Shocking

It is the kind of news that stops your heart cold, the kind that you can hardly bear to finish reading or listening to. I think many did not get a good night’s sleep on the evening of January 27, 2025, when the details of the brutal crime lingered in their consciousness. Many were shocked and in disbelief!

Carlo Camporedondo, 33, used a machete (the same machete he often used to cut open coconuts) to hack his live-in partner and his two children to death in the morning of the date mentioned above in Barangay Lutac, Naga City, Cebu. He is allegedly a drug user.

Carlo has three children. One of them was in school when the crime occurred. He could have been killed too if he had been there. May the souls of his partner Junelyn Jimenez (32), and his two children John Carlo (11) and LJ Camporedondo (two years old), rest in peace.

A normal father would do anything for his children or his family. He would defend them with his life. We've seen this in many fathers. They work hard to feed their family. They are more than being providers; they are the pillars. The family feels safe with the presence of a father.

This may be why some people want to see Carlo dead. In their view, he has no place in a civilized society. You must be sick to the core or high on drugs to commit such a gruesome crime.

Quarrels and misunderstanding are natural occurrences in families, but killing the people you are supposed to love and protect is an entirely different thing. What mistake did a two-year old commit to deserve such a brutal death? None.

Carlo must have been high on drugs.

The problem is that we all seem to forget that illegal drugs must be defeated at all cost. There seems to be a collective paralysis when it comes to fighting this evil.

Look at some of our politicians. They are uninterested about the issue of illegal drugs. They talk about other matters or issues that are safe. This may be because drug money helps during election. They may also be aware that they are already surrounded by people or supporters who are hooked on drugs.

Worse, suspected drug lords are running for public office, and they are sometimes seen as “heroes” because they also do charitable works. It will only be a matter of time before we become a narco-state, if we have not become one already.

Are we going to accept the drug menace as something we cannot anymore solve, in the same way that many see graft and corruption as natural? How deep have we sunk as a nation!

Is the current administration serious about solving the drug menace? Has it been able to sow fear in the hearts of drug lords, drug pushers, and drug users? The answer is no.

Whatever claim BBM and his admirers may make about their victory against the drug menace, what has been happening these days does not support such claims. You cannot blame the people if they continue to compare BBM and Rody Duterte in terms of their respective ways in handling the problem of illegal drugs.

I submit that things are getting worse every day. Drugs proliferate once again, and with a vengeance. Crimes will continue as long as we fail to address this problem.

How many more shocking crimes must happen before we find our collective will to defeat the drug menace? Think about it!