“What’s happening to our country?”
This rhetorical question was whispered by former Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez to Police Gen. Tomas Karingal in 1982 while he was being wheeled to the hospital after being shot by assassins after attending mass at Mt. Carmel Church in Quezon City during the dark days of the Marcos dictatorship.
The question has been asked many times since then in hundreds of articles about the major ills of Philippines society — corruption, injustice, violence and other social problems.
I will take the liberty to ask it again after the shocking and brutal massacre of 64 civilians, including 30 journalists, in Maguindanao last week. What is happening to our country? Why has our beloved country sunk so deep that an international forensics expert has compared the death scene as very much like those he had seen in Rwanda.
“This looks like Rwanda,” Peruvian forensics expert Jose Pablo Baraybar was quoted as having described the massacre site. Baraybar was referring to the tiny African nation where 800,000 Tutsis were killed by Hutu militiamen at the height of a civil war in 1994.
But Rwanda was at the height of a civil war then. The Philippines is supposed to be at peace, and the civilians were ambushed and cold-bloodedly gunned down while on their way to file a certificate of candidacy for a man who was so afraid to face his opponents he sent his wife, two sisters, supporters and journalists to be murdered by his political rivals and the more than 100 militiamen who were blindly following orders.
In addition to being compared to Rwanda, the Philippines has now overtaken war-torn Iraq as the most dangerous place in the entire world for journalists.
It’s disheartening that the news of the massacre came after the Philippines attracted international recognition for the resounding victory of boxing icon Manny Pacquiao over Miguel Cotto, establishing himself as the one of the world’s greatest boxer ever, and the crowning of Efren Penaflorida as the CNN Hero of the Year.
The massacre was so shocking and so frightening that a few days later, four countries – Russia, Vietnam, Bhutan and Sri Lanka — withdrew from an international math competition scheduled to start in Iloilo City last Monday, fearing safety for their contestants.
Tribal and clan wars are known to be a common occurrence in many parts of Mindanao, but the brazenness of the Maguindanao massacre makes one wonder why was it that the perpetrators didn’t seem worried about being caught, as if some powerful group assured them that they were going to be protected.
Was it just a feeling of invincibility, having been in control of the province for many years? Was it just a seething hatred for the Mangudadatus that led them to kill the wife, the sisters and the supporters? But why kill the journalists, too?
One writer, Erick San Juan, offered the possibility that the massacre was instigated by “foreign hand” that has long shown more than keen interest in Mindanao. San Juan said the massacre was part of a grandiose plan to Balkanize that mineral-rich region and eventually establish a friendly state that would enable them to establish a foothold in Southeast Asia. Balkanization is a term used to describe the fragmentation of a region or a country into smaller units to enable the perpetrator to “divide and rule.”
He cited the tribal wars of Yugoslavia, East Timor, Iraq, Nigeria and Afghanistan that were alleged to have been instigated by the foreign hand.
It is not easy to agree with San Juan’s assessment, knowing that clan and tribal wars have long been a problem in that part of Mindanao. But so were tribal wars in those areas that succumbed to Balkanization, destruction and eventually control by the foreign hand alluded to by San Juan, which evidently is the United States.
Is it a coincidence that the massacre happened in the region controlled by the Moro National Liberation Front thru the Ampatuans and that the Mangudadatus are said to be sympathizers of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front?
I have warned in previous articles of the unusual interest shown by the US in Mindanao, particularly in the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) that delineated the areas in Mindanao that would be included in the proposed Bangsamoro state.
On August 4, 2008, in a column entitled “Bitter Pill to Swallow” about the possible US involvement in the rush to sign the controversial MOA-AD, I said:
“It is also possible the United States, in cahoots with the MILF, is pushing for the Bangsamoro Republic that would allow it to take a foothold on that region of Mindanao, which is not only very rich in natural and possibly oil resources, but is also a very strategic spot militarily.
“Certainly, there is an American card here somewhere. For one, it has been reported that the US State Department had tasked a group called the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) to undertake a project to help expedite a peace agreement between the Philippine government and the MILF from 2003 to 2007 that would support the establishment of an ancestral domain.
“The report said the US’s special interest in the GRP-MILF peace agreement is meant to prevent international terrorist groups from exploiting the conflict in the Philippines after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on the US. The late MILF chairman Salamat Hashim reportedly personally wrote US President George Bush in 2003 to help resolve the conflict between the government and the Moro people.
“The US support for the peace talks with the MILF came during the same period that the MILF, through Salamat, declared that they had renounced terrorism to attain their political ends.
“Secondly, US Ambassador Kinney has lately been too patronizing with the Mindanao people, visiting almost every month with various gifts and projects.”
Again last October 19, in a column entitled “Dancing the cha-cha with Washington,” I wrote:
“This time, the MILF wants direct involvement by the US in the peace process. While it could be ascertained from the events of last year prior to the aborted signing of the MOA that the US had an indirect, albeit influential hand in the formulation of that controversial MOA, now the MILF negotiators want the Americans to openly mediate in the negotiations.
“On Friday, US Deputy Ambassador Leslie Bassett led senior American officials in a two-hour meeting with Murad Ebrahim, the MILF leader, in Maguindanao’s Sultan Kudarat town.
“Basset reportedly assured Ebrahim of US support to the peace process in Mindanao. The US Embassy, however, wouldn’t categorically confirm the report, saying that “Ms. Bassett met with various leaders and officials in Cotabato as part of a routine familiarization visit.
“The US needs a more established military presence than the current Visiting Forces Agreement allows, and which the Philippine Constitution prohibits. A cooperative Bangsamoro Republic or even just a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity, which can enter into international agreements, can provide the US an opportunity to set up military bases in Mindanao, from which it can reassert its military power over Southeast Asia and check terrorism in the region.
“At the same time, a subservient Bangsamoro Republic can give American companies unlimited access to the region’s natural and mineral resources.”
Could San Juan have been right in asserting that the plan to kill Mangudadatu’s relatives and supporters got out of control when the 30 journalists who had joined the group were also killed?
All of these could be mere coincidences, and that the massacre was just the result of a seething bad blood between the two clans. But the similarities to what happened to Yugoslavia, Iraq, East Timor, Afghanistan and now, Mindanao, are just too eerie to ignore.
Going back to Pelaez’s question: What’s happening to our country? Being Balkanized?
(valabelgas@aol.com)