Last Thursday, January 29, the remains of the 44 policemen murdered at Mamasapano, Maguindanao by guerillas from the Moro Islamic Liberation Force (MILF) and their cohorts in the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) arrived at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig for honors appropriate for heroes. Their comrades-in-arms, bereaved families, and friends were there. Sympathizers from all walks of life were there, too. Conspicuously out of sight was President Benigno Aquino III, the over-all head of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
President Aquino chose to attend the inauguration of a manufacturing plant of the Mitsubishi Motors located at Sta. Rosa in Laguna. In his speech before Filipino and Japanese officials of Mitsubishi, Aquino praised the car company’s role in the economic development of the Philippines. Oddly, Aquino also mentioned the tribulations his family underwent during the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos. Aquino likewise mentioned the intense public scrutiny his mother, Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, had to go through when she was president from 1986 to 1992.
Deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte justified President Aquino’s absence during that important occasion, saying that the event at Camp Bagong Diwa was not in the president’s itinerary, and that the car plant inauguration had been scheduled in advance.
Thousands of Filipinos condemned Aquino on social media. News commentaries on radio and television were critical of the president. Many observed that while Aquino had the time to attend the very recent wedding of filmdom’s Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera, he was not able to make time for the 44 new heroes of the country. Others reminded Aquino that when his father Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr. was slain at the national airport in August 1983, the Filipino people were there at the Aquino home in Quezon City to sympathize with him and his family at the precise moment when it mattered most – the day of their arrival in Manila from Boston.
The next day, President Aquino finally went to Camp Bagong Diwa to sympathize with the families of the slain policemen. Whether or not the visit was a mere afterthought on his part is anybody’s guess. What was unsettling was that despite the carnage in Maguindanao, Aquino continued to press his allies in Congress to rush the approval of the BBL.
Better late than never, some would say, but that excuse does not apply to President Aquino under the prevailing circumstances. As the over-all head of the PNP, it was Aquino’s duty to be at Camp Bagong Diwa upon the arrival of the remains of the murdered policemen, even if only to show his indignation at the beastly acts of the MILF and BIFF guerillas, and their wanton disregard for the so-called peace process embodied in the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) currently pending approval in Congress.
Was the inauguration of the Mitsubishi car manufacturing plant in Laguna so important that the remains of the murdered policemen were made to wait for a break in the busy schedule of the President? Aquino could have asked to re-set the affair in Laguna, or directed his trade secretary, or even a member of his family for that matter, to represent him there. Yes, Valte said the Laguna affair was scheduled in advance, but then was the massacre of the 44 policemen something that could be scheduled in advance like a car plant inauguration in the first place? Valte’s explanation is both patronizing and insulting.
As to Aquino’s speech in Laguna, his references to his family’s bad experiences in the 1970s and the 1980s were hardly appropriate for an occasion like a car plant inauguration. Did Aquino want to convey a subliminal message?
Even President Aquino’s praises for Mitsubishi as a longtime partner in Philippine progress seem rather misplaced as well. History reveals that the airplanes Japan deployed to bomb Pearl Harbor and targets in the Philippine Islands at the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific back in December 1941 were manufactured by Mitsubishi.
Why is President Aquino zealously pursuing the quick approval of the BBL despite the murder of 44 elite police operatives in the hands of guerillas of the MILF, the very group that is endorsing the hurried approval of the BBL? Why did Aquino speak of the hard times endured by his family in the 1970s and the 1980s at the Mitsubishi car plant inauguration? Why does Aquino use the word “peace” and its derivatives in his public announcements lately? Is Aquino eyeing the Nobel Peace Prize?
If President Aquino is indeed interested in the prestigious Swedish peace prize, he should put an end to the BBL soonest. The underhanded tactics of the MILF which led to the massacre in Mamasapano, Maguindanao has ruined whatever semblance of legality and public acceptability the BBL had. The incident has also exposed the pretentiousness and duplicity of the MILF. Why the Aquino administration insists on railroading the approval of the BBL despite these developments is a continuing enigma.
Giving in to the demand of the MILF (in this case the approval of the BBL) should be the last thing this outgoing administration ought to do. Any concession to the MILF at this point will be useless appeasement, and will not buy genuine peace in Mindanao. The lessons from World War II in Europe are in point here. In the years following the first world war, England and France wanted peace in Europe so badly that they went for appeasement – they tolerated Nazi Germany’s conquest of Austria and Czechoslovakia in exchange for a promise from Adolf Hitler that the Germans had no more territorial claims in the continent. Eventually, Hitler saw England and France as weaklings and went on to invade Poland. This ignited the inevitable second world war in Europe. Evidently, the peace purchased by England and France at the price of appeasement proved to be imaginary.
President Aquino wants peace in Mindanao at any price. This makes him an instrument of inevitable war and, therefore, unfit for the Nobel Peace Prize.