Government and Taxes: Mamasapano

Showing posts with label Mamasapano. Show all posts

Monday, February 16, 2015

War War is Stupid

Yes. War is stupid. Regardless of the justifications and alibi. War is stupid.

To the advocates of new "All out war" in Muslim Mindanao, other war mongers, may I advice that you try living in conflict areas like Mamasapano in Maguindanao or Basilan so you will see how ugly and brutal endless fighting can be.

Here is one story of an ugly war, happened only last month.

Shortly before the Mamasapano incident happened on January 25, Sarah’s husband, Badrudin Langalen, with his cow in tow, was on his way home from the cornfields to charge his cellphone when the SAF commandos, on the assumption that he was an MILF fighter, captured him.

When the fighting between the MILF and the SAF finally started, with his hands tied behind his back, the helpless Badrudin and his cow got caught in the crossfire.

He was only 21 – too young to die. Dying was probably the last thing on his mind. Death is too much of a punishment for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. In war, rules of engagement protect combatants who are incapable of fighting back. What protection was there for a wandering civilian like him?

Residents in Mamasapano claimed there were arbitrary killings and indiscriminate firing. While the assault teams were fighting the MILF in the fields, other soldiers on standby in communities opened fire, killing innocent civilians....

Today I chanced upon this facebook page of Major Harold Magallanes Cabunoc. The guy makes sense. I am copy-pasting some of his recent postings. To non-Filipino friends, this Filipino soldier is talking about peace and explicitly dislikes war as he has seen firsthand the ugly faces and places of war, Filipinos shooting and killing each other.

February 15, 2015

Sa mga nagbabangayang mga magkakapatid na Muslim at Kristiyano dito sa aking pahina, mas maiging intindihin natin ang kasaysayan ng Pilipinas bago dumating ang mga Kastila para maintindihan mo ang pinagmulan ng ipinaglalaban ng mga kapatid nating Muslim….

Panay gyera ang ginawang solusyon ng gobyerno ng Pilipinas sa mga nakipaglaban para sa kanilang karapatan, kahit noon pang 1970s. Hindi ito natapos at lalong dumami ang nasaktan, at lalong naghihirap ang Muslim Mindanao dahil pati ang maraming namumuno sa kanila ay sarili lang ang pinapayaman, at hinahayaang magiging mangmang at gumagapang sa hirap ang kanilang mga kababayan. Ang kanilang freedom fighters ay tinatawag nating terrorists. (Di ko sinasabing tama ang ginawa sa SAF 44 at pati yong pamumugot ng Abu sa Basilan at Sulu). Lalong dumadami ang radicalized dahil sa kahirapan at kamangmangan. Kung anu-anong armadong grupo ang lumalabas na mandirigma at ang iba sa kanila ay sinasakyan ng mga jihadists kagaya ng Al Qaeda at Jemaah Islamiya. Kapag panay gyera tayo, walang katapusan ang galit at bawian ng kapwa Pilipino. Lahat tayo talunan kapag gagawin nating All out War.

Kawawa ang mas nakararaming sibilyan sa gyera. Saksi ako sa paghihirap nila sa mga evacuation centers. Nakikita ko ang mga nawasak na komunidad at mga duguang mandirigma sa magkabilang panig. Nakikita ko ito dahil kasama ako sa nakikigyera sa kanila sapagkat ito ay aking tungkulin bilang sundalo ng bayan.

Hindi po military solution lamang ang kasagutan kundi negotiated political settement. Dapat matikman ng mga kapatid natin ang kapayapaan at kaunlaran. Hikayatin natin silang talikuran ang karahasan at pakikipagpatayan sa kapwa Pilipino. Hikayatin natin silang huwag kanlungin ang mga terorista at wag gumawa ng terorismo. Hikayatin natin ang sarili nilang mga pinuno na lagyan ng puso ang paninilbihan sa bayan, at patikimin ng taos-pusong serbisyo publiko ang taumbayan. Bombahin ang Muslim Mindanao ng development projects nang magkaroon sila ng oportunidad na makaahon sa kahirapan.

Hikayatin din natin ang lahat na Kristiyano na alamin ang tunay na kasaysayan ng Pilipinas dahil susi ito sa pag-uuwanaan.

Magkaisa tayong lahat na isulong ang kapayapaan at makamit ang hustisya ng lahat na nabiktima ng karahasan.

February 14

Mahirap makipaglaban sa kapwa Pilipino. Ang mandirigmang may puso, nirerespeto ang kaaway na hindi na lumalaban.

Ganito dapat ang ginawa ng mga mandirigmang nakalaban ng bayaning SAF troopers, lalo na at terorista naman ang pakay nila sa kanilang misyon.

Kahit saang anggulo tingnan, mali ang barilin sa ulo ang walang kalaban laban. Ikinagagalit iyon ni Allah (SWT). Sisingilin kayo sa oras ng kanyang paghuhusga.

February 12

Kaming mga sundalo, ayaw namin ng all out war na iminumungkahi ng iilang matatapang nating kababayan.

Bakit? Eh, matagal na nating sinubukan yan laban sa mga rebelde ngunit hindi naman umubra, at napakarami lang namamatay at nagsipaglayasan sa kanilang mga pamayanan. Yong mga namatayan ng tatay at kapatid ay malamang na bumabawi gamit ang karahasan.

Dagdag pa dyan, kaming mga sundalo naman ang unang mapasubo na makipagpatayan sa kapwa Pilipino kung hindi natin pagbigyan ng pagkakataon na magkaroon ang kapayapaan.

