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.  



 

LIVE!

                    
Listening to soldiers talk about their war is a very enlightening one. It shows us how they are so brave as to face every minute of the experience without regard for their lives. It is as if dying is just really a part of their work. This was how I viewed the Senate hearing on the Mamasapano massacre which happened today. 

I cannot imagine mytself in a battlefield at all facing a bunch of hotheads as the BIFF and the MILF, although the representative of the latter looked very respectable. But as the memories linger of how the 44 special police officers were butchered, I cannot help but turn away from the thought of serving as a SAF (Special Action Force) member. No, I am not cut out for actual wars. In fact, when Honasan and his party were conducting a coup against Cory in 1989, I was holed up in my room for three days just listening to the radio how the assaults were occurring and I could even hear the bullets being fired. After three days, I was ready to throw up. I felt very agitated and had wanted to get out, to breathe fresh air and wished very hard that the coup would end right away. 

I am so glad that Ebet my half-sister gave me a discount ticket to go to LA then -- where I met with my cousin Honesto V. and his wife. It was a breather and so I half-forgot the horrible experience by going to and watching Disneyland. Yes, fantasyland versus coups. 

Going back to the Senate hearing, I can deduce that the deaths of the 44 SAF members could have been prevented or reduced in number, had the AFP flown airplanes to scare away the rebel forces. The reason of the general not to send because of the peace talks currently going on makes me think that he has watched and played too many counterstrikes. It is easy to be desensitized by those games so that the deaths of the 44 did not produce any sense of urgency in him to help them live. LIVE!

On thinking of March 8 and Women's Month

Today, more than ever, we must guard against loving death, preferring death over living, and immersing ourselves in that necrophiliac culture of thinking about the after life over and over again especially as the Lenten season will start soon. 

Now I really wonder why our Women's Month is always preceded by the events leading to the Lenten week. By mid February, Ash Wednesday will be here and we shall find everyone thinking of the trials and travails of Christ. Actually, all year round, almost, I have been attending the Bible Studies Fellowship which allows me a deeper knowledge of the Old and New Testaments. In those books, we always encounter the life of Christ. And so to experience the Lenten season this early is too depressing for me. 

Ash Wednesday used to occur in late March but somehow it got moved to February, and so I wonder why. So, when we celebrate Women's Month, it doesn't seem too right anymore. We cannot laugh and enjoy being women because then those moods would run counter to what is expected of us to be for the Lenten season -- where and when we have to be thinking of the Passion of Christ. 

I should like to think that we, Christians must think of the Lenten days only from Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday. And on other days, we just need to think of the teachings of Christ, not how he was crucified. We need to think and practice Christian values of loving our neighbors, loving children, being theists, and peace-loving, most of all. 

So how should we celebrate March 8, International women's day and which happens to be the birthdate of my son, E.  Zigmundo III who died last July 28, 2014. Frankly speaking, I am at a loss for ideas on how to act on that day. 

Anyway, happy thinking, Folks. 


Emma

Caro Mio Excelencia Papa Francis, 

Tenemos un condicion mal en nuestro pais hoy. Tenemos fuerzas que quieren dominar no hay amor para humanidades basta ya tienen armas violentes. 

Por favor, rezan que nuestra pais tiene paz eternal. Muchas gracias, Guillermina 

Isang Panalangin para sa Pagkalinga sa Buhay

Mahal naming Panginoon, Maraming salamat sa pagkalinga sa aming bansa ngayong panahon na ito. Maraming salamat sa pangangalaga ng aming mga lupain bagaman maraming mga gahaman ang patuloy na sumisira sa mga yamang kalikasan at yamang lupain para sa pansariling kagalingan nila. 

