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CALLS
for the military to suspend its operations aimed at
getting the Moro rebels who were responsible for the
mutilation of the bodies of 10 Marines have fallen on
deaf ears as the Armed Forces chief of staff, Gen.
Hermogenes Esperon Jr., said that troops are not moving
toward preidentified and selected targets in Basilan.
This as
Esperon refused to extend the seven-day deadline he gave
to the MILF to yield the gunmen who decapitated 10 of
the 14 Marines who were killed in an ambush in the
province more than two weeks ago or even delay the
operations, as according to him, this would only
encourage the rebels to repeat such barbaric acts.
“We
cannot just extend the deadline for the simple reason
that if we do not punish the beheaders, there would be
future beheaders because they will think that beheading
people is perfectly alright,” Esperon said.
“There
is no extension of the deadline. Any delay that you are
seeing now is all meant to make sure of our targets …
but our troops are moving. We have completed the
transport to Basilan of the required forces,” he added.
A total
of four Marine Battalion Landing Teams are already in
the province, waiting for orders from the ground
commanders to start the offensive in order to get the
suspects, whom the military has already identified.
On
Monday, Esperon reiterated his order to the military
commanders in Western Mindanao, to get the perpetrators
at all cost, and according to the military spokesman,
Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, the marching order was given
even before the deadline expired on Sunday.
On
Tuesday, Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza called
on the Armed Forces to abandon its plan of getting the
MILF members involved in the carnage by force and
advised it to go through the process, which is the joint
cease-fire committee of the government and the Moro
separatist group.
Dureza
also appealed to both the military and the MILF to
refrain from issuing provocative statements that would
only worsen the situation, that he described “volatile.”
Esperon
said that the only recourse the MILF has is to surrender
its men, otherwise, they would be taken in “dead or
alive.” He, however, said that it is much better if the
soldiers could take the perpetrators, who even took the
weapons of the killed Marines, alive.
Aside
from positioned soldiers in Basilan, some more troops
have also been sent to other areas in Mindanao to
contain a possible spillover of the military operations.
The MILF
said it is ready for the soldiers but warned that
military operations might provoke violent reactions in
other provinces like Lanao del Norte. It said that its
forces in other areas might even stage attacks.
“They [MILF
rebels] can probably do that, but that threat must not
stop the basic right of the government to defend its
citizens,” Esperon said.
“We are
trying our best to uphold the primacy of the peace
process . . . we know the importance of the peace
process. The people of Mindanao know the benefits, the
dividends of peace. The soldiers also know the dividends
of peace. We want the peace process to succeed, but not
to the extent of sacrificing the right of the government
to protect its citizens,” he added. |
