The Massacre and Politics

It's 12:38am and I'm supposed to be working on a business review, but I got the sudden urge to blog and given my current track record on posting, I decided to go for it while I felt the urge. This is mostly on current events, and this is definitely on the "thinking out loud" POV as opposed to a detailed structured analysis (which I'll be doing in a bit anyway for my business review).

The Maguindanao Massacre - did the Ampatuans really do it?

First of all, let me get one thing out of the way: this massacre is utterly deplorable and the assholes who did it deserve to get sliced into little pieces over a period of 24 months till they finally expire. Anyone who comes up to me and tells me the line "they have rights too!" will get a withering stare from me and a scathing question in the form of "so what about the rights of those who were massacred?" Beings like these do not deserve to exist.

Now, the entire world seems to be convinced that the Ampatuans did it. I....have my doubts. In my head they're the biggest suspects, and my reasons for that are:

1. MOTIVE - killing off the Mangudadatus + their supporters would definitely end any kind of political opposition to their continued dynasty in the area.

2. CAPABILITY - of course the Ampatuans have the capability to execute the damned massacre PLUS they have the capability to cover it up locally.

However, a few things bug me:

1. The motive was way too obvious so naturally the first suspects would be the Ampatuans. It's easy to frame them because if you kill off their opponents, naturally the first suspect would be them.

2. I don't think that the Ampatuans are stupid enough to do the following:

   a. Bury the bodies in a mass shallow grave - putting all your eggs in one basket eh?

   b. Use a government issued backhoe...and leave it on the site. Brilliant.

   c. Bury an huge cache of military-grade arms around your mansion (uh huh) or behind the municipal hall of a town where one of your relatives is a mayor. I mean, seriously. The OCEAN is a few kilometers away, and it's so easy for someone to take all these firearms and dump them in the ocean (assuming that they were used in the massacre and needed to be disposed off) OR place them in some quiet unassuming house somewhere OR bury them in a DISTANT place.

3. With Gloria declaring martial law in Maguindanao and charging the Ampatuans with rebellion - why the need for this? If it was really the Ampatuans, then there's no need to charge them with extra matters that won't hasten or increase the punishment. Does Gloria need them to be a mere scapegoat, and since she knows that the murder charges won't hold, she has to hit them with something else?

   a. Of course, there's a counter argument to this - Gloria KNOWS that they did it BUT since she needs them politically, she comes up with a charge that's not as heavy as murder OR something that distracts the public from the murder charges.

My reasons for doubting the guilt as enumerated above are based on the simple premise that the Ampatuans are not, executionally speaking, stupid. I mean, sure, we all know that criminal forensics in this country is pathetically close to zero, but still, the government could get lucky. The crime and the succeeding cover-up was done very sloppily. I mean, I despise the Ampatuans...but are they THAT sloppy?

I don't know. If I were on the jury (assuming we used the jury system), I'd be convinced BUT not completely - the government has not yet convinced me with evidence "beyond reasonable doubt." I need to know more before I can sign their death warrants.

The very nature of this massacre has elevated this incident from a mere criminal case to a political case. Yes, as disgusting as it may be (and I most certainly am disgusted), this is no longer "just" a case of 57 men and women who were killed in cold blood. EVERYTHING has been put on trial here: the government's capability to SOLVE crime, CHARGE the right people, CONVICT them, and JAIL them; the government's political will to go after warlords with private armies; the country's tolerance for the LACK of sustainable action on the government's part to stop violence against journalists; the Executive Branch's power to declare martial law; and freedom in Maguindanao itself.

Adding the fact that the 2010 Presidential elections are fast approaching, and you have something that barely resembles a criminal case anymore. I sincerely pity the men and women of the NBI and the PNP who are working tirelessly to build the case while trying to ignore all the pressure brought about by the politics of the event. It must be tough.

Will this ever get completely resolved? Maybe. I don't have high hopes...but I have my hopes. Will the TRUE guilty parties be punished for this? Maybe so. Will the Ampatuans get punished for this? Definitely. Are the Ampatuans guilty of doing this crime? Most likely...but right now I'm not 100% convinced. 

That's what politics does - it muddles up everything.

Rediscovering PC gaming

I started my foray into gaming with a PC - my folks never believed in buying a console beyond the Atari 2600, so when my dad got a PC for the first time for "schoolwork" I got busy learning how to play games on it. I started on Tetris then moved on to old-school RPG classics such as the D&D "Krynn" series (Champions of Krynn FTW!).

As I started to work, I bought my first PC from Dreamchum Computers (yes, I was an idiot back then for believing in their "value" PCs), then I bought a more powerful rig (Pentium 2.8e with HTT) which lasted me a good 6-7 years. However, when "Gears of War" came out, I joined the bandwagon and bought an Xbox 360, and for the last 2 years I've been playing mostly on my Xbox while my aging PC just sat there, serving its purpose for the occasional RTS game or World of Warcraft.

Lately however, I've just rediscovered my love for PC gaming. And I chalk it up to 3 reasons:

1. A slew of great PC games. Yes, PC gaming is cyclical: it's a long drought of lousy games, followed by a period of great games, and I'm fortunate enough that this period is one filled with great games. In the past MONTH alone, we've seen the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (I played the 1st one on the Xbox 360 and I must say that it's such a sweet feeling to go back to playing FPS games on the PC!), Left 4 Dead 2, and Dragon Age: Origins. In the next quarter or so we'll also be seeing Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising, Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, Assasin's Creed 2, and Starcraft 2 (sequels much?). Oh man, so many games, so little time.

2. My new rig. Yes, I finally purchased a brand new rig, and it's working just beautifully. For the 1st time I'm playing games on 16xx anti-aliasing with ultra high settings all through out with nary a stutter. I find myself replaying old games just to appreciate the beauty of the game (such as Dawn of War 2 and Assasin's Creed). I'll also be playing the mother-of-all-high-end-rig-game, CRYSIS.

3. Windows 7. Yes, Microsoft's newest OS is working wonders on my new 64-bit rig. Some people (especially Mac diehards) may dismiss Win7 as a mere copycat of Snow Leopard, but I beg to differ. Win7 may have similar features to Snow Leopard, but you get with it out-of-the-box functionality with almost ANY kind of hardware configuration (yes, Apple claims the same with a Mac; however, Snow Leopard works great out-of-the-box with a Mac hardware configuration - achieving the same with Win7 using the literally billions of potential configurations out there with a PC is nothing short of amazing). It works well, and for the first time in my life I had to spend some time learning about how a new Microsoft OS works.

It's a great time to be a PC gamer nowadays, I tell you!

----

On a small sidenote, I am apalled at the unmitigated gall of some people. To do something and to blame alcohol is just pathetic. Being drunk is not an excuse, it's an alibi.

I wish some people would be brave enough to just stand up and say "I made a mistake and I apologize" rather than trying to weasle their way out of it through half-ass explanations and illogical self-contradicting statements and then resort to threats of violence when everything else fails.

Wishful thinking, most of the time. Wishful thinking.