Saturday, March 10, 2007 Editorial: Security problems
SECURITY problems would likely triple in the coming months in Region 10 or Northern Mindanao, especially in Bukidnon province, where a barangay official had been killed in a string of killings that started since last month.
Here's hoping that the military and the police secure enough cooperation from the civilian communities in protecting their areas from bandits, communist insurgents and other extremist and criminal elements.
As if the problem on political violence had yet to be addressed significantly in the Lanao provinces.
A certain trepidation
ONE has to view with a certain sense of trepidation the national government's seeming crackdown on partylist groups not long after it had signed into law the anti-terrorism bill, which they had reclassified into the more public relations-friendly Human Security Act.
With the signing of the law which was hailed by both the US and Australia as the strongest signal yet of the country's commitment to the fight against terrorism, the national government authorized the deployment of troops in the urban slums in order to wage what appears to be an information campaign against militant groups.
Apparently however the militant groups are not backing down and are reverting to the role of whipped victim by decrying what they said was the harsh crackdown on them during the elections which they signified with Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo's decision to lay low for a while following the issuance of an arrest warrant on them and on Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison.
Not that the government has no right to pursue these cases. On the contrary, Ocampo's decision to lie low "until the proper time comes" smacks of a similar move by now detained former Sen. Gregorio Honasan to lie low until the charges of rebellion against him had been lifted.
While he had the misfortune and humiliation of being arrested anyway in a chase with police and troops, Ocampo can always rely on the machinery, campaigning and organization of leftist militant partylist groups to drum up attention and play up his isolation for what it's worth in campaign propaganda. These people are just itching for a fight, no matter how low this is.
The national government should instead pursue its course of conducting their own campaigns against communist insurgents and their sympathizers instead rather than launching into legal offensives that would only draw more attention and the public spotlight on them.
