All-out justice or all-out war?

Nineteen  is a number people should not forget. There were 19 soldiers who were killed a little more than a week ago in Al-Barka, Basilan  many of them perhaps not much older than 19 years old. All young men about to start or just starting their families. One of them was Second Lieutenant Jose Delfin Khe, a graduate of UP Los Baños and member of PMA Class 2010 who was planning to get married. Khe and his fallen comrades were given full military honors and will be posthumously awarded the Gold Cross and military merit medals, but to their grieving families and loved ones, no amount of honor or commendation will ever be able to bring them back and worse, take away the pain of losing them. “I don’t need a dead hero,” Khe’s mother lamented  a sentiment shared by the bereaved parents, widows and young children of these young soldiers who sacrificed their lives for our country.

This so-called “war” in Mindanao has been going on for over four decades, perhaps even centuries, with no end in sight for the suffering inflicted on the people living in combat zones. The region once touted as the Philippines’ “bread basket” has become a no man’s land not only for locals but for foreigners as well, kidnapped and murdered by lawless elements conveniently using ideology as an excuse for their criminal activities.

Opinion is divided on how government should respond on the Al-Barka situation. P-Noy declared “all-out justice” for the slain soldiers based on “rules” and in keeping with the objective of continuing peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) from whose ranks comes Dan Laksaw Asnawi  the 114th Base Commander in Basilan who has managed to evade “justice” and is being pursued by the armed forces for his involvement in the beheading of 14 marines in 2007. On the other hand, there are those calling for an “all-out war,” remembering the time when military forces under Joseph Estrada as Commander-in-Chief razed the MILF stronghold of Camp Abubakar.

For Erap to engage in an all-out war against the rebels is not surprising considering his character as being a “macho man” who will not back off from a fight and will grind his enemies until they are begging for mercy  akin to the roles he played in movies like “Asiong Salonga.” In contrast, Noynoy seems more circumspect, due perhaps to his experiences during martial law where he felt his father was unjustly incarcerated, the reason, some say, why he has a strong distrust of the Supreme Court with whom he has been at loggerheads lately.

In fact, when P-Noy appointed his first justice to the Supreme Court, Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, he had only one marching order: “do what is right.” Which is why now more than ever, government should “do what is right”  and just  by giving our soldiers all-out support in terms of hardware, equipment, logistics and moral support. While it may be true that the military has lost its taste for adventurism, that does not dispel the continued “murmurings” (a term to describe dissatisfaction among soldiers) especially among the front liners who were surprised and hurt by the immediate relief of Col. Alexander Macario and Lt. Col. Leo Peña who headed the Special Forces in Basilan even before a full investigation had been conducted.

“Operational lapses” are being blamed for the Al-Barka debacle with the MILF insisting that the military operation was “illegitimate” and that they encroached on MILF territory, euphemistically called “Areas of Temporary Stay” (ATS). What? I thought we have only one Republic! The fact is  these ATS have become safe havens for bandits and terrorists, many of them MILF commanders who can be conveniently disowned as renegade members the minute their criminal activities are exposed, an intelligence officer working with Americans correctly pointed out. For many, it is simply unthinkable that the military has to ask permission first from a separatist group to go after criminals  the same ones who beheaded, mutilated and desecrated the bodies of other soldiers in previous encounters, the most recent of which was in July this year that resulted in the death of seven marines, five of them dehumanized and beheaded.

What also rankles especially for the families of the slain soldiers is the revelation that government gave P5 million to the MILF as part of an “institution-building capacity measure.” Chiz Escudero’s demand for an explanation as to why government gave the money and how it was used  coming on the heels of rumors that the “donation” was used by the MILF to buy guns  guns that more likely than not will be used against the military, is absolutely correct. If one were to apply the logic of the law, only the military (and the police) are authorized to carry firearms. And if a popular movie star like Robin Padilla can be incarcerated for carrying an unlicensed gun, then why not those armed groups in Mindanao who use their weapons to kill our young men in uniform?

When all is said and done, there is no question that the government must and should negotiate only from a position of strength and show its political will in seeking all-out justice for the slain soldiers  even if it means engaging in an all-out war against those responsible for the death not only of Delfin Khe but for the countless others who, no matter which way you look at it, were on the right side of the law  and paid dearly for upholding it.

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