The following news item stared long and hard at my inner eye which soon blinks and blinks with a discernment— the all-out-war in Maguindanao is bound to last within the lifetimes of most everyone for generations in the region.
The military offensives against the breakaway Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in Maguindanao had not stopped even after the Army announced to end it on March 30, a Moro group said.
Suara Bangsamoro said the “Army’s pursuit operations using ground and air artilleries, continued in the second district of Maguindanao.”
The day after 6th[Infantry Division’s public announcement of a stop to all-out offensives, the 1st Mechanized Brigade of the Philippine Army set-up camp at Barangay Binangga, Talayan in Maguindanao for five days (April 1-5) bringing with them 22 military tanks and 6×6 trucks.
Why the AFP Gen. Gregorio Catapang made an announcement that his “all-out-offensives” will end on the first week of April 2015 is beyond our comprehension. By the looks of it, there is no intention on the part of the Aquino government to stop the war in Mindanao. The Mindanaoans are bound to experience intermittent armed aggressions by government troops into the territories of the Bangsamoro people until the twelfth of Never. Catapang’s braggadocio is not a mere lapse in estimation, it is a flagrant act of lying and deceit.
But of course, this does not depart from the policy blueprint of the US-driven “war on terror”. If we grant that the heart of the Aquino administration throbs with good intentions, it is shackled by its own voluntary obeisance to the interests of the United States government. It can never act on its own with political will. It is forever beholden to the whims and caprices of its master puppeteer.
Still, it is entertaining to hear the central puppet’s bagpipes within the walls of Malakanyang, their mouths frothing with words of assurance that the enactment of the BBL will end the historical scourges of poverty and conflict in Mindanao. “It is a holistic treatment,” the female torotot says. Well, ‘holistic’ in the sense that deceitful community development projects would be undertaken alongside armed attacks in an endless war on terror. And certainly, the grandiose anti-poverty program will open the richly-endowed lands and natural resources of Mindanao for foreign-owned corporations to rake unlimited profits for themselves at the expense of the indigenous population and to the detriment of real development.
Yes, this is truly entertaining. It tickles us to hilarious laughter, even as we begin to wonder – Can Art beget Reality? If there is a chance for Art to remake the features of real conditions instead of the other way around, these words of Malakanyang are a wondrous reecho of a song parody in a musical play that I wrote last month, featuring the three “showtime hosts” in the Presidential Palace whose collective noble task is to deodorize the bunglings and failures of their Big Boss President Noynoy Aquino. Here is the parody to the tune of “Roses Remind Me of Rio” –
We play the tunes of pretensions,
hypocrisies and deceptions
To deodorize da kapalpakan
ng ating pamahalaan
We are the Trio Los Fallacious
The music magicians of the Palace
We repair da pangit na imahe
Ng palpak na Presidente
REF: So join na lang kayong lahat sa aming journey
Sa lubak-lubak, matuwid na daan
Wala naman tayong dapat alalahanin
Nandiyan naman si Uncle Sam
Handa laging makikialam
We are da Trio Los Fallacious
Malakanyang’s magic torotots
We repair the very low rating
Ng imaheng nagkamuritsing
Right now, the AFP that is also warring against the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu is in hot pursuit after a wanted terrorist identified as a certain Sahiron by the US and whose head is pegged with a huge dollar bounty. It seems there is no end to the list of notorious terrorists wanted by the US government and found always to be coddled by local Moro terrorist group? This provides a very convenient excuse for the US to conduct a proxy war on Philippine soil with the AFP as the willing frontline pawns. The Philippine government is not only fooling its own people, it subjects its own armed forces to the ‘beck and call’ of foreign military managers.
This is a government that boasts of being concerned in upholding and protecting its sovereignty against the bullying adventures of China in the West Philippine Seas, but gives free rein to whatever it is American soldiers wish to do on our lands. This is the same government that is stubbornly holding on to its claim on the Spratlys but refuses to support the Sulu Sultan’s claim to Sabah, the Sultan being its own citizen who deserves prime if not unconditional backing from its government.
Now its blatant obeisance to the US government takes its toll in the Mamasapano Tragedy wherein 44 of its Special Force contingent were fed as cannon fodders in a military operation dictated by the American government. And it keeps on dishing out denials and deceitful pronouncements in defense of the questionable actuations of American troops in our soil. It allows its sovereign territory and domestic facilities to be used in the dubious plans and activities concocted by the US as part of its “war on terror”.
It believes perhaps that it is on equal footing with the superpower in stature as an ally? How preposterous! It can’t even protect its own OFW, what big idea resides in the mind of the Philippine leadership that it will merit immediate or forthright assistance from the US if it is attacked by China or any other foreign power?
This war by proxy conducted by the US Government and which the Philippine leadership join in partnership through some immoral and illegal agreements will last for as long as the US nurtures economic interests in this part of the globe. US Imperialism is the number one terrorist monster that masks itself with all forms of deceitful maneuvers and insidious tactics. In other parts of the globe more and more countries are exposing and fighting against its ugly evil tentacles.
