Justice and accountability.
That’s what it all boils down to with the universal anguish, pain and grief not only of the wives, children and relatives of the 44 police commandos, slaughtered by combined forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the breakaway Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
The whole nation is grieving. And now we know who was responsible for the botched operation. From Day One, suspended Police Chief Alan Purisima, the President’s former bodyguard during the term of his late mother, was on top of the situation gathering intelligence reports from the United States, about the terrorist Marwan.
And it is now too clear that it was Purisima who handpicked members of the PNP-SAF to go to Mamasapano town in Maguindanao, with the knowledge of only Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa as head of the Philippine Anti-Organized Crime Task Force and the President himself.
The President is commander-in-chief of the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Thus, the buck stops at his desk!
All things considered, questions remain unanswered: Why was the chain of command ignored in this operation? Why were PNP officer-in-charge Deputy Director Leonardo Espina and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas kept in the dark? And why was Purisima, already suspended for corruption charges and ill-gotten wealth, even put in charge in the first place? Isn’t this ground for another charge against him for usurpation of authority? And worst of all, why isn’t Purisima talking?
On the part of the President, it’s one blunder after another. This is a clear attempt to escape command responsibility. First, it took him almost four days to react to the massacre, giving social media an opportunity to speculate that perhaps the President was trying to pin the blame on his predecessor yet again.
With his wishy-washy reaction on the slaughter of the police commandos in the hands of a combined MILF-BIFF force, and his pitch for the continued deliberation of the Bangsamoro Basic Law in favor of the MILF, the President certainly made things worse.
The President also chose to attend a plant inauguration of Mitsubishi instead of honoring the dead upon their arrival at Villamor Air Base.
If former President Fidel Ramos, who also attended the Mitsubishi inauguration, was able to attend the Villamor ceremonies, why couldn’t President Aquino?
It all boils down to lack of sensitivity and empathy, attributes sorely lacking with the President. My gulay, no wonder that when he went from coffin to coffin at Camp Bagong Diwa to pray over the dead commandos, we saw on television many who didn’t bother to look at him even as they accepted the medals for the fallen heroes.
I also saw on television the pain, grief and anger of the wives and relatives. It is justice and accountability they seek more than compensation and the President’s attendance. By the way, the President was also terribly late for the necrological ceremonies.
During his speech, he talked about his own experience when his father, the late Ninoy Aquino, was assassinated. But what the relatives of the fallen expected from the President was resolve for justice and accountability. As a fallen commando’s wife said, “Give us justice, please, Mr. President.”
The sad part of it all is that all the President has been saying is that he’ll continue to go after Filipino terrorist Usman, assuming that Marwan was dead.
And now amid the outrage, Malacañang wants the nation to be calm. Yes, Mr. President, there’s need for sobriety, but there’s also need for justice and accountability.
Now, he is against a Truth Commission, which would be composed of respected and independent former Chief Justices of the Supreme Court, and other independent individuals. Why? Is the President afraid?
A Board of Inquiry composed of police generals to find the truth, my foot!
It’s like the police investigating themselves. It’s almost as ludicrous as the attempt of the MILF to investigate itself for slaughtering the police commandos with the help of the BIFF, supposedly a breakaway group. It’s plain “Moro-Moro.”
The MILF now says that it will never surrender the arms that members of the MILF from 44 commandos. So, what will the President do now? Continue dancing with the MILF?
My gulay, if the MILF wanted coordination (which could be translated to “permission” to enter what it calls its territory) so the police could arrest known terrorists, my gulay, what more if the BBL were enacted into law? It would be a republic separate from the rest of the country!
Congress must now rethink the BBL. I am, as everyone else, all for final peace and development in Midnanao. But, can there be peace with a group government cannot trust? It appears that the only people trusting the MILF are peace adviser Teresita Deles and head negotiator Miriam Coronel Ferrer.
In this connection, we are told that the MILF and government peace negotiators have agreed about what they call “decommissioning” or disarmament of the MILF with the surrender of firearms.
The Moros surrendering their firearms to government? That is a joke! They continue to receive firearms furnished them by their Malaysian patrons, who want nothing else but to make Mindanao their sub-state.
Granting the MILF surrenders its firearms, which is an impossible dream, how about all the loose firearms in the hands of the BIFF and other groups like the Pentagon gang responsible for kidnapping?
Deles, Ferrer, and even the President must be naïve to continue trusting the MILF, which has been proven to have forked tongues. And that’s basically their problem.
We have a President who seeks to want peace at all costs, and negotiators from Luzon who are totally ignorant of the culture and history of the Moros.