In just a few hours from now, the whole world will close an old calendar and open a new one as people from all walks of life welcome 2013 with a bright, big bang. The thing is, in these parts, unlike anywhere else, the bang is going to be not only big, it will also be bloody.
As has always been among Filipinos since time immemorial, our public and private hospitals nationwide will once again be awash with people, young and old, injured by firecrackers, most of which, by sheer calling, such as "Sinturon ng Sawa" or "Goodbye Philippines" are enough to summon death and hell. The new year's initial newspapers will again banner stories of this or that boy or man having lost a finger, a limb or an eye during the noisiest of all holidays in our midst and times. Per se, New Year is not really a festival of the Roman Catholic Church, but an old, originally pagan tradition where everyone must make noise and revelry in order to drive away evil spirits. Are we really driving them away or calling them into our homes? Quite ironically, it was the Chinese that introduced to us the firecrackers; yet never have we ever hear reports of mass casualties due to firecrackers as the Chinese themselves celebrate their own New Year between January and February each year. Truth is, we may have unquestionably gone into the Guinness Book of Records -- well, for notoriety, not for fame -- simply because of this. Ala eh, Ateng, Kuyang, di ga't nakaka-loka yan?
Very far more nakaka-loka is the bare fact that certain types of firecrackers are strictly banned -- that is, illegal, and ergo: their sale and use are clearly punishable. Yet we still have to see or hear of people being incarcerated for openly putting the public in harm's way because of firecrackers. Indeed, the living and most unarguable proof that one has violated the law is when he gets injured for personally indulging in that which the law forbids, such as in the case of shabu, hindi ga, Vice Ganda? And so, Ateng, di ka siguro masyadong maloloka if only, after being treated in the hospital, these open transgressors of the law are directly sent to jail and prosecuted like any other criminal. But they are not! In fact, the whole nation might even commiserate with them for all the pains they suffered. I really don't know if this is true justice, or if it is, then that is justice-Philippine style.
One other nakakaloka happenstance, BB Gandanghari, is that as early as the "ber-months" the PNP are already casting out their nets to catch these walang kadala-dalang dealers of forbidden firecrackers, and yet, while some are caught, they keep coming back year in and year out. The other day, for example, I saw on TV one such dealer in Laguna whose firecracker bodega had been raided by the authorities. As the forbidden stocks were being taken out and loaded into the PNP van, I asked myself: Saan kaya nila ito dadalhin pagkatapos? Of course, I realized they would need those stocks as evidence when they later prosecute the owner whom, I knew, would soon be incarcerated until he is able, in due course, to put up the proper bail. But I also knew, as is likewise published in the news every now and then, that the PNP do not have enough spaces in their stations to temporarily store as big a bulk of hazardous firecrackers as this one. And the storage would not be just temporary; given the exceptionally long span of time in between when one is caught committing a crime and the start of the actual prosecution and judicial processes. It should, then, indeed be downright puzzling to imagine where the so-called evidence was, in the interim,. supposed to be kept.. And so, when the day of actual arraignment finally comes -- alas, that may take until kingdom come -- and the defense lawyer eventually asks: :"where is the evidence?" and the prosecutor answers: "give us sometime to present them, your Honor/Sirs," then, mga Ateng at Kuyang, you would surely all the more be shouting till heaven and hell: "Ala'y eto na ang pinaka nakaka-loka sa lahat!" Well, this happens only in the Philippines, di ga, Kuya John Lapuz and Boy Abunda?
Happy New Year, everyone.
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