Analysis First things first 127 By Francisco S. Tatad Fighting - TopicsExpress



          

Analysis First things first 127 By Francisco S. Tatad Fighting rages after Aquino said it’s ending President B. S. Aquino III flew out of Zamboanga City late Sunday afternoon after assuring the city residents and the nation that the two-week military standoff with the forces of the Moro National Liberation Front would be over soon. He had been there for a week, ostensibly to personally supervise the military operations; but for at least four days neither the troops nor the media ever laid eyes on him. Not many Zamboangenos chose to believe him. And for good reason: the fighting continues, and they could not see the end of their travails. Earlier that day, the police had picked up reports that MNLF reinforcements under Commander Rudulan Putul were already in the vicinity and were set to strike at the Western Mindanao Command camp and Andrews Air Base, after torching the gas stations at the perimeter with explosive. Some people thought this was why PNoy left posthaste. At 7:30 pm, after PNoy had left, a siren blast ripped the skies from Edwin Andrews Air Base, provoking dire speculations. It was the first time people heard the siren since the MNLF appeared on September 9. They thought it was the signal to alert the population on the MNLF’s rumored counter-offensive So they stayed up in their homes all night, waiting for the action to begin. No MNLF reinforcements were seen or heard. But at 3 pm the next day, four mortar explosions shook the city, and three helicopter gunships started shooting straight into residential areas where they obviously thought the guerrillas were holding out. The burning of homes continued, adding more to the 10,000 or so already burnt, and to the 111,000 or so civilians already displaced. The toll on human lives continued to mount. Before the day was over, Zamboangenos who could afford to pay P9,000 for a one-way plane ticket that normally cost P2,500 took the last available flight to Manila, leaving their homes, their businesses and the city to the handful of MNLF guerrilla fighters and 4,500 or so government troops. From Manila, some of them flew onward to Davao and other places to stay with relatives or friends for the duration of the siege. As of last count, 102 MNLF guerrillas had been killed, 117 taken prisoner, and an unknown number wounded during the last two weeks of fighting. On the government side, 14 soldiers and policemen had been killed, and 114 wounded. As collateral damage, 12 civilians had been killed, 49 wounded, and at least 20 taken and still held as hostages, even though some 170 hostages had been freed. The economic life of the city has ground to a halt, costing the city at least P300 million a day in foregone sales, according to some private estimates. Banking activity by the 60 banks in the city is virtually paralyzed, cutting down the circulation of money, which used to average P50-billion a day, by at least 30 percent, according to some banking sources. Street vendors who made their living selling foodstuff and other consumables on the sidewalks have altogether vanished from the streets, swelling the ranks of the hungry and the penniless. The closedown of business had forced employees to take unpaid leave; the authorities have since urged business establishments to reopen at their own risk, provided they pay their workers an additional 30 percent. This, of course, is resented by business. The trauma of war has imposed upon young and old a much higher psychological cost. The 8 pm to 5 am curfew has kept everyone at home all night, but the continued burst of gunfire in the streets, which would begin at dawn and pause only at lunch break, kept them awake. Not even those at home are safe; many houses had been hit by stray bullets. “People are bored and restless and tend to have a short fuse,” said one young businessman who has temporarily relocated his entire family to a nearby province. At daytime, they risk the danger in the streets but go out just to relieve themselves of stress. “But the children are perhaps the hardest hit. They cannot sleep at night, and they cannot understand why they cannot go to school when no holidays have been announced or why they cannot even go out.” Despite the danger, people are less afraid for their lives than angry that this is happening to them. They are angry at the MNLF but they are not much less angry with the government. Some believe the crisis could be solved politically without killing, but the government seems to be more interested in killing rebels than in solving the problem right off. “There is a real danger that this anger could eventually turn into hate. Then everyone would have lost,” said one resident. Many things have gone wrong. Malacanang did not pay much attention when Nur Misuari, the founding chairman of the MNLF, declared independence for all of Mindanao in Indanan, Sulu on Aug. 12. When Misuari’s men appeared in Zamboanga on Sept. 9, ostensibly to raise their flag of “independence,” they were met with superior force, not only to prevent the flag-raising but also to create an incident that would divert public attention from the Janet Lim Napoles pork barrel scandal in Manila that had already so weakened the credibility of the Aquino government. Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II immediately rushed to the scene, followed by the President and Commander-in-Chief, and by Vice President Jejomar C. Binay, who was able to talk to Misuari, a longtime acquaintance from the University of the Philippines, on the phone about a possible ceasefire. Binay suggested it, and Misuari accepted. But the conversation leaked to the media before it got to the President, and it was quickly shot down by Roxas, the administration pretender to the presidency in 2016, who would not hear of anything coming from the Vice President. In any shooting war, the cessation of hostilities is always a desirable objective, but in this case, just because it came from Binay, the very word was prohibited. Zamboanga became a military battleground after elite AFP troops were thrown in, and PNoy assumed an active role as Commander-in-Chief. The last commander-in-chief to lead his troops in a military engagement was probably Gen. George Washington during the 1775 American Revolution against Britain when he rode out in front of his troops in Cambridge, Massachusetts and drew his sword to formally take command of the Continental Army. Not even George W. Bush went to Iraq with his invading force, nor Barack Obama to Afghanistan. But although Aquino has turned it into a major military operation, Gazmin eventually evaporated from the scene. And neither the AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista, who is next to the C-n-C in the chain of command, nor Maj. Gen. Rey Ardo, the commanding general of Western Mindanao Command, could be seen anywhere. In contrast, Roxas, who had no business whatsoever in any military operation, was in the eye of the TV camera all the time. He called news conferences, where he berated anyone who might ask where Aquino was. Even in a purely police peacekeeping operation, the PNP chief would be in charge, not the Secretary of Interior and Local Government. This is obvious to most people, except to Malacanang and Roxas. PNoy will have to pay the highest cost, for playing soldier at the cost of lives and property, to say the least. “It was entirely useless for us and for him,” said our Zamboanga friend. “In addition to the dead and wounded and displaced, Zamboanga has been destroyed and must be rebuilt.” Meanwhile, the Napoles issue has grown much bigger, and while the fighting in Zamboanga rages, a second front has opened up in Cotabato where the Bangsa Moro Islamic Freedom Fighters attacked government forces on Monday, leaving at least three dead and five wounded. fstatad@gmail
Posted on: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 14:15:42 +0000

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