Tata Selo ni Rogelio Sikat

"Tinungkod po niya ako ng

tinungkod... Ay! Tinungkod niya po ako
ng tinungkod." As I have read this part
and pictured in mind Tata Selo's face,
crying, begging and trying to explain
himself while his body's trembling from
all the punches he've got from the
police. I feel pity for him which makes
me think to create an ending for the
fiction wherein there will be a help which will come for him-an arbitrator, a lawyer, etc.
Tata Selo's a farmer and a father of Saling. He cultivates Cabesang Tano's land which was
once his. It happened because he pawned it to him when he needed. Sadly, it was being acquired
by the latter thereafter. When one have heard the story of Tata Selo, I am sure that they will pity
him because of what he've been through. But if they knew what he've done, that is the time
wherein there will be uncertainty on what they will feel towards him-if they'll pity him or not.
In that sunny and warm day, where Kabesang Tano hurt Tata Selo using his walking stick and
directs him to left the land, for he is old enough to perform such job. That is the day when Tata
Selo committed suicide.
Tata Selo have been through so much suffering which he doesn't deserved. His daighter's
mentally illed. He cultivates his land which he can't call his property. He's a farmer and that doesn't
mean that he's less than a human. He suffers too much and he can't do anytging about it. And that
time, wherein someone stepped on him, someone with power and affiliated with the government,
he committed homiscide by pulling the bolo on to the Cabesa.

I'm wondering if he have done the right action against the Cabesa- ending his life so
there will be a deduction in the number of evil living? If it is right to take someone's life just
because he wronged him?

Between the poor and the powerful, injustices prevails. The poor who've wronged the
powerful or the rich, especially those who has affiliation with the government, will suffer more than
how they've suffered already. And the rich and the powerful who've wronged the poor only did
compensations or through discourses for settlement of the case. With this, it seems that justice
favors only the rich and the powerful.

Christian Mosca
BS CA-3102 BLOG