Learning from their dying

Employees return to their workplaces today and many students go back to school tomorrow and yet today is the official commemoration on the Catholic calendar of the “Commemoration of the Faithful Departed.”

This day is thus an apt occasion to remember not only our kin, friends and acquaintances who have passed on, but also the people who have become prominent in  society sadly because of the injustice or misfortune that marked their deaths.

There was Ellah Joy Pique, 6, whose body was found thrown of a cliff in Barili town, southwestern Cebu, after she was abducted and murdered last Feb. 8.

There were the dozen mourners in that town who died in August after a dump truck used in a funeral procession sped downhill and threw off passengers.

There was businessman Antonio Ouano of Mandaue City, who was shot dead in his car that was near the street that bore the name of his clan.

There was Rubirosa Tenchavez, slain by her own son, as Christian Lucky Dalangin admitted in an extra-judicial confession. He was high on shabu when he committed the crime.

In September, yet another son high on drugs killed his own mother, Virgindina Bantilan, who was pregnant, in Naga City. He also slew his own sister, Geraldine.

Fresh in our minds, of course, are the October deaths of Melinda Ponce and her children Ellaine Grace, Heather Joy, Emlin Bridge, who were shot by their father and Melinda’s husband Emmanuel, who also shot dead housekeeper Anastacia Deriega, 34, before killing himself.

These people are not related to us by blood  but their deaths stain the community  of which we are a part and enjoin us to work for a Cebu where violent deaths will not recur.

Such work does not end with the offering of prayers for  souls of the dead, or with the prosecution and conviction  of those who ended their lives.

Nearly nine months since the death of Ellah Joy, are our public schools safer and more secure from those who prey on children? Have local government units learned the value of routinely inspecting vehicles under their watch so that they will not take lives in freak accidents?

Months since the death of Ouano, are authorities any nearer to disbanding gun-for-hire groups in hiding? Are law enforcement groups tasked to flush out drug syndicates working to protect children from drugs that could turn them into murderous Mr. Hydes?

Are people starting to appreciate the wisdom of prohibiting civilians from carrying guns, which in a fit of rage they could use on their very own families?

Grieving  is  wasted on the dead, if lives  move on as if there were no changes to make.