Happenings sa Pinas | Cause of Death: 'Trip Trip Lang'

Here in the Philippines, when we say "trip trip lang" it means to do something spontaneous. It is something you do without any reason or thought: like when I suddenly decide to dip calamari in chocolate ice cream. It seems like a great idea at the time. It doesn't matter if in the end the calamari-ice cream will taste surprisingly good or, as expected, gross.

But when a self-confessed criminal attributes his crime on "trip lang"... I am struggling to find words to describe how I feel about how he "spontaneously" raped two women and stabbed three children to death. Read the whole story here.

I grabbed this video from ABS CBN News' facebook page.

This is why I fully support war on drugs here in the Philippines. All that talk about EJK's (extra-judicial killings), are they all state-sponsored? I don't think so. The numbers are exaggerated by both local and international mainstream media. It's all blown out of proportion to discredit the current government. Human rights advocates cry foul over government strictness, when they should be supporting it. I hope we all realize that the war on drugs is a necessary process our country must go through to cleanse us of people like this guy.

Let's assume that this is the first time the suspect ever used drugs. Look at the outcome - a massacre. He admitted to raping the grandmother and the mother. Three innocent children were killed. Children! Sana hinayaan nalang yung mga bata mabuhay. [They should have left the children alone.] The thing is they were not on their right minds! They had no control of themselves because they were high on drugs. Trip trip lang. One father goes home to discover his whole family is gone, all because "trip trip lang."

It doesn't matter how many times a person did a crime. What would you do if you catch a thief stealing your TV in the dead of night? Will you ask him if it's his first time to steal anything, or will you immediately scream for help and call the police?

Tokhang operations seem effective in our neighborhood. There are known drug users who turned a new leaf. May mga pasaway parin. [There are some who won't participate in the government program.] As a citizen, I do feel safer now than in the past five years. It's not absolutely safe, but definitely safer. People in general are also more disciplined now compared to last year. 

War on drugs is not enough. Death penalty must be implemented. Implementing a harsher punishment has a good chance of scaring criminals. It's also practical and economical. Our government will not be obliged to feed prisoners convicted of heinous crimes, and focus on rehabilitating prisoners convicted of lesser crimes. Death penalty has more good in it than bad.

If our lawmakers truly listen and uphold women's rights, they will not deny the family the justice they deserve.