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My tolerance for war is zero, nada, blanko. More war means more hatred and intolerance, more violence and more government, more bureaucrats and war mongers ordering young people to shoot and kill other young people. More taxes and borrowings to finance endless fighting and destruction of properties.

For free marketers who advocate war, I question your belief in individual freedom. Why would you support further expansion of already BIG governments, to abdicate the use of reason and embrace more fighting and coercion?
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MILF, PNP SAF and the Fallen 44, Part 4

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Tuesday, February 03, 2015

MILF, BIFF, and the Fallen 44, Part 3

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Monday, February 02, 2015

MILF, BIFF, PNP and the Fallen 44

This is a continuation of my article yesterday, MILF, Fallen 44 and Rule of Law. I am posting some comments of my friends in my fb wall on the subject, and my discussion and rejoinders to them.
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1. Bakit nga nung I ambush mga SAF andun naman pareho ang MILF and BIFF...? Ano pinag kaiba nila?

It was not an ambush. 392 special action force (SAF) officers, there are strike teams and blocking teams. They flew from Manila to Maguindanao armed to the teeth, ready to kill and be killed. It was a clear firefight but the terrain is something the policemen are not familiar with. A corn field which the Fallen 44 ran to may have hidden canals behind them.

I ask again, Supposed there was no or minimal death among SAF officers, does it make that huge operation without coordination with the AFP and MILF justified?

For me, a Yes answer to that question is a suggestion that the PH government should officially discard the peace agreement. Then PH government, whether through the AFP or PNP or NBI, can enter anytime anywhere, in huge numbers with full armaments, with zero recognition of the political, administrative and police/military jurisdiction of the MILF as stipulated in the peace agreement.

Is this the scenario that the pro-war people want?

2. “they mutilated the bodies of the dead SAF".

Prof. Bong Mallonga Mendoza has an answer to that when he wrote, "a human body hit by either a 0.50 caliber or a special Barrett 413 bullet will be mutilated. No need to mutilate the same bodies after they died."

3. kailan naging territory ng MILF /BIFF ang area na hindi puede pasukin ng law enforcers without asking their permission?

I think Mamasapano, Maguindanao, is not a territory of MILF. It has no territorial jurisdiction, it is still under the PH state. What the MILF has under the peace agreement, is political and administrative jurisdiction. Thus, the public education, public health facilities, police forces, autonomous legislative body, etc. in areas under the peace agreement are with the MILF.

That is why for such huge operations involving nearly 400 PNP special force, with dozens of trucks and APCs, I think an official coordination with MILF and AFP is needed, if we want the peace agreement to be respected. Otherwise, kanya-kanya na lang, throw away the peace agreement, PH armed forces can enter anytime, anywhere, in areas supposedly covered by the peace agreement.

4. Painful as it is to say this to what our Fallen44 went through, I'm leaning on pursuing this peace agreement with these rebels for the last time and give peace a chance in the region.

Precisely. Five or 6 decades of war in Mindanao is not enough? Some people want 1 or 2 decades or more of war in the south?

Since there is already an existing peace agreement with the MILF, an international agreement actually as the meetings and place of signing were held in Kuala Lumpur, witnessed by many foreign government representatives, the PH govt should have respected it. Learn to respect the MILF's political and admis jurisdiction there.

Enough of war. Enough of double talk of talking peace while pursuing war and unilateral attacks.

5. the bloodshed and the encounters could have been avoided if they were sincere in seeking peace and arrested the terrorists themselves kaso di nila ginawa e.

The wanted terrorists are said to be in the BIFF-controlled area. Perhaps the MILF can storm it but it would take huge amount of bloodshed as they do not have choppers, fighter planes, tanks, other equipment. An ideal scenario is PNP + AFP + MILF. But the PNP-SAF implied, “we can do it on our own, no need for AFP or MILF. No coordination or information sharing with them needed.”

So, sino ba nagsimula ng barilan last January 25? The MILF or BIFF stormed Cotabato or Davao or Manila? No. It was the PH govt’s PNP that stormed a village in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province, 392 elite forces. No coordination even with the AFP. The PNP only cried for help when their smaller blocking team was trapped until they run out of ammo to fight back.

Here's a good food for thought:

'The source said there had been no encounter between the Army and the MILF since 2010, “which means the MILF is faithful to the peace agreement.”

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/669698/dont-blame-the-military?utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=social&utm_source=twitterfeed

No encounter between MILF and AFP for the past 5 years, from 2010, entering the 6th year this year. Peace is possible. No shooting coming from the MILF or from the AFP.

Now enters the SAF. To get Marwan and the $6M or so bounty from the US government, to enforce the rule of law, to make the planet safer, what have you. And shooting has resumed.

6. "How can peace be possible with a group that coddles terrorists"

Five years of no shooting was not peace? It was 5 years of war? Weird.

"coddles terrorists" is a hypothesis. The same way that a statement, "AFP and PNP coddling coup plotters and thieves in their ranks", "Congress coddling plunderers" are also hypothesis, possibly verified theories.

The MNLF has burned bridges with the PH govt a long time ago, they can rampage anytime and they feel they are not breaking any existing peace agreement.

7. That treacherous attack by the SAF, knowing that there was a ceasefire in place, was very wrong...it sabotaged the peace process.

Yes, I agree with this assessment. Confidence building requires building trust with the people you signed officially with to have peace, to stop the shooting from both sides. For me there is treachery on the part of the PNP leadership, or a faction of its leadership, that puts a big dent, big distrust, on the peace agreement.

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