Friday, June 20, 2008 Aguilar: Abu by night? By George Aguilar Rational animal
LIKE a transvestite by night, the mayor of a small town in an island south of Bacolod lives a double life. He is a hard working government official by day but he might very well be a terrorist by night.
This mayor claims that he was a former commander of an insurgent group during his youth, but that he has seen the light and is now willing to work with the government for the good of his people. But recent events show that he may still have access to bandits who are merely pretending to be rebels with a just cause.
The ASG is an insult to all legitimate revolutionary movements out there. They claim to be holy warriors but everybody knows by now that that they are simply bandits, thugs who kill and kidnap for money. They say that they are working for an independent Muslim nation but their kidnapping ventures have only brought about shame for their people and the condemnation of the national and international communities including those who are truly of the Islamic faith.
No matter the religion or ideology, nobody has the right to kidnap people for ransom. No one has the right to torture and frighten innocent civilians for monetary gain. But the ASG doesn't care about what other people think. Like most fundamentalist fanatics, they think they are better than every body else and they think that God is on their side.
Scary to think what ignorance and superstition can do to the minds of desperate men.
Anyway, this civic leader knows about the presence of at least one ASG camp within the territory of the town where he is the mayor. And yet this so-called leader did not report or do anything about it. That's because he is harboring them and even protecting them from the AFP and the police.
Why would a government official do that? Well, money is a good a reason as any. In fact, money would be a very good reason to harbor criminals indeed. The mayor must have connections to the ASG because he benefits from their presence and involvement in kidnapping activities somehow.
It's an old story really. The government and everybody else claim that they have never given in to terrorist demands for ransom. But we all know that the government and all the persons, foreign or local, who have been victimized by the ASG, have paid millions of pesos in ransom. And that's not the all of it. A lot of government officials, including those from the AFP and PNP, have benefited financially from the hundreds of millions of pesos paid as ransom to the ASG.
That's why kidnapping continues to be an industry in this country. It pays to be a kidnapper in the Philippines.
Even the negotiators sometimes get a cut. If not in money, then in popularity and fame, that's the game for high profile negotiators in many of the kidnappings that have taken place before.
The question is why the government allows these kidnappings to happen in the first place? Is the government simply inutile or helpless in dealing with the kidnappers and other heinous crime syndicates in the south? Or are they tolerating or even protecting the same because they are part of it somehow?
Remember how government troops have already surrounded ASG kidnappers holed inside a schoolhouse in Lamitan only to be called away by some high-ranking military official? The ASG bandits were able to escape to kidnap some more some day.
The ASG survived the countless government offensives launched against them because they are protected by some government and military officials. They also have the support of local people like the mayor in this story.
I'm not saying that the above is true but neither am I saying that it is false. I leave it to you my dear readers to decide which is which.
