It was around 1:30 in the afternoon when gun shots a few meters away from the school reverberated. I heard some students on the 3rd year building shriek for they were on the 2nd floor and saw the incident vividly. I was on the 1st floor trying to finalize the report for our reading program and was waiting for a visitor from the regional office to monitor the said program.
My heart was on my mouth when I saw outside the window an armed man near Abacahan Bridge running for his life. The thing to come to my mind was to protect the children for they might get hurt. Some of the kids were late in coming to school and they were within the area where the shooting happened!
A few minutes passed and a series of gun shots echoed. The vehicles stopped in front of the school and the passengers scurried towards our gate to take refuge. People were running outside the highway, some women were crying as they ran and our students all 1045 of them went out of their class rooms wondering what was happening. I signaled that they have to go back inside their classrooms to protect themselves. The ones near the road cowered. I screamed that they needed to go down to the faculty room and that the teachers will take charge. Some of the girls clung to each other and started crying.
Some meters away, I saw a body on the road and there were more armed men running in different directions. I told the students to close the window and be calm. The thing to worry me most were the ones who were still caught between the crossfire!
Fifteen minutes passed and I started to calm down inside as I saw a group of our students heading towards the school unscathed. They informed me that 3 people were killed and the students near the area were safe.
Words spread like wildfire: It was drug-related. An alleged liquidation tandem was shot by the suspected drug user and some policemen around the vicinity. It was the third shooting incident in the place with similar connotations. One was in front of a local state university and two were near our school.
After the fear subsided, questions whirled in my head like fruits in a blender. If I am the hired killer, what is my criterion to concede to the act to eliminate life? Money? Could I sleep well with money on my pocket and blood on my hands? My constant exposure to FOX's "Criminal Minds" tells me that people who hire killers are power-hungry ones where they act as gods in their own rights. They also think that they are doing the right things... some edge to insanity and and some are simply evil.
In a hushed tone, there were some who said that the people who died deserve their deaths. That's the thing to bother me since this could be heard by the young children and they would consider these dastardly acts as normal. What explanations could I give to my own child if he would ask me questions regarding this issue? How would I debrief my students who experienced the event?
My Christian convictions are inconsistent with what's happening. Killers are not heroes and drug pushers/users are society's perpetrators. But killing is still a mortal sin. I would not point fingers because I'm also guilty of a lot of things but how could I not condemn these acts which could breed to more evil ones? What would become to a society when our future adults would put the law on their hands?
For now, all I could do is to assure those young ones who are still shivering that WE ARE STILL SAFE.
I need to build people even if others are "shattering" their faith.
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