Appalling

The second most appalling thing, next to the massacre itself, is this administration’s lack of sympathy for the victims.

Forty-four of our best trained police officers were mowed down in the most barbaric fashion. Gunmen deriving perverse pleasure from cold-blooded killing finished off some of the wounded using captured weapons. Weapons and personal belongings were callously stolen.

For four days, the Palace maintained a bizarre silence. A news blackout was even imposed. Not even the President’s redundantly voluble spokespersons said anything remotely interesting.

At the highest echelons of an injured government, no one condemned the atrocity. No one spoke of exacting justice for this appalling massacre. No high official commiserated with the bereaved families of brave men sent to battle without adequate provisions.

The first voice we heard (before it, too, retreated into the orchestrated silence) was that of Interior Secretary Mar Roxas. Hours after the massacre, he parroted the words the MILF used in a thinly veiled attempt to mitigate an obvious act of treachery. He called the incident a “misencounter” – a word that does even exist in the English language.

How could a 12-hour gun battle possibly be called a “misencounter”? The ambushers had all the time to identify the opposing party, uniformed PNP personnel pinned down mercilessly in a cornfield.

How could rebels, blowing the brains out of wounded adversaries, be described as having strayed into a “misencounter”? How could these barbarians, looting the dead and distributing the loot among themselves, be described as party to a “misencounter”?

Mar Roxas insults our intelligence by parroting that dreadful and misleading word.

Calling this a “misencounter” insults the dead first of all. It suggests they stupidly walked into an unintended fray. It suggests they did not do the proper consultations and abide by protocol. It suggests they bungled a battle.

No sir! These brave men are not idiots. They are the best fighting men we have. It was the orders issued them that was wrong. It was the motives of the MILF that is dubious. It is the stupid vanity of the political leadership that wrought this tragedy.

Yesterday, the Manila Standard broke a story that might explain the curious behavior of our political leaders in the wake of this appalling atrocity. The story says the SAF was assembled for a raid by the suspended PNP chief Alan Purisima. It was an operation approved by President Aquino no less. In fact, Aquino was in Zamboanga City the day the massacre happened, not so much to commiserate with the bombing victims in that city but to take credit for the capture of an international terrorist.

Aquino needed some brownie points after the fiasco of a speech during the Papal visit. Purisima needed a feather in his cap to smooth his rehabilitation. The two conspired to produce a calamity.

There is a small technicality here that might be lost in the furor. How could a suspended police general be put in control of strategic PNP forces and in de facto command of a sensitive operation?

I am privy to the source of the Standard story. I would give that source great credence.

Over the next few days, our wounded Republic will bury its gallant dead. We must ensure, however, that the truth will not be covered up.

Junk BBL

Part of the bizarre behavior of our highest officials in the aftermath of the massacre was the repetitive insistence that this minor matter not get in the way of passing the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL). It seems the passage of this administration measure was more important that seeking justice for victims of an act of treachery, that talking about the passage of the measure was more important that sympathizing with the families of our brave policemen.

Senate President Franklin Drilon loudly pronounced that the proposed legislation will be done by March. Presidential Peace Adviser Ging Deles asked legislators not to let this incident get in the way of passing the faulty law this administration espouses. They all seem to be so out of touch with the sentiment in the streets.

It was not government eventually, but the National Transformation Council (NTC) that called for a day of national mourning to honor our heroes. The influential Association of Generals and Flag Officers (AGFO), through its president Ed Adan, issued a sharply worded statement asking our leaders to consider the long-term security repercussions of any measure finally passed in the light of what just happened.

I dare say the final casualty of last Sunday’s massacre is the BBL. Our gallant policemen will not have died in vain if this incident results in popular rejection of a flawed law foisted upon us by foreign powers.

The basic question this massacre brings to the fore is: Will we pass a law that gives these barbarians full control over territory, grants them the right to maintain their own armed forces and police and a separate parliament that legislates a distinct legal system?

After what happened, will we still continue to invest trust in this crazed movement? How much abuse should our Republic take from those with the avowed goal of diminishing the compass of its sovereignty?

There are many constitutional issues that might be raised against this measure the administration embraces obsessively.  Beyond that, there are the fundamental logical questions, such as: If the problem is economic exclusion, why insist on applying politico-administrative solutions that consistently failed in the past? Why not explore radical economic policies that will result in inclusion?