Palace in silent commemoration of Aquino martyrdom

Palace in silent commemoration of Aquino martyrdom
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 06:48pm (Mla time) 08/21/2007

MANILA, Philippines — Except for a minute of prayer, Malacañang has chosen to commemorate the 23rd death anniversary of former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. without fanfare.

 

No activity has been organized by the Palace as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo went about her scheduled activities Tuesday, including presiding over a meeting of the National Security Council earlier in the day to discuss the Mindanao conflict.

 

In the evening, the President will be at the wake of the 15 soldiers killed in clashes with the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan.

 

But her spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, said “Ninoy is very much in our mind.”

 

“As a matter of fact the President led the Cabinet in a minute of silent prayer in honor of the late senator. He is a martyr, a patriot, and good example that would remind us not only that the Filipino is worth dying for but more important worth living for,” Bunye told reporters in an interview.

 

Lupita Aquino-Kashiwahara, Aquino’s sister and Arroyo’s image consultant, said it was a typical working day for the President, whom she claimed was focused right now on the conflict in Sulu and Basilan.

 

Aquino-Kashiwahara told reporters at the start of the Cabinet meeting Tuesday that she didn’t find anything wrong if there was no activity organized by the Palace for her brother.

 

Last year, Arroyo led the wreath laying ceremony at the Ninoy Aquino Monument along Roxas Boulevard in Manila and attended a mass at the EDSA Shrine.

 

Aquino’s widow, former president Corazon Aquino, was not in the event, but the late senator’s siblings Teresa Aquino-Oreta, Paul Aquino, Kashiwahara, Makati Representative Agapito Aquino, and Maur Aquino-Lichauco were present.

Enrile seeks clemency for soldiers in Aquino slay

By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 01:05pm (Mla time) 08/21/2007

MANILA, Philippines — The case of the 14 soldiers imprisoned for the assassination of former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. should be reviewed for clemency, Senator Juan Ponce-Enrile told reporters Tuesday.

 

Enrile, who said he paid for the legal services of the soldiers during their trial, made the statement on Aquino’s 24th death anniversary.

 

He said the soldiers and their family have suffered enough.

 

But Enrile, the defense minister during that time, said the case could not be closed if new evidence would point to those actually responsible for the killing.

 

“We should review the real situation of these people. They were convicted by a court but whether they were really the real ones who did the act or who should be responsible is something else,” he said.

 

“Let the executive department exercise its power of clemency to resolve the issue of the people who were convicted for the crime, but closing a case, there is a procedure in doing that,” he added.

 

When asked if he knew who ordered the assassination, he said: “If I knew, I would be…That’s a difficult question.”

 

Enrile said he was asked to provide for the legal services of the soldiers, and because he believed that they should be given “the benefit of due process,” he shouldered the legal costs of their defense.

 

Fifteen soldiers of the Aviation Security Command were convicted for the double murder of Aquino and his alleged lone communist gunman, Rolando Galman. They were sentenced to double life imprisonment; one of them had died.

 

Aquino was shot and killed as he was escorted off an airplane at the then Manila International Airport by the Avsecom soldiers on August 21, 1983. The government at that time claimed that Galman was the assassin.

 

In late October 1984, a commission appointed by deposed president Ferdinand Marcos and headed by jurist Corazon Agrava found that the assassination was the result of a military conspiracy.

 

But in December 1985, the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court ignored the Agrava findings, upheld the government’s story, and acquitted then military chief, General Fabian Ver, 24 other military officers, and one civilian.

 

Although ultimate responsibility for the act had not been clearly determined, a special court convicted on Sept. 28, 1990 General Luther Custodio and 15 other officers and enlisted Avsecom members for murdering Aquino and Galman.

Aquinos reject proposal to grant clemency to ‘Ninoy’ killers

By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 06:42pm (Mla time) 08/21/2007

MANILA, Philippines — Former president Corazon Aquino and her son, Senator Benigno Aquino III, on Tuesday rejected proposals to grant clemency to the 14 former soldiers convicted for the murder of former senator Benigno ‘Ninoy” Aquino Jr.

In separate interviews at the Senate session hall, Mrs. Aquino repeated what she has been saying all these years: that the convicted soldiers must come out with the truth about her husband’s death and that, if it were up to her, she does not want clemency for the convicted members of the Aviation Security Command (Avsecom).

“No truth, no clemency, no closure,” she told reporters.

