WTF

I am not the type who cusses in public.

But I know now what it is like to be stupefied beyond words, to be reduced to utter incoherence when confronted with something unbelievably outrageous. One can only stare incomprehensively at the utter senselessness of it all and exclaim WHAT THE F*CK !?!

I do not have pretensions of being such an expert on how police matters should be conducted. I will also admit that I don't have insider information about the kind of evidence that was discovered, or lost, inside Ted Failon's residence in Quezon City. I don't know if he is guilty or innocent.

But this I know: He, his family, and his househelp do not deserve the kind of treatment that they have been getting from the police and from certain members of the media.

The day after the tragedy happened, I was surfing channels when I came across what seemed like a teaser for a discussion - a taped recording of a woman saying over and over again in an anguished voice "sorry papa, sorry papa, sorry na po papa." Then the anchors of the show started talking about the tragedy like it was an ordinary event, as if there were no children that were orphaned, or for that matter, as if there was no one grieving at all. They kept on playing the teaser over and over again. It was incredibly tasteless and grossly insensitive. Wtf!

Watching they way our police officials are managing the case makes one cringe in embarrassment and horror. This is what it looks like: It looks like they have prejudged the case and have already resolved to make sure that the tragedy is pinned on Ted Failon. In short, they have reversed that sacred dictum, that one about how everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. In this case, they've done the reverse - they seemed to have decided already that Failon is guilty as hell. The seeming singlemindedness and resoluteness is chilling as it has resulted in a reversal of the process. Instead of gathering evidence to make a conclusion, they have instead made a conclusion first and are now furiously backtracking to prop up that conclusion with evidence, most of which they don't have yet, but that has not stopped them from making irresponsible statements in public anyway.

Since it appears that Failon is impregnable, they have decided to make him pay for the tragedy one way or the other. Or at least his family. Or his househelp. Wtf.

Okay. Like I said, I am not prejudging the case. Maybe Failon is guilty. Perhaps not. But I don't think that what we're seeing today is a decent way to handle the situation.

F*ck. Forget decency. Let's just talk basic empathy. Or even basic respect. The man lost his wife. His daughters lost their mother. The siblings lost a sister. Don't any of these matter at all? Wtf, indeed.

Here we have police officials and media people saying that Failon tested negative for powder burns in the Paraffin test conducted on him. In the same breath, police officials shoot down the results of the test by saying tests like that are not conclusive anyway. Wtf. So what was the whole point of conducting it anyway? To get photographs? There's something just incredibly wrong in a set up where police officials publicly dismiss the results of a test when the results do not serve their purposes.

And as if the whole sordid mess is not surreal enough as it already is, in comes the honorable Secretary of Justice exclaiming on public television (referring to Public Attorney's Office chair Acosta): "She is crazy!" What kind of a justice secretary makes statements like that? And quite frankly, wtf, look who is talking!