As the military gears for the major offensive that AFP chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. announced in Basilan last week, the people recoil over how many lives will be lost further in a war that they do not understand.
In less than two months, the hostilities, which started with the July 10 ambush by elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the town of Al-Barka (formerly Tipo-Tipo) in Basilan, have claimed more than a hundred lives. Fifty-seven soldiers have died, 10 of them in a most gruesome manner, and 30,000 persons have been displaced.
An undetermined number have been killed on the side of the “enemy” that the public is not so clear about.