Sa ngayon, nahaharap kami sa isang napakamaselan na kalagayan kung saan ay 44 na kapulisan ng Special Action Forces and pinatay sa Mamasapanao, Maguindanao. Malayo ang probinsiyang ito subali't ang aming mga napatay na kababayan ay nagtiis, noong nabubuhay pa sila na madestino sa lugar na yun sapagka't malaking hamon na dapat nilang harapin ang pagtulong sa bayan at sa ating mga kababayan para matamo ang katahimikan. 

Marami sa kanila ang maaari sanang tumira na lamang sa Kamaynilaan o kaya sa lalawigan nila at mabuhay ng matahimik, magnegosyo, magpamilya at magparami ng mga anak na magmamana ng kanilang maiipong kayamanan. Subali't hindi, ang mga miyembro ng SAF, na may edad 20+ hanggang 35+ ay namili ng buhay na napakahirap, ang humarap sa isang kaaway na ang alam lamang ay magdomina sa buong mundo, pumatay at mamatay para lamang makamit ito. 

Ibang uri ng pananaw sa buhay ang kanilang mga nakasagupa, kahit pa man duon sa huling asaynment nila. Sila ang mga lalaking pinanganak ng ang aming bansa ay muling nabubuhay sa ilalim ng isang demokrasya, 1980's, panahon ng pagbabalik ng demokrasya at pagpapatatag nito para hindi na muling bumalik sa isang rehimeng nanunupil ng mga karapatang pantao. 

Mahal na Panginoon, bigyan mo po sila ng katahimikan sa iyong sinapupunan. Tulungan mo ang kanilang mga pamilya, lalo't higit ang mga asawa, ang mga nobya at higit sa lahat yung mga nobya na may anak sila sapagka't ayaw muna nilang mag-asawa marahil dahil sa hindi pa nila kayang masustentuhan ng husto; ang mga magulang nilang inialay ang buhay ng kanilang mga anak ng buong pag-aagam-agam. 

Sana po ay maintindihan ng mga pumatay sa kanila ang mga kasalanan nila sa inyo - ang pagkitil sa mga buhay na kayo ang may bigay -- na ang pagkitil ng buhay ay hindi naaayon sa sangkatauhan, na bawa't nilalang ay may karapatang mabuhay. Sana po ay sumuko sila at magbago ng mga patakaran nila sapagka't hindi matatahimik ang aming bansa habang ang kanilang pilosopiya sa buhay ay nananatili sa paghasik ng lagim sa lipunan. 

Bigyan mo po kami ng mga opisyales na sensitibo sa aming pangangailangan. Bigyan mo rin po sila ng malawak na pananaw sa buhay upang hindi lamang mga papel ang kanilang hawak kundi sila ay makikibahagi sa buhay ng mga nangangailangan sa aming lipunan. Bigyan mo po sila ng mga pusong tumitibok para sa pagbigay ng tunay na katarungan sa mga napatay at maituwid na nila ng tunay ang daang tutungo sa isang makaDiyos, maka-tao at makakalikasang lipunan. 

Sana po ay wala nang magbububo pa ng dugo, magbubuwis ng buhay upang magarantiya namin na ang mga susunod na salinlahi ay may pagkalinga na rin sa buhay ng lahat. 
Siya nawa. Amen. 

Peace Process After the Slaughtering?

I don't understand this peace process that the administration is pushing for after the slaughtering of 44 Special Action Force men. It is so off synch to the times, irrelevant at this point, and insensitive to the feelings of the nation. Yes, the people of the Philippines know right away when injustice has been done. 
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We live in a humanized society and a dehumanizing act has just been done to the forces that is supposed to be the elite that is protecting the state, the SAF. So we expect civil faces to come to the negotiating table and then we will be forced to accede to their demands for "autonomy" or whatever liberal acts they want to be able to do in our country?

My dears, social change does not occur overnight. A people who have been used to living in the wilds with gunpowder and arms as their second or even first wives cannot be expected to follow the conditions on a piece of paper. 

That is what it is  - what this peace commission is doing. It is working on a piece of paper that is so easy to crumple that in a matter of hours, the major group that is supposed to be a major actor in the negotiations has just easily trashed. 

