“It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man.” –Thomas Paine, “The Age of Reason”
Iloilo Press Club President Rommel Ynion is offering a P100,000 reward for anybody who can assist police in identifying the gunmen and mastermind behind the January 4 murders of Iloilo City socialite Mercedes ‘Gingging’ Nava and her companion Erwin Fontillas in Barangay Calajunan, located in Iloilo City’s Mandurriao district.
“Beating up a minor like Joaquin Montes, who is a Taekwondo black belt and an emergent psychopath, is more acceptable than shooting, in broad daylight with [a] .45 caliber handgun, 65-year-old Mercedes ‘Gingging’ Nava, who was unarmed and helpless at the time of her murder,” Ynion posted on social media. “This is cowardice at its worst – I am offering P100,000 to whoever can lead authorities to the gunmen and mastermind of this horrific crime.”
He continued: “The bounty should be higher, but that is all I can afford for now. I would like to urge moneyed Ilonggos to help me raise the reward to P5 million. We need to stop these criminals dead in their tracks. This is not a laughing matter, folks. If this continues unabated, the next victim could be any of you. Let’s stand up and fight this menace to our society.”
“Cowardice is a weakness we cannot allow to consume us,” the businessman added.
Patriarchal dominance
Men perpetrate about 90 percent of the world’s homicides and start all the wars because evolution has shaped men to become warriors. In addition, the murder victim was a supporter of such patriarchal dominance. Men are programmed to attack, destroy, and conquer; we always fight to keep power and, when without economic resources, we feel entitled to acquiring things by force.
It took two world wars and a post-industrial economy for women to obtain basic rights and opportunities.
Aristotle once said, “Actions themselves are not the source of immorality, but the character that commits those actions is,” meaning, an action is not judged good or bad based on the action itself but rather its relation to the virtue of the person committing it.
He offered two primary reasons why murder is wrong. It is an act of bad character as it illustrates the actor’s lack of virtue, which is what we are really punishing; second, regardless of how much virtue or vice a person has, an act of murder is an act of vice and, since both virtue and vice are habits, committing murder brings a person’s character closer to committing murder again.
Murder is only wrong in that it shows the immoral character of the assailant and, since such an act is a habit for them, one act of murder would likely increase the possibility of it happening again.
Respect for others
One would never imagine murdering another if they have respect for their fellow human being. Philosopher Immanuel Kant said we must treat others as the “ends in themselves” and not merely as a means. He believed, if we treat someone as a means, we are using him or her to benefit ourselves to achieve a final goal. However, when we treat someone as the “end in himself or herself,” we are giving their value for the simple fact that they are human.
Kantians believe humans should respect other humans on the idea of humanity as an end.
“I cannot, therefore, dispose in any way of a man in my own person so as to mutilate him, to damage or kill him,” Kant said.
One situation I would allow for someone to hurt or kill would be in the protection of oneself. If a family member or friend, or even oneself, is threatened by someone who may kill or cause severe injury then, yeah, I support the idea of using force./WDJ