Good riddance

Well, that didn’t turn out too badly. It’s ghoulish, it’s heartless, but many people didn’t mind that Abu Sayyaf cutthroats gave the government an opportunity to wipe out some of their leaders yesterday.

No tears were shed for the thugs we knew as "commander" Robot, Kosovo and Global. Our only regret is that Robot, a.k.a. Ghalib Andang, has taken his secrets to the grave. Now we’ll never know who else got a share in the $30 million that he earned from the Sipadan kidnapping. Some crooks can now heave a sigh of relief in their mansions.

Kosovo, a.k.a. Hassan and Alhamser Manatad Limbong, was accused of bombing the SuperFerry 14 in Manila Bay last year. Survivors and relatives of the dead and missing – over a hundred of them – are surely applauding his demise. Also applauding are the victims and relatives of those who died in the raid on Dos Palmas in Palawan that was followed by a yearlong hostage crisis. Kosovo was reportedly the one who decapitated American hostage Guillermo Sobero and was among the tormentors of American missionary Gracia Burnham and Filipina nurse Edibora Yap. Global, or Nadjmi Sabdula, for his part, was implicated in both the Sipadan and Palawan kidnappings.

Ideally, the three Abu Sayyaf commanders and the other dead inmates should have been tried quickly, convicted and sent to the lethal injection chamber for multiple murders and kidnapping.

This, however, is an imperfect world, and the Philippine criminal justice system is such that Robot would have developed gangrene and lost his remaining leg before final judgment could have been handed down on his case. Or else the three bandits would have attempted another jailbreak and succeeded before they were ever convicted.

And so as gunshots and the pops of tear gas canisters were heard on TV yesterday morning, people cheered and hoped government forces would finish off all the crooks.

* * *

Most people had expected the assault to start before dawn yesterday, when all the politicians and some of the journalists would have been asleep. As early as Monday afternoon SWAT teams were already grumbling that they were ready to launch the assault but politicians kept holding them back.

That was just as well, because in the end even negotiators from the Muslim community endorsed the assault after it became clear that Kosovo and company had no intention of surrendering and only wanted to leave jail.

During the standoff the usual jokers were busy spreading macabre anecdotes by text. Most indicated a desire to get the crisis over with by eliminating Kosovo and the others. There was speculation on the best weapon to end the standoff. Tear gas? How about poison gas? Send them cassava laced with pesticide for dinner.

Yesterday morning government troops finally obliged, shooting their way into the detention center. The assault, launched with deadly precision, took out all the ringleaders of the jailbreak, plus several others holed up with them.

Among our favorite jokes as the standoff ended: Philippine National Police chief Arturo Lomibao ordered the assault after Kosovo and company included among their demands another six-month extension for retired PNP chief Edgar Aglipay.

Lomibao in fact kept his hands off the crisis from the start last Monday until the assault yesterday.

There was speculation that the attempted jailbreak was meant to embarrass Lomibao since it coincided with his first day in office, just as the escape of Indonesian terrorist Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi from Camp Crame in July 2003 was meant to embarrass new PNP chief Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. I don’t think this is purely idle speculation, but any investigation of this angle is bound to lead nowhere since ranking police officers themselves would have to be implicated.

Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes, whose department has jurisdiction over the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, instead faced the heat over the attempted jailbreak, taking command of the crisis as his critics pointed out that it was his problem in the first place.

And so it was also Reyes who reaped the congratulations after the successful assault yesterday, although he made it a point to give the credit to the assault teams. I doubt if his moment of glory would endear him to his enemies, who are determined to sit on his nomination as secretary of the interior until President Arroyo gives up and dumps him.

Reyes’ memorable quote yesterday: "The execution was done in an exemplary manner." Nope, that was no text joke.

* * *

As we laugh at the jokes and grin over the conclusion of the standoff, we wonder: Will lessons be learned from the aborted jailbreak? Don’t count on it.

The best that we can expect is that terrorist commanders will now be segregated from their foot soldiers and handled with more care by jail guards.

There will be no increase in jail and prison budgets, although we’re bound to see another congressional investigation to find out all over again what everyone has already learned from media saturation coverage of the crisis.

Nothing can make the wheels of Philippine justice turn faster, so forget that Abu Sayyaf leaders’ demand to speed up their trial.

The nation is sorry for the dead jail guards at Camp Bagong Diwa, but it can’t be denied that our detention system needs to be rid of lazy, incompetent and corrupt jail guards. This isn’t going to happen overnight either.

While waiting for reforms that are unlikely to be implemented, we should all brace for more terrorist attacks. The government is trying to downplay the threat, but it would be foolish for our troops not to anticipate Abu Sayyaf retaliation. After all, Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani is still out there, touching base with some elements of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, widening his group’s reach by teaming up with the Southeast Asian terror cell Jemaah Islamiyah.

There will be time to worry about the consequences later. For now, jokes are being passed around, hailing the deaths of notorious cutthroats. The widespread public sentiment, as images of the dead Robot and Kosovo are flashed on TV, is good riddance.