SOME sectors are muddling the discussion on the Mamasapano, Maguindanao encounter that left 44 members of the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) dead at the hands of rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).
I think even government's “spin doctors” are maneuvering to lessen public outrage on President Noynoy Aquino's mishandling of the incident. They spread the story about military adventurism to be staged by disgruntled military and police personnel over the Mamasapano incident.
In a press conference held by health officials in Manila on the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus (MersCov), a reporter asked: “There are allegations that this MersCov story is meant to divert the issue from the Maguindanao incident.
What can you say about this?”
Health officials got irked and did not answer the question. But the reporter's suspicion might be true. There are even jokes that Vice President Jejomar Binay paid the MILF and BIFF to engage with the SAF so that the issue on graft and corruption against him will also be diverted.
Seriously, instead of focusing on the Maguindanao incident so that the truth will come out, some militant and radical groups like Gabriela and Anakbayan are condemning the government for the participation of the US in the botched operation to get
international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan and his local assistant Basit Usman.
Gabriela, a party-list group advocating for women’s rights, sent representatives to the site of the encounter and produced women witnesses who claimed they were harassed and held hostage by SAF members before the fierce gun battle erupted.
They also decried US participation in the partially successful but failed operation.
(Successful because Marwan was killed but failed because it resulted to the death of
44 SAF members.)
On the other hand, Anakbayan, an organization of Filipino youths, accused PNoy and the US government of being responsible and accountable for the Maguindanao debacle. They are demanding an explanation on the US participation and are joining calls for Aquino's resignation.
No less than sacked SAF chief Getulio Napenas admitted before Senate hearing that there were Americans at the command post when the encounter took place. But their participation in Oplan Exodus was only to provide intelligence information about the location of Marwan and Usman.
They were not involved in the actual operations as it is against our laws and the laws of the US. In fact, we should even thank those Americans because they joined in the effort to rescue and evacuate the wounded SAF members. Without them, the fatalities on
the government side would have increased.
Let us not be hypocrites. Without the help of US intelligence, local authorities could not have located the exact whereabouts of Marwan and his cohorts. Marwan was in and out of the country for several years but nothing happened until the US government showed interest in capturing him. Imagine, the US government tagged Marwan as the Osama Bin Laden of Southeast Asia and offered $5 million on his head.
Without the help of the US government through its sophisticated surveillance gadgets like drones, do you think our authorities could have gotten the precise location of Marwan and Usman?
Without the help of the US, our authorities cannot neutralize this bunch of criminals, like the leader of the dreaded Abu Sayyaf group, Abu Sabaya, who sowed terror in the early 2000s in western Mindanao.
Yes, we are an independent country. But sometimes we need the support and help of other countries. What is prohibited is the involvement in actual combat in our land of foreign soldiers, but not on matters technical support. They can always justify that under the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).
The diplomatic and military partnership of the Philippines and the US started a long time ago. Who liberated us from the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II? Without massive military support by the US fighting side by side with our forefathers against the Japanese, we could have been under Japan now.
If we don't like the US, then we should stop receiving aid from them every time we are hit by calamities. We should no longer patronize their products and we should tell our relatives who are working or migrating to the US to go back home.
(bobby.nalzaro@yahoo.com)