“He was still trying to say something…We still rushed him to the hospital…We couldn’t understand what he was saying anymore, but I think he was entrusting his children to us…”
*William was a 38-year old binatog (white corn kernel) vendor, who left behind three boys when he was shot and murdered at a neighbor’s wake while playing cards on March 29, 2017.
According to his sister **Philomena who was present when William’s remains were exhumed yesterday, Feb. 28, 2022, the gunman calmly and slowly walked up to him and shot him point blank, leaving him in a pool of hot blood.
‘Like a sick dog’
For the first time in five years, his loved ones have William’s mortal remains once again, thanks to Project Arise under Program Paghilom which helps drug war victims have their loved ones’ bones exhumed and saved from getting discarded into a mass grave together with other unclaimed remains.
Even in death, indignity seemed to follow William like a sick dog.
Because his apartment-type tomb was piled high on top of two other tombs, the sepulturero (grave digger) yanked his partially rotten clothes and bones onto the ground like a mound of unwanted garbage.
Strangely, lying in the dirt and decay were playing cards, the last items William touched the night he was murdered.
A sorry heap of femurs and shattered rib bones, decomposed rags, and cement debris came crashing down.
It was definitely a rude awakening.
Project Arise’s mission
“Kuya, pwede po bang ayusin naman natin?” Fr. Flavie Villanueva, SVD, the founder of the Arnold Janssen Kalinga Foundation which runs Project Arise, was caught unprepared by the unceremonious presentation of William’s bones.
Minutes before, Fr. Villanueva had just blessed the tomb and said a short prayer, with William’s sister, niece, son, and curious onlookers present.
Strangely, lying in the dirt and decay were playing cards, the last items William touched the night he was murdered.
The cards had been sealed with him in his simple wooden casket.
The layers of thin cardboard have proven more sturdy against the passing of time and the force of the elements.
A decent resting place
Like the card, William’s memory seems immortal—at least for his eldest son, now 15.
A lanky boy with sad eyes, ***Pio was 10 when he first heard the news of his father’s death.
He remembers little, except that his first reaction was to start crying.
Pio vows to take up criminology in college to solve the puzzle of his father’s death.
Who bothers with the Williams and Pios of this world?
A precious few.
If you’re interested to help victims of the drug war secure a decent resting place for their loved ones’ remains, send us a message via [email protected]