Sa manlulupig, di ka pasisiil!

For The CBCP Monitor, by Teresa R. Tunay, OCDS 

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while truth is putting on its shoes,” wrote Mark Twain.  Quite true, literally.  Half-truths about the Mamasapano incident have, in fact, gone around the world via the internet while inquiries have yet to dig deeper into the truth. The Board of Inquiry hearings with the senators as well as the initial congress’ probe have led to more unanswered questions, particularly relating to the President’s involvement in the operation that resulted in the death of 44 SAF commandos.

Malacanang has remained tight-lipped, evading culpability while distracting the public with pretty words and noble promises.  “The President owns total responsibility for the Mamasapano incident,” says a Palace spokesman.  So what?  Is that all?  Saying something is not the same as facing the consequences of “owning total responsibility.”

Sacked officer Napenas also claimed total responsibility for the botched operations but declined to reveal further information implicating the FBI on Marwan’s cut finger issue, pending clearance from his lawyer.  Such hesitance has led to appeals for executive sessions, because the matter concerns “national security” but this to my mind only means anything now can be kept “confidential” in the interest of “national security.” What is “national security” anyway?  What constitutes a threat to it?  And whose “national security” are we trying to protect in a situation that involves two nations?

It is very obvious from the Senate and Lower House hearings that it is not only president Noynoy that’s being “protected”—it is the US collaborators as well.  Pray tell, if the US were not involved since the planning of Exodus/Wolverine, why would FBI agents be so ready to receive in GenSan the contentious finger?  (Why, of course, it’s the US paying the $6M!)  And why would someone apparently as thorough as Napenas just surrender the finger to the foreign agency without as much as photographing it for the sake of documentation?  (Was that also on the “advice” of his suspended chief?)

Now (as of February 17) that the house has suspended its probe and prefers to “wait for the investigation report of the Board of Inquiry” before resuming its own two weeks later, we cannot help but see Malacanang’s suppressive hand in it.  Because if the congress probe stops, it’s only Malacanang who’ll benefit from it—Noynoy’s Malacanang, which has established a reputation for railroading decisions by lubricating its relations with the congressmen.    Politics, as they say, is a numbers game.  And now, with the executive sessions being closed-door affairs, how can the public be sure what’s being filtered down to them is the truth?  Shouldn’t those hearings welcome questions from the public, too?  There are many questions and issues still that the senators are not asking or pursuing, for example: Who will explain the reports that there were Americans among the dead in Mamasapano?  Who denied the reports and what authority did they have to do that?  Who was that Norwegian sighted after the massacre, and what was his business there?  Is he part of the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize committee?  Why did Purisima leave for Saipan immediately after the tragedy instead of conferring with Napenas who had blindly heeded his “advice”?

Something that began in secret cannot be expected to end up in transparency beyond reproach.  From the start, Wolverine was a secret, kept hidden from government officials who ought to have known.  The secret fed upon another secret—the involvement of a suspended presidential buddy.  And when the clandestine operation exploded into mass murder, lies have had to be told in order to keep the secret a secret.

To mean anything, the death of 44 of the country’s finest policemen ought to nudge us into examining the way the highest official in our land is using power.  Several times this administration has been proven to defy our Constitution—have we forgotten the railroaded RH Bill, the Corona trial, the secret Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), and now the push for the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) in spite of Mamasapano?  How much longer are we going to be content with bread and circuses before we wake up to the truth that we are sleeping with the enemy?

Pity the leader who dances with the devil!  It is not moral for the powers that be to conduct their deals in secret and decide among themselves the future of the nation! The people have every right to know the truth, and make those accountable face the consequences of their actions.  At stake is the future of our children and grandchildren—of the whole country!

What are we doing to keep our nation whole and strong against world powers that covet our riches?  Do we mean it when we sing the national anthem?  “Never shall invaders trample our sacred shores!  Sa manlulupig, di ka pasisiil!”   Sometimes, in exasperation over our national condition, I ask “Are we still a colony of the US, or shall we soon be a colony of China?”  And that’s the truth.

Truth and common sense

 For The CBCP Monitor, by Teresa R. Tunay, OCDS.  

As of today, February 4, 10 days after the tragedy, the so-called “Maguindanao Massacre 2” and its increasingly intriguing legal ramifications still form the meat of the news.

The formation of several investigative bodies has been suggested—including a “Truth Commission”—but what “truths” will any investigation yield?  How pure will the motives of the investigating body be, how neutral its stand, how committed to the pursuit of truth?  Through all the agitation resulting from the mayhem that took 63 Filipino lives (44 + 19), certain truths have surfaced that need no further verification for reasons so obvious that common sense suffices. 

