I was at a meeting with the newly-formed Catholic Laity Conference of the Philippines when we heard over the radio the speech of Pres. Benigno Aquino III regarding what we now call the Second Massacre of Maguindanao. Somehow it took three full days for Pres. Aquino to issue a statement about this incident. I was totally grieved by his insensitivity to the senseless deaths of some 44 Elite Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police that were obviously ambushed by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
The President's speech did not condemn the MILF for that dastardly act and this has only angered many more Filipinos. In fact Pres. Aquino even tried to say that the SAF did not coordinate with the military before launching "Oplan Wolverine" in their effort to serve warrants of arrest to known Jemaah Islamijah terrorists Zulkifli bin Her, a.k.a. Marwan, a Malaysian and Abdul Basit Usman, a Filipino.
What we got from netizens was that it is not the job of the SAF to serve warrants of arrest. That's for the Criminal Investigation and Detective Group to do in their own locality.
In an effort to calm the Filipino people, no less than Police Director Getulio Napeñas admitted last Tuesday that he did not coordinate with the military before launching "Oplan Wolverine" operation to get Zulkifli bin Hir for whose capture dead or alive the United States has offered a $6-million reward.
So this brings us to ask, why didn't Director Napeñas inform the military about their massive operations? Could it be that they were all "lured" into "Oplan Wolverine" so they could get that US$6 million reward money that the United States was offering? Now supposedly a special board of inquiry will be made to get into the bottom of this deadly incident. Will this special board get to the bottom of this mess or will this be a board to whitewash this incident?
We've seen several photos of the dead SAF soldiers in trucks and video footages of bodies in Mamasapano, Maguindanao and all of them were no longer in their uniforms. Many were brutalized and people even suspect that the SAF surrendered when they encountered the MILF, yet they still butchered our soldiers. Mayor Benzar Ampatuan led a team of media people to the area where the soldiers died and it is very clear that they were brutalized. So who will pay for this dastardly incident?
It was bad enough for Pres. Aquino not to issue an immediate statement of support for the dead policemen. He made things worse when he wasn't around at Villamor Air Base when the bodies arrived from Maguindanao. Pres. Aquino had an earlier engagement to grace the opening of a new Mitsubishi Plant in Laguna. If you ask me, he should have cancelled that engagement because he had to pay respects for our fallen soldiers.
Today a great number of Filipinos are angry with the President for mishandling this case. It was different when eight Hong Kong hostages were killed in Quirino Grandstand. At that time, he was still new on the job.
Worse of all, he continues to push for the Bangsamoro Basic Law warning us of dire consequences if the peace process was stopped. In short, PNoy is towing the line of his adviser Teresita Deles and other peace negotiators and MILF chairman Murad Ebrahim. I dare say that we must shelve the BBL and stop talking peace until the MILF surrenders the people who massacred our soldiers.
Five years ago, when the Maguindanao massacre occurred, then president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared Martial Law in Maguindanao and used the military to destroy the armed group belonging to the Ampatuan clan that killed more than 50 people, including journalists. We expected Pres. Aquino to do the same; but he did not.
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