The SAF 44 did not die in vain

Majority of Filipinos had mixed feelings of sadness and outrage over the death of the 44 Special Action Force troopers who were sent on a mission to arrest terrorists in Mamasapano. But in retrospect, the disastrous consequences of Operation Exodus opened serious scrutiny on the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and the questionable provisions that it contains. What’s even more disturbing are the findings of the joint Senate inquiry that took to task the government peace panel for suffering from a “wanton excess of optimism” that saw them giving too many concessions to the MILF at the expense of government and the Filipino people.

After all, if the BBL is “in consonance with the Constitution” as its preamble stated, then there should be no problem if Congress scrutinizes the proposed measure with a fine-tooth comb.  A lot of legal minds that have read the draft say the question of constitutionality must be satisfied, and that the interest of all stakeholders must be reconciled – yet it seems provisions are slanted to favor only one group – the MILF. More importantly, the draft seeks to arrogate for the proposed Bangsamoro powers that should only be vested upon the “central” government, driving serious questions with respect to national security and territorial sovereignty. In the first place, the proposed Bangsamoro government will adopt a parliamentary form unlike the Philippines that has a presidential form of government.

The latest Pulse Asia survey clearly shows 67 percent of Filipinos do not trust the MILF and 44 percent do not approve of the BBL, while 62 percent of Mindanaoans themselves are against the BBL. Surely, there is dissonance here if the people who are supposed to benefit resist the measure. From the start, it was obvious that something was very wrong judging from the way the BBL was being rushed, with its critics strongly convinced that had its passage been fast-tracked, Filipinos would have woken up one day to find that their country had been dismembered.

A clear message the Aquino administration should get from all this is that nowadays, people will no longer swallow everything hook, line and sinker. The advent of Internet technology allows information to be relayed so fast that it could spread rapidly and reach the farthest ends of the earth in a matter of hours or even minutes. The emergence of social media and its interactive features has also driven “conversations” wherein the free-flowing exchange of ideas enable people to form more informed opinions and perceptions.

And even if you control mainstream media and “massage the message” in traditional channels, social media is an altogether different animal. It can be a great ally – or your worst enemy. It can help you, make you or destroy you – like what happened to a female staffer of a Republican senator who resigned a week after receiving a deluge of condemnation from Netizens for nasty comments about US President Barack Obama’s daughters in her Facebook post in November 2014. Even media personalities like NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams can’t escape the power of social media when he was suspended without pay for “hyperbolizing” his coverage of Iraq when he claimed he was in a Chinook helicopter that went down during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Veterans of the Iraq war quickly disputed his account on social media – forcing the top news anchor to recant and admit that he embellished his experiences.

Abraham Lincoln’s line, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time” aptly describes how you can no longer BS your way around people. 

The president himself said that peace in Mindanao is everyone’s business so an important piece of document like the BBL should have inputs from all sectors of society. It cannot be just the handiwork of a few people who from all appearances are not totally qualified and not negotiating from a position of strength. Worse, the measure has not yet been passed but the MILF is already acting as an independent country, refusing to give a copy of its Mamasapano report to the Senate. One startling aspect is the P75 billion funding to be given to the MILF with absolutely no accounting at all. This amount is even bigger than the budget of the Philippine National Police.  

It is too late for the president to apologize for the Mamasapano tragedy because the momentum has already been lost. People will only question his sincerity if he does so now after stubbornly refusing to do so from the start. He already blamed other people for the disaster. However, he can still make amends by junking this coordination jargon alibi and scrapping this “time-on-target” mentality that seeks to have the measure passed before his last State of the Nation Address in July. Let’s not railroad the BBL. Allowing substantial debates and discussion, and subjecting the proposed law under careful scrutiny will show the sincerity and “good faith” that the president always invokes. 

A lot of Filipinos agree that for bringing attention to the BBL alone, the 44 Special Action Force troopers should be remembered as heroes because they did not die in vain for “rescuing” the Philippines from being dismembered. No one will argue the Bangsamoro Basic Law is a very important piece of document that will determine the peace and prosperity of Mindanao – but it must be, and should be, within the context of the Philippines being a nation under one flag and under one rule of law. 

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