PRESIDENT Duterte has ordered the police and the military to kill all terrorists in Mindanao. But just how many is “all”?
Our defense department says the number is between 250 and 400, spread all over the country. Its Indonesian counterpart, however, claims it’s much more. 1,200, he said. Whose intelligence information is more reliable?
Until recently, our government never admitted the presence of Isis in the country. Not during the time of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo nor under Benigno Aquino III. Isis rumors were dismissed as “raw intelligence” and reports of the Maute Group and Isniron Hapilon’s Abu Sayyaf pledging allegiance to the international terrorist group as publicity stunts.
We can’t deny them anymore. No, not after the Marawi incident. The Isis are here, home-bred fighters as well as “imported” ones, forty of them theirs, according to Indonesia. And they’re giving us a hell of a battle in Marawi.
The president is livid. The terrorists had thumbed their nose at him at least twice in his own island already, starting with the bomb explosion in the Davao city night market last year. He told the AFP and the PNP to not take any prisoners. “Shoot them in the head” and, for good measure, in the heart too, he ordered.
Not that the military and the police need to be told. They lost a number of comrades to the enemy already and will only be too happy to squeeze the trigger when the latter emerge from the shadows knowing that if they can’t carry out the president’s wish to kill them all, they (and also we) would be in for a long, dark night.
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It looks like the Resorts World attack was indeed a case of robbery instead of terrorism. Jessie Javier Carlos apparently lost his marbles after losing his money to the casino.
A sober mind wouldn’t have even dreamed of pulling that caper. Because he was a frequent visitor, he knew that the casino is one of the most heavily-guarded establishments there are and that they also usually have a large number people inside. There was no way he could have succeeded in running away with even the smallest amount of stolen money.
Oh, yes the money. As I asked in this space the other day, of what use are purloined gambling chips, even if they’re worth millions of pesos, to anyone, especially the robber? His mounting debts must have driven Carlos desperate, at the very least. The police said he later committed suicide. Would it have been that he did that before he set the gaming tables on fire and killed thirty-six innocent victims.
With the Carlos story already out, authorities have rightly turned their attention to Resorts World to determine if they should share any blame for the tragedy. How explain the breach in their security protocol? Did the lockdown that they ordered prevent the victims from escaping? Did the casino’s layout provide for adequate exits in case of emergencies like fire?
The families of the victims deserve answers to these questions.