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GEN.
Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Armed Forces chief of staff,
owned up on Monday to the military’s various debacles in
the campaign against bandits and terrorists in Mindanao
as he reinforced the doctrine of command responsibility,
shielding his senior commanders in the field from
criticisms arising from their lousy handling of the
antiterrorist operations.
“The
ambuscades are the failure of the chief of staff,” he
said when asked by a reporter about the performance of
senior military commanders in the area, especially the
Western Mindanao Command chief, Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo,
in the conduct of the antiterrorist war in the region.
As this
developed, a Malacañang official said that Moro National
Liberation Front (MNLF) members who connive with the al-Qaeda-linked
Abu Sayyaf will be treated as subjects of the
government’s ongoing offensive in the provinces of
Basilan and Sulu.
Presidential adviser on the peace process Secretary
Jesus Dureza said the rogue MNLF members are treated
individually as subjects in the ongoing offensive, and
not as “organizational targets.”
The
government forged a peace pact with the MNLF in 1996.
On the
other hand, the government is engaged in peace
negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Dureza
said only those who are identified, whether they belong
to the MNLF or MILF, conniving with the bandits are
“fair target of these operations against the Abu Sayyaf.”
“Those
who are fighting against the government are subjected to
the same operations,” he said.
He said
that coordination continues between the government and
the MNLF leadership so that everything will be cleared
and ironed out concerning the involvement of rogue MNLF
fighters in the field.
He said
that in the case of Basilan, the MILF has agreed to stay
aside so that they will not be affected in the offensive
in the said province.
Esperon,
who presided over a command conference in Camp Aguinaldo
along with Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, was asked
if he was not considering relieving Cedo and other
commanders from their posts, considering the military’s
lapses in the South, such as the kidnapping of Italian
priest Fr. Giancarlo Bossi in Zamboanga, the ambush of
soldiers in Basilan that left 14 Marines killed, and the
similar incidents in the two towns of Sulu last week
that left 25 soldiers dead.
Cedo is
scheduled to retire next month.
Esperon
said junior ground commanders, such as company
commanders and platoon leaders, are the ones responsible
for the lapses as he absolved Cedo, who is his classmate
in the Philippine Military Academy class of 1974.
While
there have been mistakes, Esperon said that the Armed
Forces could not “unnecessarily” punish the responsible
junior officers.
Meanwhile, Teodoro said that the military will conduct
its war against the terrorists and lawless elements in
Mindanao “without let up,” but assured that this will not affect the ongoing
peace negotiations with the MILF and the peace accord
with the MNLF.
The
Armed Forces said that a joint group composed of Abu
Sayyaf bandits and rogue members of the MNLF were the
ones behind the ambush of members of the Army’s 33rd
Infantry Battalion in Indanan and Maimbung towns in Sulu
on Thursday last week.
Teodoro
said that they would not allow lawless elements to wreak
havoc in Mindanao at the pretext of the government’s
peace accord and negotiations with Moro groups.
He said
the only option for the lawless elements to stop the war
against them is to surrender and yield their arms.
“We
could not stop our operations against the Abu Sayyaf and
other bandits. The only time to stop is when they lay
down their arms and surrender,” the defense secretary
said.
Teodoro
assured that the war is being conducted in a “controlled
state,” and that it is only waged against specific
targets.
He also
dismissed the possibility that it could ruin the
agreement with the MNLF and the talks with the MILF as
it is conducted in consultation with them and other
stakeholders.
Meanwhile the Office of Civil Defense said that the
military operations have affected a total of 6,390
families, or 35,725 persons, in 46 barangay in 13 towns
in the provinces of Maguindanao, Shariff Kabunsuan, Sulu
and Basilan.
It said
that the Department of Social Welfare and Development
was attending to the needs of the displaced families.
(With B. Garcia Jr.) |
