Another inquiry

For once, can’t we just cheer our police for a job well done and then move on with our business of living?

As it happens in this country, every major event that hugs media and public attention is invariably followed by, well, a Senate investigation. It is as if the Senate hearing hall is the Calvary to which we must all go eventually to be crucified by senators with a superiority complex.

Senator Manny Villar must have a press release template in his computer, with blanks to fill in depending on the news of the day. That template demands the sacking of the highest possible public officer to whom command responsibility might conceivably be pinned.

When a hapless Filipina domestic committed suicide in Lebanon, Villar called for the sacking of our ambassador to that country. When fanatical Abu Sayyaf captives rushed their jail guards, killing three of them and wounding two others, Villar called for the sacking of the BJMP chief.

Whenever anything goes wrong, it seems the solution is the sacking of some public officer.

I could imagine that many public officers in this country wake up each morning and say a small prayer that nothing happens this new day that might make it politically attractive for Senator Villar to call for their sacking.

Villar also announced he would, of course, call for a Senate inquiry into what happened.

Those of us who watched this drama unfold for 30 hours from Monday morning know more or less what happened.

As breakfast was being served at the Bicutan stockade, Abu Sayyaf detainees rushed at their guards and killed them, taking their firearms. From parallel accounts, it appears that these detained terrorists were planning to break out for months, even preparing safehouses to retreat to after a successful break.

When the terrorists tried to rush the gate, jail guards fought back gallantly, killing two terrorists. The suicidal escapees withdrew to their cell block and started issuing demands. A crisis management team led by DILG Secretary Angelo Reyes and including ARMM governor Parouk Hussin and a partylist congressman from Anak Mindanao began a long but ultimately futile negotiation for the surrender of the terrorists.

Tuesday morning, the crisis team decided the negotiations were heading nowhere. The assault was called shortly after 9 in the morning. In the aftermath, 22 detainees including all the top Abu Sayyaf personalities lay dead.

Monday afternoon, an assortment of kibitzers and armchair warriors were complaining loudly over various media outlets over the delay in the assault. They criticized the effort to negotiate with people they thought should be shot at the first excuse to do so.

I have my own theories about why the possibility of frustrated jail-breakers surrendering peacefully in the aftermath of a failed attempt was given so much benefit of the doubt.

First, because it was reasonable to expect that people who might be armed but hopelessly trapped in a secured stockade would come to their senses and surrender the firearms they grabbed. It turns out commanders Kosovo, Robot and Global are totally senseless. The noms de guerre these three characters chose for themselves should have given us an inkling of that.

Second, the crisis committee fretted not so much about the armed crazies they had pinned down but the potentially volatile public reception in the aftermath of an armed assault. It was important that the public be fully convinced all peaceful ways out of the crisis situation have been fully exhausted before armed action was undertaken. That was to ensure that rabble rousers will not exploit the assault to whip up more insane rage.

Third, every detail of the anticipated assault had to be planned out carefully so that the whole thing does not deteriorate into a carnage. Everything that might go wrong needed to be mitigated. Considering the terrorist personalities involved in this crisis situation, the whole world would be watching. A fiasco is out of the question.

Fourth, the crisis team had to be thinking about how they would explain the outcome before an inevitable Senate inquiry. This was such a high-profile event. It will undoubtedly attract grandstanding politicians much like dung attracts flies.

They say there are two things inevitable in life: death and taxes. In this country, there are three inevitable things: the third being a Senate inquiry.

In the warped political culture of this country, the role of the legislative branch is pretty blurred. Congress, through the pork barrel, disburses funds for a wide assortment of miniscule infrastructure projects. This might explain why our infrastructure program has been incoherent for decades and why retail infra projects take precedence over major developments.

Then Congress plays some sort of Big Brother role, looking over the shoulders of public officers and poking its nose into every executive decision. They cramp executive leeway and populate the bureaucracy with their political nominees.

The Senate, of course, functions as some sort of holding area for people who think they should be president. At every turn, these potential gladiators in the presidential arena need to prove they know better than the incumbent chief executive – which explains the constant friction between that chamber and the presidency.

Finally, lest we forget, Congress is supposed to be populated by the most curious of our race. They conduct inquiries into everything, supposedly in aid of legislation.

If our blessed legislators were not so burdened with their other activities, they might find more time to actually work on legislation.

Year after year, the enactment of the national budget is delayed. The legislative agenda is never fully delivered. Many of our laws are badly crafted.

Instead of conducting an inquiry into the Battle of Bicutan, it might serve the nation better if the legislators inquired among themselves why an anti-terrorism bill has not yet been passed despite the obvious need for it. If we had an anti-terror law, many of the Abu Sayyaf characters responsible for that bloody incident would be in regular detention rather than in that crowded stockade.