 

She was in the session hall for the privileged speech of her son on her husband’s death anniversary. “Gusto ko talagang marinig sa mga sundalo na humingi sila ng tawad [I really want to hear the soldiers ask forgiveness],” she said.

 

Aquino’s assassination at then Manila International Airport — since named after him — 24 years ago, as he was taken by the convicted soldiers from the plane that had brought him back from exile sparked the protest movement that would eventually topple the Marcos dictatorship and install his widow as president in February 1986.

The former president said she wants the truth not only for herself and her children, but all the Filipino people.

“There can only be reconciliation if there is justice,” she stressed.

 

Senator Aquino agreed with his mother and gave a similar opinion: “No admission of guilt, no sorry, no clemency.”

“My basic premise here is there’s a failure of law here, because where’s the big fish?” he said.

GRP-MILF informal talks in Malaysia postponed

But not due to offensives in south By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net, Agence France-Presse
Last updated 06:37pm (Mla time) 08/21/2007

MANILA, Philippines — Informal peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur have been postponed, the government’s chief negotiator, retired general Rodolfo Garcia, said Tuesday.

But Garcia said the postponement had nothing to do with the ongoing military offensives in Basilan and Sulu but was “unilateral on my part because I wanted to clarify some points in the government package offer to the other side. Right now, we’re in the middle of that process within the Cabinet security cluster. That’s all there is to it,” he told INQUIRER.net in a phone interview.

 

Government negotiators were supposed to fly to Kuala Lumpur Monday for the talks, which were scheduled for Wednesday.

“I want to go to the meeting better prepared…If the resetting is for time spent to clarify and refine the government position, then it would be well worth the wait,” he added, refusing to identify what specific aspect he wanted discussed with government policy makers.

Garcia said he has formally informed both the MILF and Malaysia, which is brokering the talks, of the postponement.

Asked about their reaction to the postponement, Garcia said: “Everyone is excited over this, not just the MILF, but people who have deep interest in the developments in Mindanao, including members of the international community involved in the regional efforts…So there must be a little bit of disappointment, especially if all their bags are packed. There’s an element of disappointment but I think they understand.”

 

MILF negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said Tuesday that his group was ready for the talks but had been told by the Malaysian facilitator that Garcia had “not been given clear guidelines on how to proceed with the peace process.”

 

“That means we cannot resume the talks because the government is not prepared to concede anything,” Iqbal told ABS-CBN television in an interview, claiming that Manila had put off the talks once before in May.

 

The 12,000-strong MILF late last year said the talks were on the brink of collapse over its demands for economic control of ancestral lands on the southern island of Mindanao.

Garcia said he does not know when the talks would resume, but said that if it were up to him, he would want the negotiations finished before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

“But you know, in this case, it takes three to tango,” he said, referring to the government, the MILF, and Malaysia.

The former Armed Forces vice chief of staff said he is optimistic about the overall development of the peace talks. “This is the 14th exploratory talks. Double seven, they say, is lucky,” he said.

Garcia said the mechanisms for keeping the MILF out of harm’s way in the military’s current offensive against the Abu Sayyaf are in place.

But the talks were endangered July 10 when MILF forces in Basilan ambushed and battled Marines, killing 14 soldiers. Ten of the slain troops were beheaded but the MILF denied responsibility for this.

 

Hostilities were prevented after a joint government-MILF probe that identified Abu Sayyaf members as responsible for mutilating the dead soldiers.

 

A three-year ceasefire between the two parties has largely held although skirmishes have occasionally broken out.

 

The military launched an offensive on August 13 against the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu and Basilan, but President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said troops should respect the “ceasefire guidelines” with the MILF.

 

Military officials say they are coordinating with the MILF to ensure their forces do not get caught up in the operation but sources have charged that MILF fighters are helping the Abu Sayyaf.

Moro rebels stand aside in Sulu to allow gov’t offensive

Moro rebels stand aside in Sulu to allow gov’t offensive
By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 06:17pm (Mla time) 08/21/2007

MANILA, Philippines — The path is now clear for government troops waiting to strike the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu after Moro National Liberation Front forces on the island province confined themselves to two predefined areas away from the military offensive.

 

Army chief Lieutenant General Romeo Tolentino, who has been tasked to lead the Sulu offensive, said having the MNLF confined to the two areas, which he refused to identify so as not to jeopardize operations, “simplified the equation.”