Before any negotiations for peace in order to set up a "state" for the Moro peoples are conducted, let us explore other ways by which we can integrate into our Philippine non-violent  life and let them learn how respect of the human rights of everyone is paramount in our society; respect of lives is honored; and how women ought to be treated with great gallantry and not as objects to follow men all the time and to be kept from view. 

Why do feel vehemently angry over this issue of peace negotiations? I was at the funeral venue of the SAF men and I could feel and see the seething anger of the families because their relatives did not die in a war where there should be rules for engagement but were simply butchered to death, their heads mangled so that some of the caskets did not contain heads but just a body with a uniform as one SAF member from the Cordilleras. 

No, Folks, the lives of Filipino men and women, and all other sexes deserve respect, whether in war and peace and we should not be nicey nicey to a group of people who time immemorial have made their trademark as anti-Christian.

Let us instead look over a cultural integration of the Mindanao tribes. Here are some aspects on which we can create festivals, exhibits, and tourism events:

Religion

costumes

jewellery

fish

banca displays

marriage, birthing, death burial customs

arts

women

history

tourist spots

music

weaponry

crafts

historical spots

Native drinks

sports

pagan festivals

horse racing competitions

scientific discoveries in Mindanao

food festivals

Before we think of such thing as a state, let us look at points of cultural convergences with our Mindanao brothers and sisters first. Let us have deep cultural exchanges that will showcase their lifestyles throughout all of the country so that we shall not perceive them only as a bunch of hotheads and bloodthirstry individuals out to gain a dominant position in our society. 

Being in a society needs their knowing also our own ways and manners of dealing with each other as a people. And if this is not happening now, it is only because some forces in society have been misusing their powers to cripple creativity and being nurturant in order to maintain their own position. 

Hallelujiah, we should stop this rigmarole. 

POST PAPA FRANCIS INSIGHTS 1

What makes Pope Francis refreshing in our midst is that his language is reeking with goodness. Everything he had said to us was for our own good, for the good of the poor, the streetchildren. It was not political; no he was nt campaigning for a political post -- that was why it was very refreshing and you could listen to him again and again.

In fact, I spent the whole Thursday and half of Friday listening to him. I only left the TV set last Sunday, when he was going to say mass at Luneta. No, I don't regret not having seen that because for me, what is important are his words, not the scenery.

Because I tried twice to get near him to get a good camera shot, I have first-hand knowledge of the kind of crowd-control that happened there, first at Roxas Boulevard and along Taft Avenue. I must say, we could still stand a grrueat chance of learning how to handle the crowd. I didn't like the push-overs, the "bahala-kayo-sa-buhay-ninyo" rule of watching for the Pope to pass by. No, there has got to be a more respectable way for the people to watch him, to revere his presence while passing by.

I am thinking of three-tiered wooden benches underneath the LRT where the women, the elderly, the pwds and pregnant/and/or mothers with children could sit down and watch, without having to hustle and jostle among the crowd. There we could sit down, and then when he passes by, we could even blow him a kiss. Not like those where we have to request again and again the girls to stop waving their hands because they are covering the camera lens, or tell the police guys to please squat down when he passes by so we could get a good view instead of their heads covering him as the Popemobile passes by.

Yes, the people were disciplined only because everyone was carrying a camera. And what is that? A very sensitive gadget that could be broken once dropped on the ground. And so everyone was respectful of each other.

Another way is for us to have sectoral shots with the Pope next time around. We could ask for a photoshot, groupwise. But maybe this is a great security risk. So we have to be satisfied with standees? Haha! It's good enough but if you have a video in your camera, then it isn't.

Anyway, I would like to write down some of my other insights again. Right now, I am still gathering my thoughts, Folks. Our UP HI batch 65 will have a reunion and I am so excited about it already. January 28, Grand Night, at Oasis, 169 Aurora boulevard, San Juan. Batchmates, those who are hibernating, stop and come over! For further info please contact Grace Tuason -- 09175260125. See you there!

