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Why do the 20 officers of League of Cities of the Philippines, led
by Mandaluyong Mayor Benjamin Abalos Jr., the LCP president, accept
the premise that the perpetrators of the Lanao del Norte, North
Cotabato and Saranggani terrorist attacks and killings are
“rogue elements” of the MILF?
MILF fighters under Commander Bravo and
Commander Ombra Kato committed the terrorist acts. The MILF
leadership has not disowned these commanders.
On Saturday, August 23, one of these two
commanders told the TV stations that he had nothing to do with the
attacks, killings and hostage taking. He said his men acted on their
own.
The MILF leadership also says the same thing.
That it’s not their fault if lower-rank MILF soldiers are so
frustrated as to be driven to commit terrorist acts. It’s the
fault, they say, of the Philippine government and the Supreme Court
that the treasonous MOA-AD could not be signed as scheduled on
August 5.
Foreign support
The MILF has been playing this game with
impunity. Perhaps because its leaders can count on the support of
Malaysia. The other powers have helped the MILF get hold of a
document initialed by men of the Philippine government surrendering
parts of Mindanao to a Bangsamoro state.
The British government made Sabah (North Borneo)
a state of the Malaysian Federation—over and against the ignored
objection of our government and the Sultan of Sulu. The British got
the support of the United States, and the United Nations, in this
enterprise.
The US wanted to build up a strong Southeast
Asian alliance to combat communism. The proposed Malaysian
Federation would be a major component of this alliance.
How about us Flips? They could safely ignore us.
We were solidly pro-American and anti-communist anyway (except for
Joma Sison-Amado Guerrero’s band, who were being supported by the
Indonesian and the Chinese commies.)
Brown Americans
It didn’t count that we were “the Brown
Americans.” Uncle Sam did not lift a finger to help us attain real
rule over Sabah. There, until the late 60s the chiefs of police and
the top civil servants were mainly Cebuano-speaking Filipinos.
Having Sabah and its oil would have made the Philippines richer,
with a stronger economic foundation.
Perhaps, Uncle Sam saw us just as Gen. Douglas
MacArthur did. He was the virtual post-W W II emperor of Japan.
Emperor Hirohito was MacArthur’s politely-treated captive.
MacArthur and the Americans leaders saw Filipinos as nice yes-men,
trying hard to be like Americans, but lacking the discipline and
sophistication of the Japanese. Which is why MacArthur poured all
the US money, aid and goodwill he could get from Washington and the
Pentagon to build Japan into USA’s partner in Asia.
Domino theory
In the 60s, British leaders—and the US leaders
in the White House and in Congress—were enthralled by the
so-called Domino Theory. It saw the various Southeast Asian
countries falling over to Communism like dominoes. The local
communist parties were inspired—and supported—by China, Vietnam
and the Soviet Union.
There was one other thing that made us seem
unreliable to Uncle Sam and the Brits: That most of us were taking
Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, democracy, freedom of the press and
human rights seriously.
In contrast, the leaders of the Malay Peninsula
were feudal princes and lords. The Brits and the Americans needed
people, like Lee Kuan Yew and Tungku Abdul Rahman, who would not
think twice about breaking the balls of commies and troublesome
leftists. We were stupidly in love with campaigning and holding
elections every four years. And our Senate and Supreme Court—both
having some men of wisdom, culture and Godliness—were too sold on
democratic ideals. We could not possibly be trustworthy allies
against the Communist Menace.
The president at the time of the creation of the
Malaysian Federation was Mrs. Arroyo’s father, Diosdado. He tried
to defend our—and the Sultan of Sulu’s—sovereign claim to
Sabah. But the foreign powers—and Filipinos who would gain from
supporting the UK-US-UN decision to ignore the Philippines
undermined his efforts. Later, Ninoy Aquino would support British
and Malaysian interests because he was “promoting democracy in the
Philippines.” He exposed to the BBC Marcos’ tragic,
nationalistic “Operation Merdeka” to subvert Malaysian rule over
Sabah.
Martial law
Ferdinand Marcos became our popularly elected
president when he defeated President Macapagal in 1965. The foreign
powers at first treated him (as did the Filipinos who held the
powers of banking, industry and media) as someone who would
eventually disappear from the scene. Then he began to behave like
the strongmen rulers of China, Taiwan and Korea, stronger than the
Malaysian leaders and Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew. When he was
reelected for a second term, the foreign powers—and the
Filipinos— started giving him a bit more respect than they used
to.
Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and stopped
treating politics and government as a game played according to set
rules. He jailed his enemies—including Ninoy Aquino. The foreign
powers began to treat him like an emperor. They—and even
Malaysia—listened more attentively to what he had to say about the
future of our part of the world.
rqb@manilatimes.net
rq_bas@yahoo.com
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