By Dr. Lorraine Marie T. Badoy

There is a time to be silent. And a time to speak up.

When the very institutions and people mandated to protect us are the very same ones that bend and break our laws with shameless impunity and who have made it clear to us that our country is no longer a country ruled by laws but by the whims and caprices of powerful abusers, then the time to be silent is over.

Silence means we are complicit in these great crimes perpetrated on us as a nation.

The excessive force used by fully armed police on unarmed innocent civilians and the breaching of private property led by Gen Nicolas Torre under the express orders of DILG Secretary Abalos and no less than Bongbong Marcos himself is a dark blot on an institution marked with heroism and built on the blood of the sacrifices of the men and women of the Philippine National Police.

And if we speak up but do not go high enough to hold Bongbong Marcos accountable, it is better that we fill our mouths with stones so that none of that obscenity will come out. The insult we feel goes right to our collective souls, and to not acknowledge the author of this travesty is to wound us further.

There are a lot of guilty ones who have abused their authority and stepped on our most sacred rights in the tragic and horrifying KOJC assault by state forces.

But there is none more guilty than Bongbong Marcos.