Cotabato City is a good place to live in despite the war and atrocities perpetuated by evil and wicked men. This little town where people know each other by their first and nicknames. This city where everybody is either a relative or a friend. I was born in Cotabato, so was my mother, grandmother, great grandmother and their ancestors before them. I can go to a store, forget to bring money yet come home with the merchandise I want to purchase. I can even return the merchandise if I don't like them. That's how close and trusting are the people here.
But there are incidents that stain the good and simple life here - Violent murders and atrocious kidnappings for reasons of greed and lust. These deeds perpetuated by evil and monstrous people give an ugly mark to the good name of their faith. What kind of culture do they really have?!
I am angered by two incidents recently:
One was the murder of my kumpadre Bert Padlan. Everybody knew him as a jolly and kind hearted man. And he was kind of sick lately in 2008 but he was summarily executed, shot in the head while driving home in broad day light by two hired killers on a motorcyle for some reason nobody knew. There were wild speculations but one could not think of any other reason at all for that senseless cold blooded murder.
And the most recent one was the kidnapping of businessman Mr.Wilson Tan. There were tips already as early as December that they were going to kidnap one from the Tan family. But which Tan family? There were many Tans in the city. Some even mentioned about kidnapping a girl studying at CCI, but there were many students in CCI. Everybody had to be careful just the same.
Then last Wednesday was it, Wilson Tan or Kokok as he was known to many was driving his family home from school. Two of his children were sick, so only two went to school; a 12 year old boy Regan and a ten year old girl Jennifer. The wife Janet was also in the car as both were hands on parents to their children. Unknown to them, 7 men in big arms were waiting for their arrival at the gate's premise. When they reached the gate, the armed men pointed their guns at the security gate keeper. They broke the car windows with their arms and forcibly took their daughter Jennifer. The mother hysterically hugged the girl tightly but she was hit at the nape with a gun. (The boy Regan was quick enough to ran away from the kidnappers and hid at some near by places.) Jennifer resisted to be taken away but she was dragged and kicked into another van by the thugs. When the father saw that his girl was going to be taken away, he meekly submitted himself to go with his daughter. And so both father and daughter were taken to the Tamontaka (not Kakar) river to go to the monsters' lair. They are still being held by the kidnappers as of this moment.
All of Kokok and Janet's children were my pupils at St. Martha School. (We have now all transfered to CCI.) Infact their youngest daughter Janelle is currently one of my pupils in Kinder II and she has been absent from school for a week now due to sickness. I really prayed for them when I heard the bad news. At the same time, I was touched by the gallantry of the father. Something very noble came out from a bad situation. I hope his gallantry will have shamed the evil hearted people.
Congratulation! My daughter-in-law Angel graduated MS Chemistry from De La Salle University last February 7. We were very happy for her for achieving that academic milestone. Congratulation Angel!!! She was and is really brilliant. She passed all her comprehensive examinations despite her being in that difficult early stage of pregnacy. ( I could hardly imagine myself passing inorganic chemistry in college! hahaha! ) Although we were not in Manila to celebrate with her, yet we were truly happy and proud.
