The State must assert, even in posture

It is essential in international relations and comity that each sovereign State is equal to the other. Mutual courtesy and respect is the essence of inter-state liaison, regardless of the disparity in economic affluence and development, in military power, and in influence.

The United Nations Security Council principle of the veto power accorded its permanent members approximates such universal comity. Such selective veto power also betrays that strictly viewed, there's no absolute inter-State equality even in the UNO.

It's a given that a State dealing with a subordinate political or geopolitical non-State body, however self-assertive, has to exert its ascendancy, including its posture. They are not on equal footing; otherwise, the State forfeits its sovereign power and authority.

Thus in the case of the Philippine State - not just the government - vis-à-vis the brash Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the former through its present leadership has unduly subordinated its status right from the inception.

For one, the MILF deigns itself equal to the Philippine State through the Government of the Republic of the Philippines, condescendingly shortened as the GRP; whereas, boasting as the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity, a euphemistic self-claim of equal juridical personality.

For another, the MILF leaders behave and talk like sovereign rulers to the extent of twitting the Supreme Court's TRO of the flawed MOA signing as just an internal matter to the GRP. And, for them, the initialed MOA is a done deal, such that, should the Philippines not sign the MOA, the MILF "reserves the right to wage war". What a treasonous audacity!

Meantime, PGMA appears afraid of the MILF that she vociferously disclaims all-out war with them. She carefully chose her words that the on-going retaliatory campaign in Mindanao is directed only against the MILF renegades of Ameril Umbra Kato, Alin Pangalian, and Abdulrahman Macapaar (Commander Bravo) who massacred 47 civilians and soldiers in three fronts in Mindanao and elsewhere along their wake.

MILF leaders Ebrahim Murad and spokesman Eid Kabalu conveniently wash their hands off the savagery of their subordinates… Incidentally, why waste the AFP howitzer cannons and mortar ammo against non-stationary targets, and a rebel force sight unseen? What kind of military tactics is it wherein war materiel is wasted without a definite MILF lair, say, a fortification, a rebel camp, or a particular battlefront?

Even children who watch tv footages get perplexed why the firing of howitzers and mortars directed at no known enemy targets. Observers have also noted the summary of the first 3-day military campaign by AFP chief Gen. Alejandro Yano boasting of capturing no less than 15 MILF camps. Nowhere is any mention of enemy casualties, or captured, or armaments seized. Abandoned rebel camps hardly qualify tactical advantage, some pyrrhic victory, if so.

Why should the State coddle the MILF, and continue inviting them to the fold when their irreverent leaders are very belligerent? Why treat them with respect and obvious fear, with such submissiveness like a cowering dog with its tucked tail, and openly profess: "The government won't declare an all-out war with the MILF"?

Perhaps, with the government still in tenterhooks despite the unabated savagery against the civilians, the only option left to the victims is the revival of the Ilonggo Ilaga vigilantes. Ilaga commanders Manero, Toothpick, et al. are reportedly left no better choice. One paper has already displayed a photo of Ilaga vigilantes with assorted firearms ready to do battle. A widowed housewife has spoken for the victims that even she is willing to take up arms against the MILF. And so, a bit of history is bound to repeat itself in Central Mindanao.

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