 |
| Never forget the Ampatuan Massacre, Nov. 23, 2009 |
“Langit, Lupa, Impyerno,
Im-im-impyerno,
Saksak puso tulo ang dugo,
Patay, buhay, umalis ka na diyan.”
---
This well-known play chant, invented by some anonymous genius kid in an unknown space and time simply reflects the brutality and religiosity of Philippine society.
---
---
Imagine kids chanting heavy, disturbing, violent words then after, play their run-around everywhere game. The objective of the game is to run around and once you’ve run out of air, find a rock or anything that is above ground that you can stand on which will serve as your “langit”. Of course there is someone who will run after you and that is what the kids call “taya”, if “taya” touched you and you are not in “langit”, then you have to run after them. Pretty simple game. Pointless I must say.
I used to play this game when I was still young, though it was not on my favourite 6:00 to 8:00pm games list like “tagu-taguan” and “baril-barilan”.
Notice when we were kids; we add “an” to an adult activity like “lutu-lutu-AN” and “bahay-bahay-AN”. Kids do that because they want to do something they are not completely entitled to do, so they craft a more artsy and playful activity which is appropriate for their age and consciousness, without them noticing it.
Notice when we were kids; we add “an” to an adult activity like “lutu-lutu-AN” and “bahay-bahay-AN”. Kids do that because they want to do something they are not completely entitled to do, so they craft a more artsy and playful activity which is appropriate for their age and consciousness, without them noticing it.
This game I must say is different, it is composed of grown-up lyrics and as I’ve said, brutal, disturbing and violent for a child.
I never thought of it as a brutal play chant when I was a kid. I had a simple understanding of what heaven is, I hear it everywhere, at school, poster ads and TV shows.
The blue-print of this place was discussed to me by the church and my parents, they say it has a fountain of youth and a fruit punch fountain, different kinds of flowers never known to man, a rainbow that never fades, glasses with beautiful creatures etched on it, cold colourful grains of sand where you can lie and bury yourself without drowning, centralized air-conditioning and smell of potpourri all over, all the time.
That was heaven according to them, only that you can’t find it here on earth.
I was so curious to know how I can go to this extraordinarily wonderful place.
When I found out how, I decided I want to go there, so I suggested to a playmate that we jump off a building so we can go to heaven fast, but then some smart ass playmate told me that if I do that, I cannot enter heaven, my playmate mumbled something about suicide.
So much for my proposed heaven trip, “Heaven can wait!” I said.
I never also imagined stabbing my playmates for them to gush blood out of their hearts, as the chant goes “saksak puso tulo ang dugo”, for obvious reasons, I fear I will not be able to play with them again.
---
I never thought of it as a brutal play chant when I was a kid. I had a simple understanding of what heaven is, I hear it everywhere, at school, poster ads and TV shows.
The blue-print of this place was discussed to me by the church and my parents, they say it has a fountain of youth and a fruit punch fountain, different kinds of flowers never known to man, a rainbow that never fades, glasses with beautiful creatures etched on it, cold colourful grains of sand where you can lie and bury yourself without drowning, centralized air-conditioning and smell of potpourri all over, all the time.
That was heaven according to them, only that you can’t find it here on earth.
I was so curious to know how I can go to this extraordinarily wonderful place.
When I found out how, I decided I want to go there, so I suggested to a playmate that we jump off a building so we can go to heaven fast, but then some smart ass playmate told me that if I do that, I cannot enter heaven, my playmate mumbled something about suicide.
So much for my proposed heaven trip, “Heaven can wait!” I said.
I never also imagined stabbing my playmates for them to gush blood out of their hearts, as the chant goes “saksak puso tulo ang dugo”, for obvious reasons, I fear I will not be able to play with them again.
---
In an adult and more civil sense, this game was more like doing something completely terrible then run around like nothing happened.
---
During the Spanish occupation of the Philippines, friars used to torture Filipino subversives by pulling out their nails, taking off their eyes and or slashing their backs until it is severely lacerated. The torture dens then was located at the basement of parish churches where they celebrate Holy Eucharistic mass afterwards.
The Ampatuan massacre, where 58 people was massacred and buried then and there, well at least attempted to. Almost half of it women, some were journalists and lawyers. The women were raped before they were mutilated, beheaded and shot at their genitals.
The Ampatuans were like kids playing their game, but theirs is a political game and capping the competition is the main objective. They chanted the macabre play chant, did something gruesome beyond morals, and then thought they could run away as if nothing happened. But unlike kids who play for no important reasons, they do it for something more stupid than stupidity, political power.
---
Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo finished his nine-year term with more than one thousand political activists/journalists/mediamen killed or gunned down by identified AFP elements. Neither one of these cases were resolved.
Now, she’s in congress, representing the 2nd district of
Pampanga.
---
I am no longer bothered by the way kids recite their brutal chant, I am bothered now by the realization that kids did not invent it.
We showed them how ghoulish adult activities are and as I’ve said earlier, kids tend to craft their own little play world from the things they are not completely entitled to do. Like killing.
We showed them how ghoulish adult activities are and as I’ve said earlier, kids tend to craft their own little play world from the things they are not completely entitled to do. Like killing.
---
The pointlessness of life was more crystal when you were a kid, for when you get older, it becomes clouded with all sorts of stupidity; politics, power, shame, greed and malice.
The meaningless reasons of why kids play inspires me.
As my mother always tells me, “play nice!”.