1.  A suspended PNP chief is still in control behind the scene; he is on top of Oplan Wolverine.  (“Suspended na, nakikialam pa?  Bakeeeeet?” Only the president of the republic can answer that).

2.  The president of the republic is the only other person to know of the plan.  (Pray tell, where else on earth is a suspended national police chief so trusted by a chief executive?)

3.   The acting PNP chief and the Local Government head are both ignorant of the plan.  (Why bypass these two?  Only the president can explain why).

4.  All of the above are from Chief Superintendent Getulio Napenas, admitted publicly and repeated endlessly by media.  He was sacked soon after.  (Because in telling the truth he implicated the country’s highest officer?  Only the president can answer that).

5.  There is a $5 million reward on the head of the quarry Marwan.  (Is this why Oplan Wolverine was kept a secret?  Maybe the president knows the answer to that).

6.  The suspended police chief has fled to Saipan, a US commonwealth.  Whatever the reason for the choice of destination, the timing bad and the president’s silence on it invites suspicion.  Is the US involved in Oplan Wolverine? (Nobody seems willing to answer that).

The incident is never mentioned in the international news—I find that very strange.  As I write this foreign television channels are all agog to report bad news around the world, including: the burning to death of a Jordanian pilot; the beheading of the a Japanese journalist by the ISIS; the stabbing of some French cops in Nice; a train collision in New York that killed six people; renewed “catastrophic” clashes in Ukraine; the hospitalization of Whitney Houston’s daughter; the toy sales that boosted Disney’s coffers; and the ubiquitous football matches.

Do you not wonder why something as tragic as this Mindanao clash that killed 63 Filipinos—happening in the middle of peace talks and implicating the president and his friend the suspended police chief—is not getting even 10 seconds of footage on international tv?  Is the welfare of this poor island nation of less importance to their audiences than the life of dead celebrity’s daughter?

You might find interesting what I heard about foreign media’s silence from a friend—among that rare breed of thinkers who wed intellectual agility with sound moral judgment: “Either it isn't newsworthy enough ... or the US Embassy had purchased the gag.  In my humble opinion the proof of US involvement is the silence of foreign media on the SAF44.  It would be so easy for modern investigative journalism to dig up the facts and expose another US blunder, at the end of which chain would be ... well, by command responsibility, Obama.  Those covert operators at USAID and spin doctors in Dewey Boulevard are sweating bullets trying to cover ass.  Could the same not be happening in Malacanang?”

He asks who authorized Purisima to remote-control the operation, and points out that the suspended police chief ‘s training “was done mainly in Uncle Sam’s turf… in 2011, 2010, 2004, 1987, 1986. Who wouldn't suspect that he had been recruited somewhere along the way?  They had him in '86, by my reckoning.  Who wouldn't suspect that Alan Purisima's unexplained wealth came not from Filipino taxpayers, but American? … Doesn't it make you shudder to think that the Philippine National Police can be headed by an agent of a foreign power?  It's a question of loyalty and trust.  Make no mistake about it:  Noynoy and Alan are virtual American citizens, loyal to the United States (and beyond that, even Freemasonry).”

My friend continues:  “But the way facts are emerging, it seems that Purisima was more than a consultant.  And the whole operation went way beyond Noynoy or his good friend Alan. It has all the marks of a behest political action op from the US (under cover of USAID).  The objectives were not wrong.  But the execution was terribly flawed. They have no permanent friends, these guys, only permanent interests.  They bypassed Philippine Governmentt authorities and violated Philippine sovereignty, at the expense of the lives of Filipino “pawns” about whom they could not care less.   As a matter of partisan practice, Noynoy was raring to gather the Nobel pogi points for the capture of Marwan and Usman.  But then, pffft!  Even now, official explanations are being spun to broadcast limited versions of the whole truth.”

Much as I would not wish to “unfriend” the country that has been the home of so many of my relatives, I cannot play deaf to my friend’s incisive observations, for it has been the strategy of world powers wanting to dominate a nation: divide and conquer. 

There are so many other facts and facets to explore relating to the Mamasapano incident, but for now, we remember that the tragedy snuffed the lives of not just 44 SAF commandos but also of 19 rebels, all Filipinos.  Brother against brother in a bloodbath—all for what?  Things are not always what they seem to be.  It’s about time we Filipinos took a serious look at world politics and see our puny spot in it. And that’s the truth.