Rest in peace, Clarence...

I received really terrible news yesterday morning.

Work friend Engel DM'd me via Twitter that our colleague Clarence was robbed and stabbed to death by by two guys in his own home Saturday night.

I was walking to Greenbelt when I read Engel's message.

After reading his message, I felt my knees wobble and my heartbeat go faster.

It can't be.

Clarence was one of the few people I know from Engel's department (their unit is the other team occupying the floor where my department is). He's always smiling. He's a very nice guy. He's funny.

Whenever we'd see each other along the hallway, we'd always say hi to each other and even stop for some small talk. There was a never moment that he didn't have a ready smile on his face.

So the news of his passing, and in such an inhumane way, was just really hard to believe.

You see something similar in tabloids every day, but this was too close to home.

And I'm sorry but I'm angry at how some of the tabloids wrote the news.

In particular, two tabloid articles had the following titles - "Bading kinatay ng 2 kelot" and "Bading na bisor inatado ng 2 boytoy"

Whattashet?!

And I'm sorry but after reading the different news articles, I can't help but wonder why none of Clarence's neighbors bothered to come to his aid or at the very least, call the police.

All the news articles mentioned that the neighbors were already hearing some noise and commotion coming from Clarence's unit, but no one came.

Dahil ayaw daw nilang makialam. Writing this now, I can't help but get angry.

It wasn't until a neighbor saw blood creeping out of Clarence's unit very early morning that the incident was reported.

I can't help but wonder if Clarence could've survived, if a neighbor bothered to come check on him.

The incident happened late Saturday night. Based on the news reports, Clarence was stabbed not with knives, but with ballpen, fork and ladle. The thought of him bleeding to death, feeling the pain, and maybe even conscious as the world around him turned dark, is just too much.

If there is anything positive about the whole situation, it's that Clarence was smart enough to hide his phone and that he was able to take pictures of the two guys he was with. Good job on that, Clarence.

That should already help the authorities.

Rest in peace, Clarence.

The news here.