Cover-up worse than deaths of 44 SAF

Exactly 58 years ago, the most loved President of the Philippines, the late Pres. Ramon Magsaysay was killed when the Presidential plane, dubbed Mt. Pinatubo, a converted Douglas C-47 “Skytrain” crashed around 1:40 a.m. in the slopes of Mt. Manunggal in Central Cebu. With him where high ranking Philippine government officials and the sole survivor was Nestor Mata a young reporter, who is still alive today.

My late father, Atty. Jesus “Lindong” Avila was a good friend of the President… so when his remains was brought down by helicopter to the old Lahug Airport, he brought me along, where there was a large crowd of people waiting for the arrival of his remains. Then a Sikorsky H-19 “Chickasaw” appeared and landed in exact area close to the left hand side of the entrance arch of the AsiaTown IT Park today. Then the body was placed in the Chapel in Camp Lapu-Lapu for a while, and then flown to Manila for burial.

Later in life, I learned more about Pres. Magsaysay from the late Sir Max Soliven, who told me that the success of Pres. Magsaysay against the Communist organization called the Hukbalahap was due to his nearly forgotten slogan on how to combat the scourge of Communism called the four “F’s” Pres. Magsaysay said, “Find ‘em, fool ‘em, fight ‘em and finish ‘em then offer them the hand of peace.” In short, when you negotiate with your enemies, internal or foreign, you must do it in a position of strength.

Because Pres. Magsaysay ruled for only four years and died quite young at 50 years old, the Presidents who succeeded him couldn’t lick the threat of communism. While the conjugal Marcos dictatorship captured Communist Party of the Philippines’ (CPP) Jose Maria “Joma” Sison, however after the EDSA Revolt, Pres. Corazon “Cory” Aquino released him without any conditions… this is why today, the Communist insurgency continues while Joma runs it from the safety of Utrecht, Netherlands.

When P-Noy took over the Presidency in July 2010, his political adviser was Ronald Llamas of Akbayan, which many anti-communist groups believe is an above ground ally of the CPP. On May 25, 2012, the Akbayan Citizen’s Action Party held its 5th Regular Congress at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) with no less than Pres. Aquino as their keynote speaker, where he declared, “Akbayan and I think alike!” I recall writing a column telling P-Noy that if only he revealed this fact during the 2010 elections… he wouldn’t win the Presidency!

But that was 2012, fast forward three years later, Akbayan Party-List Rep. Walden Bello suddenly resigned from his position, telling the press that he quit because the President was washing his hands of responsibility of a mission he planned and executed and for covering up the botched Mamasapano operation last Jan. 25.

What we are seeing here is the withdrawal of support by an Akbayan stalwart and a staunch ally of the President… and with many Communist front organizations now marching the streets demanding the resignation of P-Noy, one can truly say that the President is now isolated, even his closest friends have left him. They were still supporting him even after the killing of the 44 SAF troopers, but what they cannot stand is the massive cover-up that is being done by the loyal supporters of P-Noy, literally blaming everyone, but no blame must fall upon the President.

Last Mar. 1 students from the various universities and colleges of Cebu held a nationwide protest against tuition hikes calling it a “National Day of Rage for Justice, Accountability and Change” and joined the call for the resignation of Pres. Aquino. Niño Olayvar Akbayan, vice-chair for the Visayas said that the students are calling for Aquino to step down for his incompetence in handling of the Mamasapano fiasco and his feeble response to the Yolanda disaster, the pork barrel issue and the tuition hikes.

Now that the Filipino people has seen the report of the Board of Inquiry (BOI) by the Philippine National Police (PNP), which many Filipinos believe spoke the truth, suddenly DILG Sec. Manuel “Mar” Roxas came to the rescue of P-Noy declaring that the President had “No liability” in the Mamasapano massacre, blaming instead suspended PNP Chief Alan Purisima for failing to follow the President’s orders. Hmmm… aren’t these presidential orders emanating from that so-called “Chain of Command?”

This brings us to the investigation ordered by Pres. Aquino for the Department of Justice (DoJ) to investigate the Mamasapano debacle. But for as long as Sec. Leila De Lima continues to pursue her idea that there is “No Chain of Command” then her official investigation as ordered by P-Noy can already be considered as “faulty” to say the least for I reckon it would toe the line of Malacañang and make this cover-up official. As we said, worse than the deaths of the 44 fallen SAF troopers is the massive cover-up!

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