A word from a "boss"
In the inaugural address delivered by His Excellency President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III, a little more than four years ago, he tickled our imagination with his addressing us as his "bosses." His coined word was, to quote a favorite line of US President Barack Obama, his "defining moment." The term the president used was more than just colloquial. It was a lingo in everybody's lips although all of us were prepared to accept that its application was quite far from reality.
Just the same, if I were a "boss" of the president, I would like to tell him that if there is anything that his government must do in these remaining nineteen months of his term, it must be to search and annihilate this band of international terrorists called Abbu Sayyaf. Some of the president's bosses, with whom I had the privilege of conversing, share in this idea. President Aquino must gather all available forces to put an end to the marauding of these heartless, godless and despicable forces. After all, in public international law, they are hostes humani generis.
The president should realize that whatever good he has done, so far, for our country (and his increasing number of detractors do not agree with me in my choice of this word good) pales in comparison to the evil wrought by the ABG to mankind. These criminals, who might not number more than a thousand, have, thru the savagery of their unspeakable deeds, wrought more damage to our whole nation than the scar produced by the second-world-war. Their financial pillage into the funds of their victims could be bigger in actual figure of devastation than the recent typhoons Ondoy, Pablo and Sendong, the 1976 tsunami in Southern Mindanao, the October 15 earthquake in Bohol and super typhoon Yolanda combined.
The whole world detested the abominable crime of the ABG in kidnapping of a couple of Bible preaching Americans few years ago. Humankind was shocked by their barbarity in their decapitating the head of a religious person. They also kidnapped an Italian priest who came to our shores to serve both Christians and Muslims alike. Of late, these criminals seized two peace loving Germans whose only fault was to imagine that they could enjoy holidays in our country better than anywhere else. News the other day had it that these would-be tourists were only released, to the belief of many, not excluding me, upon payment of unimaginable ransom.
I may be his "boss", but the president should know more venalities the ABG committed, for many years, than I can recite. He was already a member of Philippine Congress at the inception of this terror group. In fact, I like to believe that where he is sitting, Pres. Aquino, has a full view of the ramifications of the most recent dastardly act of the Abbus.
In his address on the topic of climate change at the United Nations headquarters, our president was so warmly received that I think, with that kind of world attention, he may just succeed in calling for a universal forum against the ABG kind of transnational terrorism.
The president, aware how other world leaders felt when their own citizens suffered at the hands of the Abbus, can call for their help. It is not an impossible task for him to assemble, quickly, a small international flotilla to guard every square mile of the seas west and south of the Philippines, if only to prevent the escape of Abbus from their known island lairs. That is the succor he has to ask because our own navy is ill equipped to do the job. When all exits are virtually closed, he can unleash all available men in our army. Our soldiers are better skilled than the Abbus. And because they are fighting for what is right and just, they shall hold a higher moral ground to be motivated to over run the evil. Of course, their number should be more than enough to cover every space of what might be a battleground and with it the war can be short. All that has to be done is for our president, being the commander in chief of all armed forces, to give the marching orders, for the Philippines and the world to be safe again.
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