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March 2, 2000, The Philippine Star, Let's not minimize the Muslim 'threat', by Max Soliven,

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March 2, 2000, The Philippine Star, Let's not minimize the Muslim 'threat', by Max Soliven,


Better paranoid than sorry. That's what is implicated in the urgent request
made by Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Rodolfo Biazon to Senate President Blas
Ople, asking for a meeting with the President to urge him to convene the
National Security Council.
A warning from the two solons about the prospects of violence escalating in
Mindanao, not to mention a possibility that terrorist action might even erupt
in Metro Manila and elsewhere, is not to be lightly disregarded.
Enrile, after all, was a former Defense Minister in the Marcos government and a
Secretary of National Defense in the Corazon Aquino administration (until he
was "fired" by the latter). As for Biazon, the general used to be chief of
staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and a tough Marine commandant who
saw action in Davao and the rest of Mindanao during his years of service.
Deputy House Speaker for Mindanao Daisy Avance-Fuentes (2nd district, South
Cotabato) is also proposing that the President convene the NSC in the wake of
the series of "bombings" in the south, on a ferry boat, in a bus, and just
outside the Catholic-run radio station DzMS in her native Cotabato, operated by
the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI).
In truth, the President -- who is returning this afternoon from a six-day trip
to Mindanao -- ought to find convening the security council not only timely but
imperative. Although the vice chairman for military affairs of the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front Al Haj Murad has been disclaiming the bomb attacks which
killed 44 and wounded dozens of civilians (including the seven hurt at Station
DzMS) and alleging that they were just a "military plot" to discredit the MILF,
how can such incidents -- even if perpetuated by Moro "Lost Commands" as some
maintain -- be discounted?
There is a wave of "fundamentalism" sweeping the Muslim community in Mindanao,
and even unsettling the authority of the less-radical leadership of the MILF
(but only less radical, I hasten to add, in relative terms) -- and many
insurgent groups are spoiling for battle. As reports reveal, the Moro rebels
have been undergoing intensive training, and have recently received more
sophisticated weaponry and funds from Islamic "supporters" abroad.
* * *
There have been worrisome developments not just in Mindanao but in the entire
Muslim world. For instance, in Nigeria, Muslims and Christians have just been
killing each other in religious clashes provoked by an attempt of the Muslim
leadership in their north, like in the city of Kaduna, to impose "Sharia" or
Islamic law on the Christians.
Don't think we're safer in Metro Manila. There are hundreds of thousands of
Muslims now living in our urban areas in Luzon as well as in scattered
communities in the provinces.
In Manila, for example, which has a daytime population of 3.7 million people,
there are at least 40,000 Muslims in the heart of the city, mostly clustered
around their central mosque in Quiapo.
Manila Mayor Lito Atienza told me yesterday that there were also Muslims who
have established fairly large communities in unlikely areas, like two barangays
in the San Andres area where an estimated 5,000 Muslims are residing.
What if there are troublemakers or fanatics hidden in the fold of such
otherwise peaceful settlements? They could do a lot of unexpected damage if
they manage to strike.
Manila is significant not only for being a melting pot of religious and ethnic
groups, where not much has, in reality, "melted." It is the nation's premier
city for education. The student population here is no less than 600,000 --
mainly concentrated in the old "university belt" from Mendiola, Claro M. Recto
down to Plaza Morayta, then along the new university belt along Taft avenue
(including De La Salle University and St. Benilde, Sta. Escolastica, St. Paul,
etc.) Thirdly, in the Intramuros area. There are schools and colleges scattered
all over the city, each a location for the recruitment of student militants for
various causes.
Our capital city, in fact, has 879 barangays, making it a population-intensive
metropolis.
* * *
The succession of eruptions of Mayon volcano is cause for increasing alarm. The
problem with nature is that, despite all the advances of science and
technology, it's difficult for scientists and certainly our Phivolcs experts to
predict what will happen next.
The ash showers and avalanche of fiery rocks as the volcanic turbulence reaches
its eighth day are reminiscent of the more hairy explosions of Mount Pinatubo
in Central Luzon, although Mayon's fury -- thus far -- appears far less deadly.
Let's pray for the best, while working hard to rescue and temporarily resettle
the scores of thousands of refugees and evacuees.
The Mayon volcano's belches and lava flows would have attracted more
international attention (strangely, the coverage of the disaster by the British
Broadcasting Corp. and the Cable News Network both seem to be more graphic than
our own) were it not for the fact that a more terrible month-long catastrophe
has been afflicting Mozambique in Africa, drowning entire villages and towns
under rising floodwaters fed by torrential rains and still-raging rivers.
It is pitiful and horrifying to see TV footage of such widespread misery,
villagers -- clinging to their almost submerged roofs for a week or two without
food and potable water -- awaiting rescue by overworked but valiant helicopter
teams from nearby South Africa, and a mounting relief effort by the United
States, Britain and France.
This remains a perilous world -- not merely for our unremitting wars and
massacres but owing to non-stop natural disasters, like the increasingly
vehement eruption of a volcano in Greenland whose convulsions and fumes are
threatening even the air routes of commercial carriers flying to and from
Europe.
If there's a lesson to be derived from this serial misery, it's that men have
to learn to help one another -- instead of engaging in ceaseless quarrels.
However, we never seem to learn.
No wonder the writer H.G. Wells (1866-1946) in his celebrated Outline of
History warns that "human history becomes more and more a race between
education and catastrophe."
Education, alas, always loses that race.
On the other hand, there is that unforgettable line from Eleanor Roosevelt, the
widow of the great American wartime President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The former
First Lady said, not long before she died in 1962: "The future belongs to
those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." It is our duty,
therefore, to continue to dream. And act on the inspiration of those dreams.
Another American President Harry S. Truman (who while admired by many in the
media thoroughly hated the press) said something else memorable. Truman, who
was President from 1945 to 1953 (succeeding Roosevelt who died in office) made
two of the hardest decisions ever forced on an occupant of the White House. He
had to make the decision to drop the first atom bombs -- on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki in Japan -- to speed the end of the war in 1945. The second one was to
fire the extremely popular General Douglas MacArthur at the height of the
Korean War in April 1951.
Truman once said of his job: "I come to the office each morning and stay for
long hours doing what has to be done to the best of my ability. And when you've
done the best you can, you can't do any better. So when I go to sleep I turn
everything over to the Lord and forget it."

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