POPE FRANCIS SPEAKS

 "Leave behind the self-interest that hardens your heart, overcome the indifference that makes your heart insensitive towards others, conquer your deadly reasoning, and open yourself to dialogue and reconciliation."

"The feminine genius is needed wherever we make important decisions," 

"When man thinks only of himself ... permits himself to be captivated by the idols of dominion and power ... Then the door opens to violence, indifference and conflict."

 "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" 

"We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel," 

 "I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security," he stated. "I do not want a Church concerned with being at the center and then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures."

"The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it." He also said that evolution "is not inconsistent with the notion of creation."

CARO MIO EXCELLENCIA LOLO KIKO Y PAPA FRANCIS

Buenas noches, Lolo Kiko. You soy muy alegria que su estan aqui para ver real retrato de las Filipinas pueblos. Perdon por mi Espanol pero yo quiero conversar en Espanol. Hay todos los ojos que leer mis cartas que donde yo soy.

Yo estaba alli en Roxas Boulevard esperanda para recibir bendicion desde su. Pero su PopeMobile estaba muy rapido. Yo pienso que su estan de pie delicado.

Yo quiero escribir porque aqui, hay los instituciones que Catolico permitir vestida de las mujeres que no hay moralidad contra Cristianismo Virgen Maria principio de modestia.Yo escrito pero no hay resulta. Entonces, la populacion es muy grande, sobra 100 milliones. Que horror!

Entonces, yo quiero, por favor, que usted hablan con principal escuelas de las mujeres y hombres que no permitir la moda que exhibir el muslo.

Tambien, yo quiero dar mi libro, Feminismo Cartilla en Espanol sobre igualidad. Yo quiero su mencion Virgen Maria, Mama Maria, entonces su da muy importancia de Mama Maria entre los Dios hombres.

A manana, yo lo doy. No puedo ir a Luneta para atender la misa porque yo tengo enfermo pero yo veo television todos los dias desde su llegar.

Hasta la vista, que en el mundo o cielo, no hay caso. Muchas gracias. Yo reso por su viaje sano y salvo.

Wilhelmina




 

ON WINNING OVER GUNS

Is it freedom of expression if we make fun of other people's icons of worship? If we pose ourselves as more superior than any other being in this world just because we know how to weave words, create a world of ideas, no matter how hurtful it could be?

The recent bombings in France point to a need to discuss the value of media practices all over the world. We need to because our lives are endangered by people who cannot argue, will not debate, and will bomb us out of existence if they  think that we have stepped beyond bounds. 

Along the same vein, we must accept the fact that we cannot win over guns and other arms. The pen, the mighty pen is puny in the face of bullets and bombs. We are simply human, that's all, not magical. We cannot explode and think that we can live again just like in the movies. Human beings are built not to last in the world of metals and powder. 

So what do we do in that case? Do we kowtow to authoritarian thinking? Do we curse no end and hope and pray that the other side will self-destruct? No, as we are in a better position to see things in their holistic perspective. 

I think that as media practitioners, as journalists, we need to nurture life and that means educate our readers, our viewers into seeing the world as a haven for their acquiring humane qualities that would allow them to live happily with themselves and their neighbors. It is Christian, so what? It is Buddhist, so what? Whatever religion or spiritual practice you may call it, it is still the most humane philosophy I can think of -- being nurturing of oneself and of others. 

Some would argue that "I hate fundamentalism and it should be deleted in this world." Now how do you fight an ideology? With another ideology that mocks the other who could have very low thresholds of patience over dialoguing and debating? No, we must find a middle way that will allow everyone to have peaceful lives. 

I sympathize with the families of those victims of the massacres in France. Now let us not forget also that the same dire incidents could happen again and again. So let us be more circumspect in our writings. Let us think and pray that all the minds in the world could think only of two words now -- peace and calm.