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Thursday, March 30, 2006
Editorials: Deadly distraction
THE country has become distracted by this People's Initiative (PI) gimmick that the Sulu bombing, which claimed at least 29 lives and injured a host of others, making it perhaps the single biggest terror attack against US civilians or troops in recent years.
The attack was blamed on Al Qaeda, which belies earlier claims from either the government peace panel or the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that there are no Al Qaeda members roaming about in Mindanao.
Still the perpetrators could either be Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda-trained militants during which it would still debunk any reports about terrorist presence here in Mindanao. And the peace process isn't as simple and ironed out as it would appear.
For as long as terrorist elements roam about the suspicion that the MILF may have a hand in these "extra-curricular" activities won't be erased.
And it may serve to further complicate and bog down the talks. Too bad since the progress in the talks had been quite remarkable that a peace accord is said to be on the horizon in about a year's time at the latest.
In this light it would be most useful if the military and the MILF join hand in hand in tracking down and bringing these perpetrators to justice.
After all the MILF had helped in going after kidnappers and killers, the same can be done in this situation.
By the numbers
Speaking of the People's Initiative, the group Sigaw ng Bayan, which is pushing for Charter change admitted that while it won't have problems collecting P5 million signatures it certainly would be hard-pressed to collect three percent of every legislative district in the country.
So 5 million signatures to change the Constitution over a majority of at least 50 or 60 million eligible voters? It may reach the 10 percent requirement but would the numbers be enough to warrant Charter change in the face of an admittedly undecided and largely uninformed citizenry?
We know the whole plan is to get the ball over to the court of the Lower House, which is raring to convene itself into a constituent assembly with or without the Senate's help. But what's this we hear that the opposition is gathering the signatures to counter this move?
In light of this development we'll have to monitor the situation further in the coming days amid the charges of payoffs and whatever questions are raised in this politically questionable exercise.
(March 30, 2006 issue)
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