There seems to be an emerging consensus among government investigators that the killing of activist Victor Olayvar was the handiwork of forces operating outside the government establishment. This is diametrically opposed to what the victim's family and the left-wing groups believe in, that it was in fact a part of an elaborate operation that could only be undertaken by a well-funded and well-entrenched organization.

The angles being considered by the police probers include those revolving on the family of a New People's Army (NPA) liquidation. In the past, the police considered Olayvar's killing a possible NPA execution because he reportedly drifted from the official party line and also that he was a victim of an internal purge. To complete the contrast however, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), whose provincial chapter Olayvar led until the time of his death, and allied groups pointed specifically to the military due to the escalating unsolved attacks of activists in many parts of the country.

There is no doubt that more than just the race to get to the real killers, the process is made more complicated by the undeclared by logical propaganda war between the parties concerned with the killing. Caught in the middle is the confused and befuddled public who increasingly finds it difficult to tell fact from fiction, propaganda from raw data. These days, people should be able to make heads and tails out of the steady stream of information churned by each end of the ideological spectrum.

The players have little reason to complain. Those in the government apparatus are being paid, handsomely at that and with all the perks, to wreak havoc on a movement that it blames for all the ills of society. On the extreme end of the spectrum, the adherents of a festering insurgency that has undoubtedly seen its best years and clutching at straws to make something out of a lifetime of struggle. They are indeed hard pressed to keep body and soul intact. But they have no cause to complain since they embraced the revolution with open eyes and little compulsion.

It is a different story though with people who cannot seem to understand why their lives are made more miserable by a war that is not of their own making. As though the struggle to make a living is not enough, they also have to deal with the war without borders, a battle with no battlefields. The sad part about this is that not only because there will be no victors. It is sadder still because there seems to be no end in sight.