I wrote too soon. In my article last Wednesday on this space, I wrote about how the American president was hexed by Russia-gate while ours was off to Russia to hug the Bear in friendly embrace.
It turned out that the Maute group and the followers of IS were going to have a deadly rendezvous in Marawi just as President Rodrigo Duterte was about to start a four-day state visit to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Talk about raining on our parade, with live bullets.
So the President canceled the rest of his sojourn and flew back, but declared martial law in Mindanao, from Moscow. And from there, grim and determined, he said he would be harsh.
Harsh may sound too much to the peace-niks here in Luzon, but harsh it must indeed be. To quote from Cicero, “how long must our patience be abused?”
* * *
I used to take long trips from our adopted hometown, Butuan in Caraga every time I and my family had the chance. We would drive from Butuan to the Surigao provinces. Or to Cagayan de Oro, and beyond, south to Bukidnon and Davao, west all the way to Dapitan in Zamboanga del Norte, stopping by several scenic spots, sometimes sleep overnight along the way.
On one such occasion, I asked the driver to detour from Iligan City to Marawi, so the kids could see beautiful Lake Lanao from the sprawling campus of the Mindanao State University.
Our driver had a quizzical look on his face and muttered why I would even want to go to Marawi. We had just had a fried chicken lunch in Iligan and were supposed to drive back to Cagayan where we would sleep overnight. But I wanted the kids to see Lake Lanao first.
It was around 4:30 in the afternoon when we were winding down the zig-zag back to Iligan from Marawi and I noticed how the driver was doing a fast clip. I berated him, but he answered back. “We are in Muslim territory,” he said.
“So what? We might have an accident with your speed driving,” I shot back.
He riposted, “Sir, we can’t trust the people here.”
I was saddened by the driver’s remark, which showed an utter lack of trust in our brother Muslims. I even told him his forebears were Tausugs who migrated from Sulu to the kingdom of Mazaua, which is now Butuan, pointing out similarities in their language but he was unconvinced. Soon we were down by Iligan Bay, and he had become relaxed.
I recall the incident as I monitored the events in Marawi from Taipei last Thursday. Senator Gringo Honasan rued, and rightly so, that there must have been a lack of coordination between the military who tried to capture Isnilon Hapilon and the local government units in the area.
Ground intelligence, he said, requires that the soldiers and peace-keeping forces get advanced information from the people in the area. True.
But then again, I would surmise that the military did not, like my driver from Butuan, trust the LGU’s such as the barangay leaders enough. That absence of trust between soldiers and the Muslim community proved to be a costly mistake.
For just as soon as their company-strength forces had opened fire, thinking they had cornered a few Maute gang terrorists, scores swept down from out of the woodwork in four other barangays, and fought them. Then the pillage began. In retreat, they captured several buildings and took hostages, setting fire to many establishments along the way. The theater of battle enlarged.
This is the version of a Muslim friend who lives in Iligan and who had relatives in Marawi.
Absence of trust.
* * *
Rather than generalize, though, we must isolate the terrorist elements like the Abu Sayyaf, the Maute, even the BIFF, from the entire Muslim community who simply want to live in peace and have in fact peacefully co-existed with the Christians who predominate in the Mindanao population.
And this Rodrigo Duterte, who as mayor of Davao has treated the Muslim community and the lumads with brotherly respect, fully understands.
But draw the line he must, and to borrow the Tagalog expression of the late Fernando Poe Jr., “kapag puno na ang salop, kinakalos.”
These lawless elements have sundered Rodrigo Duterte’s patience.
And to show he is determined to end the terrorism spawned by these lawless elements who prey on innocents, he declared martial law, and even threatened to expand its scope should the terrorists cross over to the Visayan islands, as they did in Bohol two months back.
The pessimists need not worry. They should just wait, watch, and support. They should pray.
For a while there is an absence of trust that yet pervades the Christian community in the other parts of Mindanao, our Mindanao-bred President fully understands the situation and the culture, even the historic roots of conflict.
He knows whose word he can trust. He can isolate terrorism from legitimate opposition. To the latter, he will offer his brotherly embrace, as he has shown in Davao and elsewhere. To the former, he will be harsh.
We shall overcome.