FROM MUHAMMAD Ali to David Bowie to Prince to Allan Rickman to Craig Sager and to, most recently, George Michael and Carrie Fisher, 2016 has terribly become a year of deaths. Closer to home, President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s “war on drugs” have so far yielded 6,206 deaths—as per Rappler account. Of the total, 2,157 were killed in police operations while 4,049 were killed vigilante-style. But 2016 proved to be not just a year for literal death; it displayed more so the death of sensibilities, morality, common sense and empathy. We cheer the deaths of illegal drug trade suspects—both alleged users and pushers; while we also gnaw at our fingernails hoping and praying that we and our loved ones are spared from either being collateral damage or simply being suspected then killed. We nonchalantly spew thoughts that those who died deserved their violent deaths; yet we feel the chill of understanding that we—or our family members and friends—may be next. We continue to supp
Online edition of The Ilocos Times, a community newspaper based in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte.