If you run an Internet search for Maguindanao massacre, you will now get two results. This is a truly depressing piece of information. The Nov. 23, 2009 attack claimed 58 lives, at least 34 of them journalists. American non-profit organization Committee to Protect Journalists calls the 2009 massacre the single deadliest event for journalists in history. The loss of the SAF “Fallen 44” has been reported as the SAF’s worst loss in history. In all, at least 62 people died in last week’s clash. At this point, it needs to be pointed out that the MILF has objected to the use of the word massacre. After all, they point out, both sides had weapons. Both Maguindanao events, though, were not merely killings. Both involved what has been reported as atrocities.
Elsewhere on the news, the measles outbreak in California has school officials and health professionals worried. There were 644 measles cases reported in 2014. This seems a low number until you consider that from 2001 to 2013, the highest number of annual cases reported was 220, also the only year since 2001 when the number of confirmed cases topped 200. In fact, the total annual confirmed cases had gone above 100 for only four years in the period from 2001 to 2013.
Yes, bad things happen. Yes, a far less polite four-letter word normally occupies the space before the word happens. Here’s the thing. Much of our time is occupied with either managing the consequences of what happens or attempting to ensure only good things happen in the first place.
Causes
With respect to undesired events, whether managing post-event or managing for prevention, it is important to understand causes.
Many stories have been proposed to explain last week’s deadly encounter. These range from mission-related explanations to larger situational explanations. What is significant is that last week’s encounter occurred in the same area as the 2009 encounter. It has certainly been pointed out that the existence of well-armed private militias in Maguindanao contributed to the bloodiness of the encounter. It has also been suggested that a particular brand of fanaticism contributed to the particularly horrifying treatment of the victims.
The reality, clearly, is that something fundamental needs to change. There are those who believe that giving certain organized groups more power will fix this. That might be true. To the question of strife, safety and violence in Mindanao, most of my personal experience involves little stories. Most telling is a brief conversation I had with one of the ladies who sell pearls in those ubiquitous sidewalk markets. I asked the lady where she was from. She named a place in Mindanao that I knew from experience was one of those that you visit only if you had a local to keep you safe, and even then not if you look too much like a foreigner. I asked her how often she went back home. She said she didn’t. This, of course, stunned me. I could not imagine not seeing family and friends. She said she called them on the phone and sometimes they visited her. I asked her whether she ever meant to go back. She said no. She said that it is too violent. She did not talk about a violence that had to do with rebellion or ideology. She just said that it is a place where things too easily escalate to guns. In Manila, she said, people can get upset, but it almost never involves violence. Back home, she said, the littlest things can quickly escalate to bloody encounters. I can’t live like that, she said in the vernacular. There are too many guns. It’s too easy for people to kill other people. No one really does anything about it, she explains, not even the authorities. It’s almost expected. It’s just the way things are.
In the US, the 2014 measles outbreak was traced to travelers exposed to an outbreak in the Philippines. This, of course, involved mainly travelers who were unvaccinated. By the end of January 2015, however, the confirmed cases of measles had climbed to over 100. This means that the total number of cases of measles for January of 2015 had already exceeded the total number in a usual year. Clearly, something fundamental had changed. At this point, analysts point to parents who have purposely decided not to have their children vaccinated against measles. In turn, this trend has been linked to a now discredited paper falsely claiming a link between autism and the measles vaccine.
Consequences
Understanding causes is important not so much in order to determine how to manage consequences but more importantly how to manage for the future.
In the case of the US measles outbreak, one of the key underlying factors that need to be addressed is vaccination. The tragically comic problem is not only that many parents who refused vaccination for their children were acting on the basis of research that was falsified, it is that many people continue to believe that the research is true and that all of the information to the contrary is simply one big conspiracy to cover up the truth. Perhaps the measles outbreak will serve as a wake-up call. Or perhaps parents will wait until there is a death toll.
In the case of violence in Maguindanao, there are clearly many fundamental concerns.
The more disturbing question connects not to last week’s encounter but to the 2009 massacre, a term no one disputes. November 2014 marked five years. No one has been convicted. In fact, in January of this year, there were still bail hearings being held. CPJ reports that 90 percent of journalist killings in the Philippines remain unresolved. They point to this history of impunity to explain the continued violence.
It is tough enough to change things when leaders know what need to be done. Citizens need to be educated, convinced, empowered and guided. It is even more difficult when the leaders themselves seem confused about the way forward.
You can email Maya at integrations_manila@yahoo.com. Please like the Integrations Manila Facebook page or visit her archives atmanilastandardtoday.com/author/maya-baltazar-herrera/ or integrations.tumblr.com or www.mayaherrera.aim.edu.