THE Philippines suffered a horrible loss this past week that warrants a chapter in the history of this nation.
The words of Pope Francis during his homily in Tacloban to the Supertyphoon Yolanda victims are particularly poignant and perhaps even prophetic.
“So many of you have lost everything. I do not know what to tell you. But surely He knows what to tell you! So many of you have lost members of your family. I can only be silent; I accompany you silently, with my heart.”
The scant and perhaps even unreliable information that we have at this time makes it impossible to draw any specific conclusions. However, we do know that the operation conducted by the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police went terribly wrong.
While it is unjustified to draw any concrete conclusions at this point, it would seem that at almost every step of the way, there were errors in judgment and mistakes in the execution of the plan.
A section of a poem by Scotsman Robert Burns, paraphrased in English, comes to mind, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry and leave us nothing but grief and pain instead of promised joy”.
Understanding exactly what happened and what went wrong through a thorough and unbiased investigation is the first step to resolving our grief, anger, and despair. That is the singular duty of the government at this time. No stone must be left unturned in the search for truth. Every potential participant in the decision making process that led to this operation or involved in its implementation must be called to give answers that the public and the families of the fallen dead demand.
Justice must be served. But justice can only be genuine when the truth is fully revealed.
There are those that will use this tragedy to further their own agendas. It will take large amounts of Pope Francis’s “mercy and compassion” to condone their actions. But we must expect that and temper our response.
While all Filipinos urgently seek peace and a beneficial resolution to the generational bloodshed in Mindanao, this event cannot be ignored or easily dismissed. Peace and progress can only come when all factions are willing to give up something important to achieve that peace and prosperity. Peace and freedom both come with a price and unless that price is paid, peace will always be transitory. And what might that price be?
That is a question that can only be answered by all stakeholders involved. So then the question becomes for both groups and individuals: What are you willing to give up, what price are you willing to pay, for peace in Mindanao?
1 comment
We should not let our predisposition of what should be true decide what is true.