July 19, 2004, Philippine Star, Our Foolish 'Truce' w / MILF Crippled Drive Vs, Terrorists, Max V. Soliven

MANILA, 4 (STAR) BY THE WAY By Max V. Soliven - The last Filipino "soldier" is scheduled to be plucked out of Iraq today, fulfilling the arrogant demands of the Islamic terrorists. Let them keep their end of this devil's bargain, then, and set free our hostaged truck driver, Angelo de la Cruz – with his head intact.

Okay, our government has surrendered. There's no other way to put it. This is not, as some squeal, an "exit with honor" because, as they claim, the invasion of Iraq is an unjust war. What our government did was a disgraceful stampede for the exit. In a few weeks, specifically next August 20, when our country's commitment to the "coalition" in Iraq, and our pledge to help the new Iraqi government officially expires, and the United Nations presumably takes over training and assistance projects, then we could have exited with honor.

Why didn't we stay the course then, so we could march out with our flag proudly flying? Then our allies could not say that we deserted them, broke our pledge, and yielded to the blackmail of a bunch of terrorists calling themselves the Khalid Ibn al-Wahid Squadron.

Furthermore, the entire planet now knows – thanks to our very well-publicized withdrawal and the daily reading out of the names of our officers and men as they head for the "exit" – that we sent such a piddling, puny little "force" to Iraq not even big enough to scare a camel; 51 policemen and soldiers meekly disguised as a "humanitarian aid" mission. Susmariosep. From the inception, we didn't even have the guts to call them "military".

I guess it's par for the course. Look at the "new" Cabinet which is, piecemeal, being unveiled.

The situation is, in a way, like our most popular sport, basketball. When a team walks off the court when the game still has fifteen minutes to go, not even "the last two minutes", that is not an exit with honor. It's quitting. If a team fights till the bell which ends the contest, even if it loses, it loses with honor.

Your parents and grandparents know very well the slogan of Manuel Uy, the legendary "Sa Linggo ang Bola" agent who became famous for selling the most Sweepstakes tickets, year after year. His motto was: A winner never quits, a quitter never wins.

We quit. That's the long and short of it.

A million hallelujahs sung to La Presidenta and her government by her own ruling Lakas-CMD congressmen and partymates won't convert the surrender to terrorists into an act of courage and leadership. Sure, we may have "saved" one poor OFW from being "beheaded" – but we'll soon know the cost, in terms of the safety of 1.4 million other Filipino OFWs in that war zone and danger zone, and in terms of their continued employment.

Don't we recall? We've lost that hapless Filipino engineer who got blown up in a Baghdad bombing, and three Filipinos mercilessly murdered in the terrorist raid in al-Kobar near Dammam, Saudi Arabia, by the way, where Angelo was really employed (till they sent him in a convoy to truck oil to Iraq).

There will be more at risk, you can bet your life on it. This is not to sound callous – this is to be realistic. Those of us who've covered the Middle East on the ground and in the desert (including the Black September War in next door Jordan and the Irbid in 1970) know a little bit more about it.

Perhaps even this latest wimpish caper isn't even news to the terrorists. They've probably known about our marshmallow hearts from our previous actions or inaction in Mindanao.

Speaking about "beheading", which is the subject today of so much tearful ululation and radio-TV-print media attention, why didn't we get angry and indignant when the Catholic priest, Father Roel Gallardo, was abducted along with school teachers and children in Basilan by Abu Sayyaf terrorists?

Two female teachers were ravished, their breasts cut off, and killed. Father Gallardo was cruelly tortured, his eyes gouged out, then he was beheaded.

[Wrong.]

The "beheading" threat on Angelo is not new. In Mindanao from Basilan to the Mindanao mainland, it's a terrorist sport.

And what about the 20 hostages who were seized by the Abu Sayyaf at the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan on May 27, 2002? Those ASG thugs led by Abu Musab (Isnilon Totoni Hapilon), Abu Omar (Bakkal Hapilon), Abu Sabaya (Aldam Tilao), Solaiman (Jainal Antel Sali), the ruthless "Bro Kosovo" (Alhamzer Limbong), Toting Craft Hanno (Zacarias) – and ultimately by the over-all ASG Chief, Moktar alias Khadafi Abubakar Janjalani – were a bloodthirsty bunch.

Within six days, they beheaded the Dos Palmas cook, poor Sonny Dacquer. They beheaded security guard Armando Bayona, too (June 1, 2001). Sixteen days later, they beheaded one of the American captives, Guillermo Sobero, aged 40, a contractor from California.

