Bandits in disguise

Why is ‘peace adviser’ Teresita Deles and ‘chief negotiator’ Miriam Coronel-Ferrer still there amid allegations that they are biased toward the MILF group and that they are misrepresenting the Filipino people? Why hasn’t the President shown some decisiveness on his part (seemingly unaffected by the pressure of the public or politicians) – in the battle to bring peace and order in Mindanao? Shouldn’t he be the first to say “Stop the BBL” until we find better solutions to peace?

What has gone wrong? After the Mamasapano tragedy didn’t we all wake up to the truth? It was the death of the 44 SAF that opened Pandora’s Box. Many started to look deeper into the BBL. We suddenly realized our fate.

In the creation of the Bangsamoro Basic Law why did the peace negotiators/ panel focus more on the demands of the MILF? Why did they offer Mindanao in a silver platter to the Bangsamoro people? Why are the members of the government peace panel very submissive to the MILF? Is there something we do not know about them? Why didn’t they consider the Christians in the area? Why did they propose to give such a big budget coming from our taxes? Why didn’t they protect the sovereignty of the Republic of the Philippines? Why?

My late father in one of his 2006 columns (just months before his death) wrote: “We must not be cowed by the ranting and threats of Al Haj Murad, chairman of the MILF, who is roaring that the Malaysian-brokered ‘peace talks’ could collapse unless the government takes them seriously. What this firebreathing Murad wants, obviously, is for the government to cede territory to the MILF – a big area which they can control like an independent fiefdom. The MILF has been insisting, moreover, that our Republic accept their demand that the principle of ‘ancestral land’ be recognized. Murad and his scruffy band must believe we’re all stupid, since once we accept this ‘ancestral land’ baloney, the MILF and their Moro cohorts will claim all of Mindanao as having belonged to their ancestors – and, sanamagan, there goes that neighborhood.”

This terrible state can happen if the BBL will be approved as it has been written today without changes. Mindanao will be a land where terrorists can easily go in and out preparing for their next targets and setting up a training ground for such. Then after Mindanao, they will begin to occupy the other islands and islets of this archipelago. We will see armed men freely roaming the streets of the metropolis, sowing fear everywhere. And with the BBL approved, our government cannot do anything about it anymore because it has become a law. We don’t even have a law on anti-terrorism and here we are protecting the terrorists. Sanamagan!

The BBL has way too many snags in it. It has cuddled the MILF. It doesn’t even sound like a law, it sounds more like a contract. The people behind the creation of the Bangsamoro Basic Law should be replaced. They have already failed us. They have obviously done injustice to the nation.

Why are we trying to achieve peace with a people who are ‘freedom fighters’? We know very well that the MILF in their controlled territory is a concern not only to our country but to the rest of the world. Why do our officials continue to cuddle and encourage such a state in Mindanao? Are we protecting international terrorists? Bomb-experts and saboteurs have fanned out to neighboring Southeast Asian countries from those JI training camps in central Mindanao, endangering their societies. As my dad used to quip, “We are exporting trouble, just because our Surrender Gang in the government wants peace with the MILF.”

The 44 SAF men didn’t die in vain. They died for a reason. Their death has awakened the nation to more consciousness of something bad lurking in the shadows of the BBL created by bandits in the guise of peacemakers. I believe that God did not allow such a law to pass and so used the 44 SAF as sacrificial lambs. The families of the 44 SAF should know in their hearts that their loved ones did not die in vain. They truly died for the country. Just like Ninoy Aquino.

There are Muslims in this country who are happy people. They are happy when they relate with their Christian brothers and sisters. They are happy to live and work with Christians. I have many Muslim friends who are good and very conscientious people. They are level-headed people who were born and raised in the Philippines. They are just like us. They don’t carry any animosity or antagonism in their hearts. They are Filipinos. And like us, they feel bad about the poverty, illiteracy and bandits in the South. But the BBL to them is not the answer. In fact, they are worried about it as well.

I do not believe that majority of the Muslims in Mindanao want a separate state. How sure are we that the leaders involved in creating the BBL are the true representatives of the Muslim population? I think those Muslims who demand a piece of our land and their own sovereignty are ‘bandits in disguise’. They are like pirates, like thieves who come in the night. They are not the real Muslims who are equally a peace-loving people, who do not carry guns, who do not massacre families, burn homes, bomb Christian churches and communities – who are not embroiled in a civil war or a civil strife. I’m aghast at Deles and Ferrer who don’t seem to see what the BBL can do to our country’s future. How can we allow our country’s fate to rest in the hands of these two representatives? Can we still trust them?

The only solution to peace in Mindanao is to stop the bandits, to stop terrorism which has brought murder and mayhem to our archipelago. These people are caught up in a whirlpool of religious fanaticism and Islamic Jihad which brooks no opposition because the “holy” warriors have hi-jacked Islam and converted its tenets into a command coming from Allah, God himself, to destroy the kafir and infidels (that’s us).

As my late father had written: It’s absurd to pursue ‘peace at any price’ when the price may include the bombing of more buses not only in Makati or Metro Manila, or more bombs exploding elsewhere in our archipelago. Or bomb-expertise being exported, along with Mindanao-trained terrorists, to other countries in our region… The terrorist network is very active here.

Let’s take out the enemy and then surely we can achieve peace in Sulu and Maguindanao. As General Charles de Gaulle used to say when he rallied the Free French: L’audace, toujours l’audace! Until the enemy surrenders his sword, his guns, and his bombs, how can there be peace? After a short breather, after licking his wounds, and re-arming, the determined guerilla or terrorist you don’t slay, or at least chain in irons, will only strike again.