Every time the country faces a crisis, we tend to go back to the question that has obsessed us since independence—what kind of president can best lead us? A presidential election looms before us once again, this time framed by two critical events that have increasingly defined our expectations of an ideal leader: Supertyphoon “Yolanda” … Read more
What does it mean to talk peace with someone you’ve been fighting? In the beginning, you review the reasons that brought about the conflict. In the course of doing this, you start to allocate blame for what has happened. That is natural. Soon, you realize that, rather than be stuck in cycles of unproductive recrimination, … Read more
Two state functions were at play in the Jan. 25 Mamasapano incident: the pursuit of terrorists and the pursuit of peace. The first is a strictly police function, governed by its own operational code. The other is political, involving the pursuit of a delicate government policy. These two functions collided with one another at Mamasapano, … Read more
I cringed when, at one point in the final Senate hearing on the Mamasapano incident, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano glowered at government peace negotiator Miriam Coronel Ferrer and presidential adviser on the peace process Teresita Quintos Deles, and threw them the sarcastic question: “Whose interests are you representing in the negotiations with the MILF (Moro … Read more
“Joal” is Jose T. Almonte, the soft-spoken, high-minded military man who likes grand ideas and once navigated the corridors of power as an adviser/guru to the powerful and the ambitious. He is sometimes referred to as the “thinking soldier,” a description that fits General Almonte precisely because it implies that such a phenomenon may be … Read more
Those who criticize President Benigno Aquino III for his handling of the Mamasapano incident accuse him of insensitivity and incompetence. These are vague charges, but they have a resonance that no president must ignore. I think they have to do less with personal virtue or functional ability, but more with what people seek most in … Read more
One of the questions our politicians kept asking the representatives of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front at the legislative hearings on the Mamasapano incident was: Why were you harboring international terrorists in the communities under your control? That question, to be fair, should have been asked of the heads of the different local government units—from … Read more
In the wake of the unfortunate Jan. 25 encounter between government forces and elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, questions are now being asked about the MILF’s trustworthiness as a peace partner. Forty-four police commandos on a mission to arrest two highly wanted international terrorists were killed in that encounter. The Philippine National Police-Special … Read more
Out of the at least eight separate inquiries aimed at finding the truth behind the Jan. 25 Mamasapano incident, one or two should be able to tell us what “really” happened. That is our hope. Unfortunately, truth is not something that is out there, waiting to be discovered. Truth is rather something we make, something … Read more
“Justice!” was the collective call of the families and comrades of the 44 Philippine National Police-Special Action Force commandos who were slain in that lopsided encounter in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, last Jan. 25. This is not the kind of cry that is commonly heard from the ranks of policemen and soldiers whose job, unlike that of … Read more