 

“When our troops go out and they encounter anyone carrying firearms [outside the MNLF areas], those are considered enemies,” said Tolentino, who President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has tasked with “normalizing” the Sulu security situation.

 

“We are always striking anytime we want,” he added.

 

Asked what progress he made in Sulu ahead of his Friday retirement, Tolentino said: “The operation is now simplified. You can see the enemy.”

 

He also said a gun ban in Sulu was holding.

 

Arroyo sent Tolentino to Sulu after 27 Army soldiers and an estimated 41 Abu Sayyaf fighters were killed in four engagements in Indanan, Parang, and Maimbung towns from August 7 to 9.

 

Tolentino said eyewitness accounts from soldiers in the July 9 Maimbung firefight confirmed that Abu Sayyaf commander Gumbahali Jumdail alias Abu Pula and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) operative Dulmatin, a suspect in the 2002 Bali bombings, were wounded.

 

“The question is how grave are the wounds? My men saw them,” he said.

 

The Sulu casualties came almost a month after 14 Marines were killed, 10 of them also beheaded, in an encounter with the Abu Sayyaf and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in Ginanta village, Al-Barkah town, Basilan province.

 

Last Saturday, 15 Marines and a helicopter pilot and an estimated 42 Abu Sayyaf were killed following a gun battle with the Abu Sayyaf and the MILF in Ungkaya Pukan town.

 

Over a month of fighting has so far left 57 soldiers and an estimated 83 bandits killed.

Police in Metro Manila, Mindanao on full alert

AFP in Central Mindanao on guard for spillover By Thea Alberto, Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 06:29pm (Mla time) 08/21/2007

MANILA, Philippines — Policemen in Mindanao and in the National Capital Region have been ordered on full alert, following military offensives against the Abu Sayyaf Group.

 

Troops in the Cotabato and Lanao provinces have also been ordered to be on guard against a possible spillover of violence from Basilan and Sulu, where pursuit operations against the Abu Sayyaf are ongoing, Armed Forces chief General Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said.

 

Esperon said this was in compliance with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s directive for the military to work for “total security” in Mindanao.

 

“Total security, it’s just that while you are fighting in Basilan in Sulu, other forces are ready to protect infrastructure and population centers in other parts of Mindanao. This is in anticipation of possible spillovers,” Esperon told reporters.

 

The full police alert, which means all policemen in the areas covered must remain at their posts at all times, was to preempt possible diversionary attacks from the rebels, Chief Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao, PNP spokesman, said Tuesday.

 

“This is in anticipation of any attack…there might be people working to divert the government’s attention,” Pagdilao told reporters.

 

Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Calderon ordered the full alert, which began 12:00 noon Monday, said Pagdilao.

The alert status will be downgraded as soon as the Intelligence group has properly evaluated the situation, said Pagdilao.

 

Esperon said an additional five Army battalions were sent to augment existing forces in Cotabato and Lanao as early as July 10, the day 14 Marines died in Al-Barkah town in an encounter with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels and alleged Abu Sayyaf bandits.

 

While soldiers in Central Mindanao are on alert, Esperon said the military does not expect the sympathy attacks to come from the MILF, saying “our ceasefire mechanisms are holding.”

 

“But just the same, we have to maintain our presence in areas [Lanao and Cotabato] where there could be some sympathetic violence,” he said, adding, “Our troops are always on alert.”

Earlier in the day, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said that the government would not back out in its fight with the Abu Sayyaf.

 

More than 57 soldiers and dozens of Abu Sayyaf fighters have been killed in clashes in Basilan and Sulu since July 10.

Last Saturday, 15 Marines were killed in an encounter with Abu Sayyaf bandits in Ungkaya Pukan, Basilan. An attack helicopter pilot was also killed after his aircraft crashed while returning to base after providing ground support to the embattled troops.

 

Four engagements in Maimbung, Parang, and Indanan in Sulu from August 7 to 9 left 27 soldiers killed.

Originally posted at 02:18 pm

RP to import 3-M kilos of chicken

By Dona Pazzibugan
Inquirer
Last updated 11:42pm (Mla time) 08/21/2007

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture will have to import three million kilos of chicken from the United States and Canada to avert a shortage during the Christmas season, according to government officials.

 

During a consultation with government officials and poultry and hog raisers on Tuesday, Senator Manuel Roxas II said there was a consensus that an additional three million kilos of chicken supply would be needed to ease the tight supply in the third quarter of 2007.

