By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Diocese of Bacolod Bishop Patricio Buzon has condemned the recent murder of local activist Zara Alvarez in Bacolod City’s Barangay Mandalagan earlier this week.

In a statement, Buzon said Alvarez’s murder, as well as the other recent killings in Negros, are an act of violence and a “brutal” disregard for the sanctity of human life.

Buzon believes that “these killings violate the fundamental conviction that we are a society of laws and due process.”

These cases, according to him, “speak of the kind of society that we are sadly becoming – one that is desensitized by these almost daily killings.”

“As a people, we deserve a better society than one where hate and violence prevail and human life a disposable thing,” the prelate added.

Earlier on Monday night, Alvarez was shot dead by an unidentified assailant at Eroreco Subdivision in Barangay Mandalagan.

Based on information given by witnesses to police, Alvarez had just ordered some grilled chicken at the roadside grill when she was shot six times by the suspect.

The victim sustained wounds in various parts of her body, and was declared “dead-on-the-spot” by responding paramedics.

The Department of Justice is currently considering investigating the murder./DGB, WDJ