G-SPAT

Violence in Baguio dangerously high(Part I)
Grace Bandoy

My utter apologies for a seemingly long absence from this paper, it’s just that I subjected myself into hibernation after my family suffered a tragedy in August and well, I have been on a personal knotty journey too during the same time.

But hey, we can’t be sad forever. We just have to get out of our rutty shells and be part of the world again so here we are. The tragedy that happened in August to us is very, very profound (for me) and is something you’ll never ever forget for the rest of your life. It has affected me gravely and has changed some of my outlooks in life.

There is an alarming rise of violent crimes in Baguio today. It’s no secret. It’s scary. It worries a lot of us. One never really knows the feeling of being scared from something that is violent unless you experience it personally – when it happens to someone close to you.

I might not be the immediate family of my aunty Mary but she’s my aunty Mary as long as I can remember.

She’s this sweet but sometimes nicely naughty and funny old woman who decided to spend the rest of her life in the Philippines when they came here for a vacation some two years ago from the United States (after staying there for nearly a decade).

She probably thought, “Why the hell should I go back there and work my ass off? I’m staying here by hook or by crook,” so dear ole’ aunty Mary stayed and lived in their family home at Hillside.

For her age of 68, she was strong and very much able. She could take care of herself. She was a super old woman. You know how some old people get – they want to be alone. I guess some of our old folks find some sort of happiness in solitude.

And like your typical senior citizen, she sometimes can be uncanny but most of the time, she’s funny and greets you in the morning when you pass by her house and she can be talkative sometimes when you get into a story with her.

I love old people, (I said it for the nth time already), they’re gentle, harmless, they are the world, they’re way ahead all of us. They know everything already while we’re just beginning to discover the real deal about life. You just want to hug them and wish that they’re always safe and comfortable and happy. Their smiles are just one of the most beautiful things on earth.

I come from a poor family but if I were rich, I’ll put up a shelter and gather all the old people being maltreated out there and cuddle all of them and make them happy. I’m not as affectionate towards the younger generations of our society because c’mon, we and the younger ones have a whole lifetime ahead of us to make our lives better, but these old people have been there and done it and the rest of their days should be spent with no more suffering, only good times and happy times.

They should not be out there begging on the streets and looking for food and a place to sleep in at night. In the afternoon last Aug. 21, my mother found the body of aunty Mary in her home, lifeless and swimming in a pool of blood. (It’s hard to think about it without shedding a tear).

She was robbed of still an undetermined amount of money and was hit in the head 12 times with a more-than-14mm iron steel bar. Twelve deadly blows to the head that even the doctor who conducted the autopsy found gruesome. He said it was one of the most violent acts on a person he had known as an autopsy doctor of the SOCO (Baguio’s CSI) department of the Baguio City Police office.

The fatal wounds to her head were all deep that it cracked open her skull and damaged her brains. No person on earth could have survived those kinds of wounds inflicted on her. She was a 68-year-old woman. She didn’t deserve that. No innocent person on earth deserves that.

It has been a shock to all of us members of her family and to our community at Hillside Barangay.
It had been a sleepless 30 days for me. No suspects, no witnesses. I have not been a fan of dead people (attending dead people’s wakes and burials, going to cemeteries, etc.) ever since my dad died (of sickness) in 2003.

But in the dark, cold morgue of the Funenaria Paz on Aug. 23, while it was freezing and it was raining like hell, I stood in front of the murdered body of my aunty Mary, cried like I never cried before (not even the way I did when my father died) and swore that I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure she would not have died in vain.

Whoever did that will pay. Justice will find a way somehow. It’s hard not to think about it and think of my aunt and miss her. It’s unacceptable and this heavy feeling is still difficult to shrug off. One cannot fully recover from something like that.

It makes me wonder how it all became like this. Sometimes we think we’re invincible, but that murder should be a wake up call for all of us that no one is safe anymore. Not even in the comfort of our own homes. And it could happen to us anytime. Is this what Baguio had become?

The a--hole who did that must not be out there free as a bird for he or she could commit the same crime again!! For any information regarding the incident please call Police Station 4 at 443-9114 or text 0928-672-7418 (All information would be kept confidential).