THE recurring image the government is conveying to the public over the preventable death of 42 officers and men of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force who were mercilessly slaughtered in Maguindanao last week while serving warrant of arrests on two international terrorists is that of a country compromising its own national security and public safety interests.
Worse, some of its officials are inept, reactive rather than proactive and appeared to operate without a clearly defined chain of command.
This is reflected by the ceaseless issuances of conflicting statements by the same government officials who tend to aggravate the situation rather than to offer a lasting solution to the country’s deteriorating national security and public safety situations.
It must be understood that one of the paramount responsibilities of the government is not to compromise to the enemies of state the safety and security of the people and territory (air, land and sea) in all circumstances.
National security is not just about the defense of the State from the military and police viewpoints. It is also about jobs, food, housing, water, electricity, traffic and disaster preparedness, to cite only a few.
A chain of command is a system in a military or civil organization by which instructions are passed from the Commander in Chief or Chief Executive to a selective few in the armed services or the bureaucracy.
In the country, the chain of command in the military starts from the President or Chief Executive whose order is relayed to the Chief of Staff (COS) and from the COS, to the deputy chief of staff who disseminate the instruction to the selective field commanders chosen to implement the order. The defense secretary is not a member of the chain of command.
In the police organization, it’s similar in structure only that the secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) is included in the chain of command because the organization is civilian in character and nationwide in scope and it has to deal with local government units on public safety matters, among others.
How the DILG Sec. Mar Roxas and Acting PNP Director General Leonardo Espina, both key members of the police chain of command, were completely disregarded in the botch operation that led to the massacre of the SAF officers and men is an important issue that must be clarified.
According to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and some incompetent observers, it was a misencounter.
A misencounter refers to friendly forces.
Can you consider the MILF terrorists as friendly forces and not enemies of the State?
Consider this: The government is now locked in a peace talk with the MILF rebels who before the peace negotiation had declared a war against the government, curved out a large portion of our territory, declared them to be their own bangsamoro homeland and wanted to wangle a statehood from us under the guise of creating another autonomy.
To the uninitiated, the requirements for statehood are people, territory, government and sovereignty. The MILF claimed they have all of the four requirements and it cited the US, Malaysia and Japan as supporting them.
It’s not surprising at all why they are supporting them because they have their own vested national interests to protect in Mindanao, a part of the Philippine territory rich in oil and other mineral resources.
The country as well as US, Japan and Malaysia are dependent on Middle East oil. Mindanao commands such strategic waterways as the Straits of Malacca, Sunda, Lombok and Macassar which Japan and other East Asian countries’ oil and other trade must move. Through its security alliances, it acts as the buffer against terrorist attack and other threats.
The potential for terrorist disruption of vital political, social and economic interests in the region and the Middle East is formidable and has far-reaching implications on the national security situation in the Philippines, the Pacific Rim and other east Asian countries.
Just imagine if the MILF is granted statehood, you think the countries supporting them will still negotiate with the Philippine government?
Besides, are we not negotiating with the enemies of the state on a wrong premise, that of creating peace without requiring them first to surrender their arms?
To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio. arillo@gmail.com