 

Roxas, chair of the Senate committee on trade and commerce, said the country’s chicken supply was disrupted by the “excess importation” of chicken in December 2006.

 

Due to the excess imported chicken supply and the low demand in the first half of 2007, Roxas said the poultry industry reduced their chicken grow-out capacity, leading to a tight supply in the third quarter.

 

He said the Department of Agriculture would have to import three million kilos of chicken from the US and Canada by October to avert a shortage during the fourth quarter of 2007.

 

“We want to make sure that peaks and drops in supply and prices are not extreme,” the senator said. If the country would not import chicken, “the long-term effect would be, by Christmas we would have a shortage of chicken,” he warned.

EDITORIAL

Wasted lives

Inquirer
Last updated 01:04am (Mla time) 08/21/2007

There never was a good war nor a bad peace. – Benjamin Franklin

 

If the government is thinking of the greater good of Mindanao and the country, it had better call off the all-out offensive that has been launched by its hawkish generals in Sulu and Basilan. If it has to go after the Abu Sayyaf bandits that killed 14 Marines and beheaded 10 of them, it should conduct small, commando-type operations instead of set battles. Decades of encounters with Moro separatists and bandits have shown that conventional warfare does not work well in Mindanao.

 

Church and political leaders, civic and women’s groups have lamented the waste of lives in Mindanao. The latest to die on the government side were 10 Marines and five junior officers who, reports said, were mowed down “like sitting ducks” by the Abu Sayyaf after they ignored their guides’ advice on what trail to take.

 

What is strange is that, as disclosed by an Army officer on condition of anonymity, the encounter was “considered part of their training in close-quarters combat” and “was just a test mission.” What? Are the generals playing with the lives of soldiers, sending them on “test missions” to find out which tactic will work against the Abu Sayyaf? If this is true, this is the height of callousness and insensitivity on the part of these desk-bound generals.

 

Many lives have been wasted in the all-out offensive against the Abu Sayyaf. And most of the victims have been soldiers in the flower of their youth. Their deaths bring to mind what US President Herbert Hoover said about war: “Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die. And it is the youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow, and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war.”

 

Actually, no one wins in a war; everyone is a loser. The casualties lose their lives or some of their limbs. Wives become widows; children are left orphans. Their fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters all grieve for them. The world of the soldiers’ families is turned upside down.

 

An all-out war is bad not only for the families of the soldiers, but also for the regional and national economy. Senators last week said that an all-out war could cost the government P1 billion a month. Think of what P1 billion could finance to improve the lives of the people in Sulu and Basilan, two of the most underdeveloped places in the South. One billion pesos could pay for more low-cost houses, schools, hospitals, roads, bridges and livelihood programs.

 

Joseph Gloria of the Social Watch Philippines-Mindanao last week said that the all-out offensive in Sulu and Basilan is further setting back the eradication of poverty and other Millennium Development Goals in Region 12. He added that in a conflict, the most affected are the children because when wars erupt, people take refuge in the nearest schools and deprive the children of places for their education.

 

Already, 15,000 people have been “affected” or “displaced” by the hostilities in Sulu and Mindanao. The government officials’ terms — “affected” and “displaced” — do not fully convey the depth of suffering and fear of uncertainty that the people affected by the war are feeling. Truly, as writer Arthur Koestler once said, wars consist of only 10 percent action and 90 percent passive suffering. And it is mostly the women and the children, aside from those who die and are maimed at the front, who greatly suffer.

 

As of last week about 9,000 soldiers had been committed to the all-out offensive in Sulu and Basilan. Nine thousand soldiers going after what — 150 or at most 200 — Abu Sayyaf bandits reinforced by some rogue guerrillas belonging to the Moro National Liberation Front. The imbalance of forces is very overwhelming in favor of the government, and yet up to now the encounters have resulted only in the massacre of young officers and soldiers. Clearly, the situation shows again that conventional warfare, set battles will not turn the tide in Mindanao.

 

It is not too late to de-escalate the hostilities. If the Marines have to avenge their slain and beheaded comrades, so be it. But limit their activities to surgical operations that will not affect entire islands. Macho warriors cannot forget the Old Testament maxim of “a tooth for a tooth” and “an eye for an eye.” And it is always easy for generals who stay in the comfort of their airconditioned war rooms to wage war and play with the lives of their men. But the morally courageous stand is to call for the reduction of hostilities and to work for peace.