The swift netizen defense of alleged Yolanda looters establishes that violence is permissible in the name of survival. But, we have to ask, survival under what conditions? Survival according to whose standards? The answer to the first seems to be that violence is permissible under conditions over which people have no control, such as natural disasters.
Families of the New People’s Army (NPA)’s five captives sought for the latter’s release, as the National Democratic Front of the Philippines Southern Mindanao gave the release order Thursday.
Two Agusan del Sur minors who were accused and detained of purportedly taking part in the killing of a barangay captain were released from a youth facility here Wednesday. Their mothers, however, wanted justice to grind on the militia men and Army personnel who allegedly tortured their sons.
“It’s not God who was absent or was somewhere else when Yolanda struck. It was the Aquino administration that was and still is nowhere to be felt, found or seen by our hapless kababayans (fellow Filipinos),” said Davao-based lawmaker, Atty. Carlos Isagani Zarate of Bayan Muna Partylist.
The poor though, could only share coins and even used clothings, but the magnanimity and sincerity was overwhelming, volunteers of Tulong Kabataan said.