Smaller and smaller circles

After two days of investigating the dental records of the seven deceased boys, the results ended up with nothing and through that the priests realized that they caught a wrong man. Chapter thirty-three started with Father Saenz who was supposed to attend a faculty meeting but then decided not to go further because when he checked his mails he found a letter which was very suspicious. It had no proper stamps and a return address, thus, made him very curious about it. He hurriedly went to his laboratory and checked the letter. The letter contained with nothing written on it and tape was used instead of the adhesive strip to seal the letter. This triggered him and to investigate it because he knew that it really had something. The priests investigated the letter and found out that strokes on the letter were the same with the instrument marks on the chin bones of three of the victims.

The next chapter introduced the lives of the three children who were also victims. The lives of Noel, Lino and Enteng. Six out of seven victims were identified and they found out that these kids were all poor who lived in the slum area and were trash pickers. These matters were discussed during their conference meeting. They also discussed that they already coordinated with the Barangay authorities and thus, had placed surveillance on the streets especially during nights. One very early morning, Saenz went to Jerome’s place because he had found one thing that may help in finding the suspect-a weapon. The two of them investigated the weapon and tried to match it with the children’s wounds on their chin bones. The priests went to the mobile clinic and asked some questions to Jeannie and Alice who were regular workers there. Father Saenz took out the envelope that he received not too long ago; he showed the envelope to Jeannie and Alex. The two women said that the handwriting was Alex Carlos- whose full name was Alejandro Benitez-Carlos Jr. who was also an employee in the clinic. The priests tried to match their findings with the women’s information and yes they were right. Their findings really matched. They got all the information about Alex and even got information about his parents. The two fathers went to Alex Carlos’ parents from a distant City for an interview but then, they got nothing from his parents. His parents did not disclose any information about Alex. This is how chapter 39 ended.

While reading these chapters, it gave me a feeling of excitement and also it gave me a ‘ look’ in the mind of the killer itself. Since there’s already a suspect in the name of Alex Carlos revealed in these chapters, I also agreed to the strong feelings felt by the priests that he was certainly the one who did all the killings because my suspicions were also at par with theirs. I was stoked to know who the real culprit was and that I did not stop reading on Chapter 39 but I continued reading the story until the very end. But of course I have to reserve my reactions on the remaining chapters for the next reaction paper.

About the 7 children who were killed in the story, I realized that Philippine Police and the law enforcement authorities do not compile statistics on missing persons on a national basis. If a poor person dies it seems like the death of that person doesn’t really matter but if a rich person dies, his/her death becomes a big commotion. It becomes a hit in which almost everyone talks about it. The death of the seven children in the story, I think that justice was not served right away to these poor and innocent victims. These situations expressed negative conceptions about our status quo from the previous years to the current years. Such situations are not just merely a situation that can be found in the story but I think it is a way of F. H Batacan to deliver the status of our society that may still be relevant until today. And I must say that it really is that relevant.