EDITORIAL - Duds

We have an air force that’s all air and no force. Now we’re learning that we have an army without proper arms. A scene captured on television showed the wretched state of the fighting men and women of the Armed Forces of the Philippines: Marines loading mortar rounds to provide cover for their colleagues who were trapped in an ambush in Basilan by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, only to find out – twice – that their artillery would not fire.

Fourteen Marines died in that MILF ambush, with 10 of them beheaded and mutilated. Body parts of the victims had to be collected and pieced together for a proper funeral. Some of the survivors are still in critical condition. Why the savagery? Only the MILF can explain. Since the ambush was staged to protect the separatists’ kindred spirit, the Abu Sayyaf, whose members were fleeing from Marines looking for kidnapped Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi, the MILF cannot toss the blame for the savage attack to any other group. MILF commanders, who seem to be the only members of their group interested in peace, have admitted that their group was responsible for the ambush. There was no fear in that admission; the MILF smells this administration’s desperation for a peace agreement. It knows the government will always come down hard on communists and their suspected sympathizers but will look the other way in the face of even the most brutal MILF atrocity.

The attack, staged in a province where the MILF does not normally operate, could have been repelled if the Marines were properly armed. They found out too late that their heavy weapons would not fire. Yesterday military officials ordered an inspection of all AFP mortar rounds – about 38,000 of them, bought at more than $100 a piece – as well as AFP artillery. The defective ammunition in Basilan could have simply deteriorated from exposure to the elements. But negligence and even corruption in supply procurement cannot be ruled out.

If we want our soldiers to risk their lives to fight enemies of the state, they should be given at least the basic weaponry for it. If they can’t get even decent ammunition, they should just file for early retirement before more heads roll, literally, in the next barbaric attack.