Dahil doon nagkandaloko-loko ang operasyon. Umabot sa 67 na buhay ang nalagas kasama na doon ang 44 na miyembro ng SAF, 18 na miyembro ng Moro Islamic Liberation Front at 5 na sibilyan.
Sa halip na purihin ang BOI sa pamumuno ni Police Director Benjamin Magalong, hepe ng Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, inabswelto pa rin ni Interior Secretary Mar Roxas si Pangulong Aquino.
In the 30 or so minutes that I was in the midst of the teeming crowd in Wuri Railway Station in Taichung, Taiwan last Saturday, I gained insights about the Taiwanese and in way, in their relations with mainland China, more than what I have learned in my readings in the past.
Thousands and thousands of people of all ages – babies, children, elderly, even the handicapped, filled every inch of the train station. Organizers said there were 1.5 million visitors that night, a record attendance.
As I flowed with the crowd, I thought of the stampede in Shanghai last New year’s eve where 36 people died and for some fleeting moments, it was scary.
But the amazing thing was,the crowd was moving orderly. There was no pushing or elbowing out each other. It was discipline at its most awesome.
“Portraits of Mosquito Press “documents the struggle for press freedom at the time when the country was still in the grip of the Marcos dictatorship.
“Mosquito Press” was Marcos’ belittling of the small, independent newspapers which he allowed to operate to give a semblance of press freedom under his autocratic rule.
The small, independent newspapers lead by We Forum, owned and edited by Jose Burgos, Jr., were called the “alternative press.” Alternative to the establishment press owned by Marcos cronies and relatives and toed the government line that Marcos was the savior of the Philippines.
We Forum was critical of Marcos. When asked by international media about issues raised in We Forum, Marcos dismissed it as nothing but the handiwork of the “mosquito press.” In effect, they are just mosquitos. Nothing that he cannot swat easily.
Later, Marcos would realize that mosquito bites can be potent.
Aside from the lively exchanges in Facebook (never mind the moronic posts- you have the choice to ignore them or better to unfriend the source), there’s a feature in this social media that is oftentimes hilarious, it makes FB surfing fun.
It’s the translation.
Like this translation of a post by business entrepreneur Jaime Gachitorena on a Lifestyle Inquirer article about the rumored father of Sen. Grace Poe (she was found abandoned in Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral in Iloilo): “ So Bongbong Marcos and Grace Poe are magkapatid?”
FB translation: “So Bongbong Mark and Grace Poe are brothers?
He had one whole month to tell the Filipino people about his role in the debacle that claimed the lives of 44 members of the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police, 18 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and six civilians including an eight-year old girl who was hit in the crossfire.
He had three televised address on the armed operation that turned into a massacre – Jan. 28, three days after the tragedy; Jan. 30 necrological service at Camp Bagong Diwa, and Feb. 6 to announce his acceptance of the resignation of suspended Police Chief Alan Purisima.
The tragedy in Mamasapano, Maguindanao claimed the lives of 44 of the country’s elite policemen, 18 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and some civilians.
One of those who died was an eight-year old girl named Sarah.
I learned about Sarah from Hussein Macarambon’s heart-rending post in Facebook:
“ At a forum organized by advocates of peace for Mindanao, the room started to get filled with a terrible feeling of sadness. Stories evoked tears when people who have followed the Mamasapano incident, on the ground or from afar, attempted to describe the pain and grief felt by many, especially the bereaved families of the 67 casualties- families of the 44 SAF troops, of the 5 civilians, and of the 18 MILF combatants.
“One of them lost the youngest victim, an eight-year old girl called Sarah. Her family was roused from sleep by the sound of bullets that had hit them. They survived. Sarah did not.
It was President Aquino who informed Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Armed Forces Chief Gen. Gregorio Catapang and the rest of the presidential party in Zamboanga on the Mamasapano debacle on Jan. 25, a source close to Malacañang said.
That’s why in the hearings in the Senate and the House of Representatives the three and Lt. Gen. Rustico Guerrero, chief of Western Mindanao Command said they didn’t inform Aquino of the dawn carnage that left 44 members of the Special Action Force dead when they were with him throughout the day.
US-centric Filipinos may not be aware that the Philippines and Iran share a lot of common experiences-from rising from devastating natural calamities to political upheavals.
Foremost is the harnessing of people power against an extravagant and tyrannical regimes.
Many Filipinos like to think that we “invented” People Power with the ouster of President Ferdinand Marcos on Feb. 25, 1986 and inspired other countries in Eastern Europe, and much later Arab countries, to go out in the streets and overthrow tyrants.
But the Iranians did it seven years earlier than the EDSA People Power. On Feb. 11,1979 angry Iranians, mostly students, drove out the United States- supported Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.
Mayor Ampatuan (yes, the Ampatuans of the 2009 Maguindanao massacre are still very much a force to reckon with in Maguindanao) said that at about 1:30 in the afternoon of Jan. 25, members of the joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) arrived to stop the battle between the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police on one side and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters on the other side.
The fighting had been raging since dawn. The SAF were on their way out of the area after they accomplished killing one of their targets, Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir alias ”Marwan”, high in the terrorists list of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. Marwan had a $5 million price of his head.
Their other target, Basit Usman, a bomb expert was able to escape.
Supreme Court Justice Lourdes Sereno opposed the appointment of Jardeleza to the High Court accusing him of treason when he omitted Itu Aba in the Memorial or memorandum filed before the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal in connection with the case filed by the Philippine questioning the legality of China’s nine-dashed line map which overreaches into the territory of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.
Itu Aba is occupied by Taiwan, once part of China but now considers itself a sovereign state as Republic of China. The Philippines adopts a One-China policy which considers Taiwan a province of China.