In a small Philippine town where NPA's used to camp, the killing of a fellow human being has become an ordinary scene over the years.
Once when he was coming from the city center, Juan made a turn in a busy intersection going up to the mountain via the provincial highway. He did not see an oncoming old motorcycle who overtook another vehicle to his left. The motorcycle almost hit his back while he was startled by the non-stop honking of horn by its driver. Juan got angry and he swore multiple times to the driver of the motorcycle.
Narrow and zig-zagging is the road to the mountain where Juan lives. There, Juan, already in his 's 50's with 3 sons in the elementary school, owns a mini-grocery store. That day, he was going to pick-up the kids at school before they take his wife who was at the store to go to a popular beach resort in their province.
Juan's store was doing good. Because he worked hard for years as contract worker in Saudi Arabia, he was able to buy a brand new Mitsubishi Adventure. The money he got left he used to start putting up the store, the product of which comes from the city - a good 75 to 100 kilometers away. He uses the new vehicle to transport goods to their town in the mountain top which is mostly a farming and agricultural community. Aside from the store, Juan earns money by using his knowledge to fix cars and he has plenty of customers known to him since childhood. Juan's life and that of his family appears to be very promising.
While Juan traverses the narrow and zig-zag road to the mountain, he angrily and intentionally slowed down his vehicle to get even with the motorcycle driver whom he thought was between 35 and 40 years old. The motorcycle made several attempts to overtake the very slow Juan but every time he was about to start the maneuver, Juan would speed away while blocking his passage. This happened numerous times while they were going up the mountain. The motorcycle driver decided to go back to the city because he could not get by Juan. When Juan saw it, he also came back and followed the motorcycle. He wanted to confront the guy and he did not want that day to pass without laying his hands on him. Unknown to him, the hard liquor that he and his friend drunk earlier was starting to affect his thoughts and actions.
Juan was a peaceful ordinary citizen but what he hated most was when he does not get any respect from somebody, especially from people much youger than he was. In many of these instances, his courage and rage show up.
In that fateful morning, an old friend called him to fix his car. Juan immediately went to the city in his friend's place and he quickly fixed the car. His friend was so grateful that he offered Juan to drink an imported whisky with him while the wife opened for them a bag of pork chi-charon (a popular crunchy snack made of pork skin). It did not take long for the 2 friends to gobble-up the 750 ml whiskey. "Imported drinks taste so much different and so much better."
The real reason the motorcycle went back was to get his gun – a birthday gift from his uncle so he has a weapon to use because he gets into fights a lot of times in their neighborhood. Juan saw where the motorcycle stopped. He, too, stopped and waited for the driver to come back. The driver came back and drove the motorcycle to Juan's direction. Juan crossed his path. Startled, the driver alighted from his motorcycle, grabbed his gun and shot Juan 3 times inside his Adventure dead!
In his wake, his family learned that the killer`s uncle was his own friend whose car he fixed on that same day.
Why can't we stop non-sense killings? Why can't we start respecting every human life? Where is our society heading to? When are news like these going to stop?
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