10/31/2011
The enemies of the
Philippines’ nationhood are running circles around its people, Armed
Forces, media, and even its progressive forces. At the forefront of
these bewildering issues is the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)-GRP
maelstrom that has left our soldiers and citizens unable to tell for
certain who the enemies are and where they lie — whether across or
behind our lines. Many Juan de la Cruzes are beginning to feel that
some of their government officials behave like the enemy, making public
statements more sympathetic to the motley secessionists than our own
soldiers; and granting them cash donations while our armed men suffer
crucial shortages.
Confusion will continue to reign as long as
Filipinos are blind to the existence of the “enemy within,” or the
“traitor class” that persists in executing the will of foreign interests
in key institutions of society — be it in government, the church,
“civil society,” or the academe. Without the purgation of these
elements, there is simply no saving the nation.
The Oct. 18
encounter in Al-Barka, Basilan was never a result of legitimate issues
of territorial delineation. This much was admitted by no less than the
chairman of the MILF negotiating panel, Mohagher Iqbal, in statements to
the press two weeks later on Oct. 29 that say: “The ceasefire agreement
provides that such a movement of troops… should be coordinated first
through the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities
(CCCH) or the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (Ahjag), set up in 2002 for
joint efforts to go after criminals and ‘lost commands.’”
Basilan
Special Operations Task Force commander Col. Alexander Macario, however,
in accusing the MILF of treachery with the death of the 19 soldiers
(including three young lieutenants), who were going after wanted
fugitives, positively stated that they were coordinating with an MILF
official, Hudlimaya Salim, before the operation was launched.
Colonel
Macario argued that government soldiers merely banked on the
“sincerity” of the MILF, and from what I read of his statement — even if
a mistake was perceived to have been made after the initial encounter —
why did the MILF reinforce its allies and finish off many of the
soldiers, even disemboweling them? If there was a sincere intent to
adhere to the spirit of peace, couldn’t it have initiated some truce at
the very least?
Then, as if to further rub salt on an open wound,
sources in media raised the ignominious idea that the pursuit of the
fugitives could have been for the “reward” of several millions each —
this as our military officers were just about to explain their actions.
Despite the fact that investigations into this angle are just underway
and Colonel Macario’s clarification that the two fugitives carried no
reward on their heads, the damage to the soldiers’ reputations has been
done. To jaundiced eyes, some behind-the-scenes deals must have been
entered into despite the fact that rewards are not given to soldiers but
to informants.
It’s true that there are many issues to look into;
but what should demand intense scrutiny is the P5-million “donation” of
government to the BangsaMoro Leadership and Management Institute
(BLMI).
The BLMI can be found in the Asia Foundation Web site as
one of the NGOs it supports, and apparently it was with prodding from
the Asia Foundation that the GRP peace panel took the cue to donate the
P5 million. The Asia Foundation, according to AllGov (a US Web site
entirely about the US government), “was established as a Central
Intelligence Administration (CIA) proprietary in 1954 with the mission
‘to undertake cultural and educational activities on behalf of the
United States government in ways not open to official US agencies.’”
The
fact that government peace officials, namely, Teresita “Ging” Deles and
Marvic Leonen, as well as their boss, BS Aquino III, are only too
willing to accede to the US advice to donate the said amount, or to
extend favors that serve as an “aid to the enemy,” depicts these
officials’ real traitorous bent.
When news of the murders of our
soldiers at the Al-Barka site and the Keystone Kops reaction of
Malacañang came out, one of our youngest, twin sons, who once fervently
wanted to join the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), remarked, “How
stupid can these leaders in Malacañang be?” That’s when I explained that
the reason I couldn’t allow him to join the PMA was this kind of
political leadership which had no loyalty to its people. I told him,
“You could have been one of the three young second lieutenants who were
killed in vain at Al-Barka. I could never allow that.”
I have many
friends from the PMA — very courageous men — who have exhibited to me
up close the best that soldiery has to offer. I pity that they should
serve under political leaders who deep down have only scorn for our Men
in Arms. I know, for I have also seen these so-called “moderate
reformists” up close — from the Ateneo “Sarilikha” that included Deles
and company, to the UP’s UPSCA from whence the likes of Leonen and other
“leftists” sprung.
The Filipino people’s struggle to preserve the
nation’s territory and vast richness, which the founding fathers of the
Philippine Revolution strove to establish, is doomed unless the enemies
within, the Fifth Column, are vanquished, along with all the appendages
of foreign interventionists.
This Fifth Column numbers only a few
hundred but is ensconced in Big Business, the country’s banking and
financial system, the religious hierarchies, “civil society,” foreign
funded NGOs, academia, the underworld and even within the military and
police establishment. Their “capo di tutti capi” sits astride Manila
Bay, which ominously, was inundated by the raging torrent of an angry
sea. Could this be a portent of how the nation can rid itself of its
enemies within?
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon,
Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL,
Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable
Channel 8; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus
TV and radio archives).
(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel)
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL:
http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111031com5.html