"Kosovo", now in government detention (perhaps, like those 22 inmates who escaped from the Sta. Rosa City Jail in Laguna yesterday, he'll get away soon), is suspected to have been the Abu who chopped off the head of poor Sobero.

Those Abu Sayyaf terrorists even got "trapped" in Lamitan Hospital by our armed forces on June 2, 2001, but inexplicably "broke out" of the cordon, kidnapping an additional three nurses – among them nurse Ediborah Yap, who was dragged through the jungles for one year and five days even forced to "marry" Abu Musab Hapilon, then was slain in the rescue firefight with Scout Rangers on June 7, 2002. (She left bereaved her husband and four children.) Another nurse abducted in Lamitan, Sheila, a mother of one, was in captivity for five and a half months (taken by Abu Omar Hapilon for himself) but finally released on November 15, 2001. Another nurse, Reina, in her 20s, was even "married" in captivity by Abu Moktar (Khadaffi Janjalani, the chieftain), and released in September owing to pregnancy.

This is the gang which dragged the Christian missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham through an unspeakable one year and 11 days, from Basilan to Zamboanga while defying the GMA government with impunity. Martin, 41, who had – with his wife Gracia – spent 17 years as Christian missionaries in our country, helping and working among Filipinos (speaking our dialects). He was killed by three gunshot wounds on June 7, 2002, in the rescue battle in Siraway, Zamboanga. Gracia was wounded, but rescued, and her harrowing and touching story is told in her bestseller, In The Presence of my Enemies.

Alas, in this book, while she continues to say nice things about us, and thank our people and government, Gracia reveals how ineptly this Administration, our military and our police, have dealt with the Abu terrorists – and the vast ransoms those ASG kidnap-murder-terrorists collected from their victims.

When will our policy of "surrender" end? Certainly the abject surrender in Iraq indicates that our spinelessness may be open-ended.

During our Manila Overseas Press Club's "Night of the Generals" dinner in the Dusit Hotel last Thursday night, Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Narciso L. Abaya inadvertently revealed why our military and police have failed to stamp out the two "suspected" Jemaah Islamiya terrorist "training camps" in central Mindanao and even the one in Patikul (Sulu).

Those suspected camps are within MILF territory. This is due to the ongoing "peace talks" with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) during which a truce is being observed, supervised, incidentally, by observers from Malaysia.

In his prepared speech, Abaya had admitted: "We are still receiving reports about the presence of suspected Jemaah Islamiya members in some MILF controlled areas, supposed to either conduct or receive training."

He added that "we should also recognize that there are some groups within the MILF who disapprove of the peace process and we are continuously and closely monitoring and evaluating reports of these tie-ups."

That's putting it very politely.

He diplomatically pointed out that "it is very encouraging that the Malaysian government has been very supportive of our peace initiatives toward the MILF," reminding our forum that "a Malaysian advance survey team was recently sent to Mindanao to pave the way for an international monitoring team that would observe the current ceasefire agreement. The AFP is committed to the pursuit of peace and we have directed our commanders to optimize coordination through the established ceasefire mechanisms."

Sanamagan. We're prickly in our media and our officialdom about "American meddling", but why, for Godsakes, are we so meek about accepting Malaysian "meddling" and that of some Muslim governments in our domestic rebellion in Mindanao?

That "ceasefire agreement" with the MILF, with the Malaysians ceaselessly in our backs, has handcuffed our soldiers and PNP in their drive to capture JI terrorists in our midst, and eradicate pinpointed training camps being conducted under the protection and auspices of "some" MILF chieftains and members, while the MILF leadership strongly denies any "links" or "dealings" with the terrorists "Jemaah Islamiyah".

Naturally our neighbors are alarmed, including Indonesia, since we're exporting Islamic terrorists from these camps – including individuals who were subsequently linked to the Bali bombings, and other depredations.

The International Crisis Group, the respected think-tank, has already called the Philippines "the weakest link" in the fight against terrorism in Asia.

Need we say more?

THE ROVING EYE . . . We hope to learn more on Thursday. In the MOPC breakfast forum on July 24 at 8 a.m. in the Ristorante La Dolce Fontana on Anapolis st. in Greenhills, our guest speakers will be Interior and Local Government Secretary (General) Angelo T. Reyes, Defense Secretary (General) Eduardo Ermita, PNP Director and Chief, General Hermogenes "Jun" Ebdane, who'll discuss the peace and order situation, and preparations for the President's SONA (State of the Nation) address and the opening of Congress, etc. Not only are our MOPC press club members, but those interested, including diplomats, have been invited to our weekly forum.