Thursday, June 24, 2010

Whistleblowing

Lakmodin "Laks" Saliao, a houseboy of the Ampatuans, is the latest witness to step forward to testify against the family.

I wish that whistleblowing in this country would rise beyond defiant acts of revenge and self-preservation. Saliao himself said that he would have kept their secret (they raised him after all), but when he heard his life had just been put on the menu, he decided he would speak out--and very bravely at that. He put his name and face out there, effectively reducing Koala Boy to Kung Fu Panda, the stuffed toy.

When the massacre was being planned (all within his hearing), the minutes before it happened even, as he he heard father and son discussing details as if they were talking about the weather, did not the lives of others -- the snuffing out of them -- push him to speak? No. It was the threat to his life that did it.

It isn't courage then, is it? It's self-preservation.

When will we get to the point where we feel pushed to do what is right because we actually care about human lives other than our own?

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