MULLING OVER THE MAMASAPANO DEBACLE

                                                 

Mulling over the Mamasapano debacle, I cannot help but shake my head, and feel my chest  heavy as if I am losing air.  

For a measly P240 per day as their hazard pay,  soldiers (I include police   forces as soldiers although they are civilian )  are putting their lives at risk. I nearly fell from my chair when I heard it. Hey, I would invite them to join me in networking instead, Folks. They would be going into a healing not a life-killing occupation.

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But let me state this: I think I have enough knowledge of how the government works, whether in the military or government bureaucracy.  From my watching of the Senate hearing on the Mamasapano debacle,  I  can see now how some leaders really acted like bureaucrats  at  the very crucial period when lives were already being lost one by one in the fight of the Special Action Force against the MILF and the BIFF, so different from those who are in the field. Military bureaucrats talk of "coordination" and hold meetings  at some rooms whereas rank-and-file of immediate support in the field to save lives. 

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This is the biggest blunder of all  -- how the bureaucrats clung to paperworks and  so-called "peace process" while the uniformed men were asking for fire cover in order to survive the battle.

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Hearing the details of how the SAF lives were endangered, I felt very bad. I did not know that soldiers would be this difficult to send to the field. All along, I have been assuming that when there are critical periods,  especially when an international  terrorist is in our  country, they should always be ready to have plans a, b, c together with the soldiers, tried, tested and trained well,  who would be sent away to the battlefield.

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When war is going on, there should no longer be questions whether it was coordinated or not. Nothing of that sort at all. I believe that immediately, the plan chosen would be executed right away, all the supplies and ammunitions for them ready to be launched and sent, and the soldiers equipped, trained, and strong enough to tackle their duties.Since 300 trained terrorists in our country. So all military and police agencies have to  be on their toes -- ready to respond to calls for help -- whether to  hunt, arrest a terrorist or  quell a rebellion.


Shouldn't that be the way to deal with terrorists?


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Now it can be told, that all this while, the peace process merely centered on paperworks without regard to democratizing Mindanao. The program looks good on paper, but when viewed against reality, it is simply that -- a piece of paper. All this while, the women and children have been victims of wars, pawns to political battles among warring groups. Etta Rosales, Commission on Human Rights Chair reported that children have stopped schooling down there in that Mindanao area where the battle occurred. I can imagine them having nightmares, seeing headless bodies, bloodied and chopped up and not having anymore that ability to concentrate on their studies. Only the armed have real power -- whether for use in cruel or good ways, I would not know.

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Yes, the Mamasapanao incident was a rebellion -- a pro-terrorist act down there, to avenge the life of Marwan. Their teacher had died and so they were angry and so heavily sought to wipe out, gun down and mutilate the bodies of the SAF men who went there in order to fulfill their duty to save the country, us, our lives. 

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A terrorism student who looks up to  the teacher as  the one giving him or her that self-esteem  to be a good terrorist, (Marwan must have been a good motivator) would naturally hate anyone who would snuff out his life. But if the student knows that there are possibilities for other kinds of life in our society, I doubt it  if Marwan's teachings would hold sway at all.  We must stop this penchant for carnage, this inclination to use arms to solve social and personal problems.  The only way to do that is to have extensive re-education of the population in Maguindanao and all of the provinces where terrorists hid and operate. We must have a concrete a program that will be operational and implementable right away. Time is of the essence. The CHR has to take a pro-active stance on this, aided by the Department of Education and all NGOs having the resources to do so.

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Most of all the three hundred trained terrorists must be neutralized by the people, apart from the State's apparatus. 

We must strengthen the resolve of the communities that only a democratic country will fulfill their dreams of a better life than what they are experiencing now. By then, we would have no need for a separate state anymore for the Moro peoples because we will have made them realize that life on earth is better democratic than authoritarian. This is also one way of making  them value their own lives, preserving their own aspirations and realizing their own dreams, after all.