Zamboanga siege

IS THE crisis over? Was the government offensive justified? Was the rescue mission a show of force? Who will answer for those who died? Is Commander Habier Malik dead? Is the victory attributed to PNoy, Sec. Mar Roxas and Sec. Voltaire Gazmin? Did Enrile finance the MNLF fiasco? Is Nur Missuari in hot water?

MNLF is a separatist movement. I don’t believe that it is seeking a political solution to attain peace in Mindanao. During the siege, Nur was just at the background while Commander Habier Malik was engaging in a fire fight. Nur was expecting that support will come from Islamic nations like what happened during the time of Pres. Ferdinand Marcos when there was intervention from the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). That resulted in the 1976 Tripoli Agreement. Marcos agreed to set up a ‘Moro homeland’ through constitutional processes to sweeten the deal.

The Philippine government made a clear stand that it would not recognize the MNLF demands for secession. Marcos had astute negotiators. First Lady Imelda was one of them. The 1976 Tripoli Agreement was bait for MNLF to have autonomy through constitutional processes to prevent a possible oil embargo by the Arab nations. The Organic Act passed under the 1986 Constitution was rejected by Misuari. For him, it does not give the Muslims enough rights to warrant genuine autonomy.

From Marcos to PNoy, the MNLF cannot be a dance partner of the Philippine government. Is the MNLF jealous because the PNoy administration started a framework of peace for the MILF? Could this be again another Moro-moro to stop the Moro crisis in Mindanao? We would like to believe that PNoy is sincere in his peace talks with MILF. The government negotiators earlier announced that the peace agreement may require amendments to the Constitution. Do we agree?

MILF dreams to have a Bangsamoro ancestral domain. The then-MILF head Salamat Hashim (now deceased) was even making a secret deal with the White House in 2003 by writing a letter to Pres. George W. Bush. Salamat emphasized that MILF is a national liberation organization, with leadership supported by the Bangsamoro People, and with legitimate political goal to pursue the right of the Moro Nation to determine their future and political rights.

If we remember right, in 2008 scores of Moro separatists razed 85 houses and rustled dozens of cattle in North Cotabato. It was Vice Gov. Many Piñol who saved the situation. PGMA during that time seemed to favor the ‘Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD). That MILF pact spells a territory to be ceded by Malacañang to the rebels. Leaked drafts alleged that the following areas will be yielded to MILF: Zamboanga City, North Cotabato, and a part of Palawan.

Those who follow up the Mindanao issue would remember the pillage in Aleosan and Midsayap towns. It was Commander Ameril Umbra Kato who led the raiders. Kato’s group is a lost command and remained loyal to MILF founder Salamat Hashim and not to MILF Chairman Al Murad. That could be the reason why Vice Gov. Piñol took arms to defend his territory from the roving rebels.

To date, peace is temporary in the area of conflict. The PNoy administration should open its eyes and ears to the development of events in Mindanao. We hope for the best but we have to prepare for war. We do not want to resurrect the violence in the past perpetrated by bands called ‘Ilagas’ and ‘Barracudas’. The ‘Ilagas’ were armed Christians (Ilonggo) organized to fight the bad Muslims. We remembered Commander Bukay grilling and eating the ears of the Muslims.

The ‘Barracudas’ were the retaliatory armed groups invading Christians villages. The Ilaga-Barracuda conflict triggered the holy war (jihad). Our country cannot afford to have the pork barrel scam in one hand and a Mindanao crisis in the other hand. Those who love peace are already tired. We cannot afford to have another turning point in our history.

                                                         

                                                       

                                                         

The P10 billion pork barrel scam: The Leviathan revisited

Thinking about the alleged scam that involved the funneling of lawmakers' Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) also known as “pork barrel” into bogus Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), I can’t help myself asking some questions.

How can a select few in our country freely appropriate billions of people’s money to themselves without transparency and accountability? How can a select few squander so much of the people’s money without any sense of guilt? How can a select few steal billions of the people’s money without any fear of reprisal or being punished?

Now that a whistleblower had openly exposed the fraud and the affected officials are all busy denying, obfuscating, or feigning ignorance to extricate themselves out of the mess, the fact remains that the nation’s coffer had been emptied with an estimated P10 billion worth of alleged misused pork barrel fund as reporter by the Commission on Audit (COA).

Perhaps this sort of scam is not new. Maybe, it has been going on for a long time. I’d even say that these scammers simply picked up where our former greatest dictator-scammer left off.

The corruption is so endemic and embedded in our body politic that I wholeheartedly agree with President PNoy's observation on who and what is to be blamed. As he aptly puts it: “officials to blame, not just system” (The Philippine Star, August 21, 2013).

Because of PNoy’s Machiavellian utility of the PDAF and his unyielding stance against its abolition, perhaps it was the intention of his spin to displace the blame away from the rotten pork barrel system towards erring individuals. And yet, he unwittingly did recognize that the problem does exist and that it is also systemic. For me, this intersection of the personal issue with the structural issue is the crux of the matter.

Reflecting on this, I was astonished by the aptness, as well as the relevance, of Thomas Hobbes, a 17th Century philosopher who so perceptively wrote The Leviathan as he brooded on how to curb the “summum malum” (greatest evil) impulse that is driving individuals in their natural state to seize power in a sort of “bellum omnium contra omnes ("the war of all against all").

And talking of “war of all against all” one of the alleged scammers to date, owns 28 houses and condos and 30 pricey car