Death squads
What should shock the nation more is what is unfolding in the ICC, as evidence of the horrific killings of thousands of innocent Filipino civilians allegedly by Duterte’s “death squads” is being presented to a panel of international judges.
Even more shocking is that it was allowed to happen and cheered by thousands of Duterte supporters, and so few Filipinos spoke out against the killings.
Perhaps, the uncontrolled internet access that enables the sexual abuse of two million Filipino children in a year and continues to promote the online “Killing Games” is the “influencer” that has created this “culture of acceptability” in the population that allows and even ignores the violent crimes by adults.
The police in Tacloban linked the 14-year-old suspect to an obsession with an internet-based, highly violent mobile game called GoreBox. This features graphic gun violence, where players kill people with impunity.
There are tens of thousands of Filipinos who play the highly popular “Call of Duty” and others like “League of Legends,” “Counter-Strike,” and “Apex Legends.” The duty they are called to do in these horrible games is to kill people.
Are these games creating the culture of acceptability of deaths by shooting in the Philippines? The lethal weapon is a virtual, high-powered gun that moves on the screen and targets opponents who are being hunted. Then they fire and kill their “enemies” to earn “kill scores.”
Players — adults and teenagers alike — apparently enjoy the virtual “killing,” and see or feel nothing wrong or immoral with feeling pleasure over committing what is a criminal, albeit virtual, act. Is this what motivated the two teenagers in Tacloban?
Playing this killing game is a massive cultural phenomenon on smartphones in the Philippines. Many thousands of people play those games day and night. It may be immoral, but it is legal. There are “Call to Duty” killing tournaments, and similar games of gun violence are equally popular, where winners get monetary prizes.
Has this phenomenon of killer games created a population conditioned to accept and cheer on the killing spree of the “death squads” and teach our children that it is OK to “kill” people virtually? This lowers the value of human life and conditions the children to accept gun violence as a normal part of daily life.
The school shooters have told investigators that they were victims of bullying. Unicef reported that one in three children reported experiencing psychological or verbal violence and bullying inside their school. Roughly two in five children — at least 33 percent — reported being victims of online bullying and subjected to cyberviolence, which includes digital verbal abuse and unsolicited sexual messaging by adults and peers.
If this culture of violence continues and becomes more socially acceptable, Filipino children face a bleak future, and more street and school gun violence will erupt, as it has been in the United States, where there were 1,455 gun-related incidents in school, leaving over 350 teachers and students dead and more than 800 others injured between 2021 and 2025.
What needs to be done is to strongly promote the value of life and provide alternatives, and advocate values and educational-based games for the youth with tournaments and big prizes as incentives.
We can change our community for the better by opposing evil and doing good./PN
