In the early morning of Sept. 17, the body of 22-year old Horatio “Atio” Castillo III was found on a sidewalk in Balut, Tondo, and then brought to the Chinese General Hospital according to John Paul Solano’s initial declaration in the police report (philstar, 09.17.2017). Senate investigations on Castillo’s death are ongoing, with Solano changing his story, but clearly, Atio was killed in violent hazing by his Aegis Juris fraternity brothers at the University of Sto. Tomas faculty of Civil Law, who are still at large.

My brother, I am alone.

Amelia H. C. Ylagan is a Doctor of Business Administration from the University of the Philippines.

ahcylagan@yahoo.com