War Is Bloody Real: Justice is Blind and Truth is a Silent Witness

War Is Bloody Real: Justice is Blind and Truth is a Silent Witness

Where in the world would you see combatants being sent by superiors to a mission where only triumph-victory-death is the constant, and when combatants come back lifeless...superiors would cry out:

"Foul!"

"Unfair!"

"What did you do to my men?"

"This is an overkill!"

"I should have gone with them...and died with them, too!"?

High-powered or not, guns and live ammo are for engagement in the battlefield of law enforcement agencies and belligerents. Not engagement to be married.

One is armed in full protective and destructive battle gear to fire out in offense or to fire out in defense. This is true for both sides of the combatants be they state or non-state groups.

Bulletproof vests are supposed to serve its purpose. To thwart from being fatally wounded when hit.

Rule of law must be upheld at all times. Law goes after criminal and lawless elements; be they low value or high value targets. Sadly, no POP for any cop will register in memory when you are in an unfriendly alien territory and your longevity is suddenly placed at high maximum risk; the instinct for authorities is just self-preservation.

The superiors and their men KNEW the odds.

BUT as it is when the insidious odds did happen;

They cannot face it.

They cannot accept that they have sent their own men to their own death.



Yes, the superiors did it when it ignored AHJAG- a crucial security coordinating mechanism that the covert mission couldn't do without; a mechanism whereby PNP-AFP and the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) can effectively coordinate, not sacrifice, the security imperatives that need to be met in order to interdict criminal groups, while upholding  the primacy of the peace process.

    The AHJAG is the cooperative mechanism between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)  that responds to criminality and terrorism in areas with MILF presence... AHJAG's Revised Guidelines aim to advance coordination efforts  among the government agencies involved in law enforcement, namely the PNP, the AFP and the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) which is supervised by the government negotiating panel.

In order to enhance its security mechanisms and address lawless elements in conflict-affected areas of Mindanao, the Government of the Philippines (GPH) issued the Revised Joint AFP-PNP Operational Guidelines for the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group or AHJAG.

What we see on TV and social media network tells us that there is definitely no uniformed reaction from the public be they educated or deprived of education; literate or illiterate; be they incline to analyzing events or devoid of any semblance of analytical capacities.


But what is clear in the aftermath of the botched up Oplan Wolverine in Mamasapano- from the President of the Philippines down to the last of its Filipino citizen: everyone is besieged with haunting questions. Until now. Until when? Will we ever know: Just exactly what happened?

Taunting our wild imagination to go berserk against the injustice that conforms to our personal definition of justice replaced our idleness and so we resort to answering our questions with rhetoric bordering on satire, frivolity or utter severity which make it all far worse botched up than the botched up Oplan Wolverine!


War is bloody real. It is not unlike any of the best war films that reaped awards from film festivals and that questioned your own humanity as you questioned the humanity of those involved in the film; actual war such as we have personally witnessed cannot be labeled as a good cry. Simply because our own wars are raw and real.

We all cried in conformity to the deep emotions stirred within us.

Some of us cried and almost cried on television, onstage, in peace rallies, online with or without memes.

Some of us wept either loudly or silently together while some wept alone.


Justice is blind.

Justice won't judge you according to your face, color, gender, status, profession, race, creed, faith, not even will Justice judge even if you lack any of those mentioned.



Justice is blind. It doesn't see us and we don't see it either.

No wonder we cry out for it to manifest.

Justice! All out Justice!

Or did we mean vengeance, "all out vengeance!"?

Where is Justice?

Or are we just frustrated that there is no presidential command of all out war?

Consequently, we pour all of our putrefied vindictiveness on BBL because we feel it sinisterly looms like a giant menace far larger than our own baleful paranoia enhanced by our own ignorance for what BBL actually is.Thus, can you blame me if I join the commotion of emotional rhetoric:



    I echo the consternation of those who feel that BBL will be immolated as an appeasing sacrifice for the death of SAF44, yes, two of them are my Muslim kindred.

Will Congress slaughter BBL or Bangsamoro Basic Law?
Just like Congress killed MOA-AD then?
Is Congress now the abattoir of Right to Self-Determination and Peace?
Are we indigenous Bangsamoro by the millions part of the national fabric?
Is there us and them in the Philippines? 

     "History teaches us that the failure to uphold these rights and freedoms can actually fuel violent extremism," Obama said at the U.N. "When it comes to America and Islam, there is no us and them, there is only us -- because millions of Muslim Americans are part of the fabric of our country. So we reject any suggestion of a clash of civilizations."

 United States is weaning off itself from bigoted Islamophobia-xenophobia mindset despite its decisive counterterrorism efforts globally but is gravitating towards religious tolerance and fulfillment of human dignity and RSD as an option for peace. Can the same be said of the Filipino nation?

When we start to draw lines; we only widen the existing gap. When we stereotype and label; we nurture bigotry.  We cry out for justice out of frustration, out of anger, out of pain. So immense that we cry for justice bathed in blood.

We start to label, stereotype each other forgetting our own frailties.

Have we realized that this tragedy stripped our hearts of its contents just like what happened to the Pandora box?



We see the other as enemy, from the comfort zone of our point of view.

We evaluate war just like we do in movies: good guys versus bad guys.

We see what we want to see; and we ignore what we wish to ignore.

It is so easy for us to point out who to blame.

Ironically, we chose in order to survive NOT to point out the elephant in the room.

We either leave the room or continue to thrive in it by convincing ourselves that it does not exist. Even if it does.

Now, you probably understand why Justice did not use a horse's blind and why Justice chose to blindfold itself.



Truth is a silent witness; while falsehood is noisy. So noisy that it overpowers the lone voice of truth.

Oftentimes, truth remains silent to maintain peace.

It weighs the harm and the benefit for humanity before it ultimately speaks.

Truth can be painful for those who choose to live with their own versions of truth.

I wonder why is it so easy for most of us to confound truth with falsehood?

And even when it becomes imperative for us, can we summon our remaining scruples not to knowingly conceal the truth?



Indeed, only the compassionate, the just, and the true can honor a pact and can love peace without resorting to senseless bloodshed and violence.



For those of us who thirst and hunger for peace, and for those of us who thirst and hunger for war, and for those of us who thirst and hunger for food and water… for love, fame, power, and money…only you and your Creator know what you really thirst and hunger for in the recesses of your minds, hearts and souls- that is- if we have not lost our minds, hearts and souls…yet. Same goes to all parties who have struggled at all cost to sign and ink a peace agreement…I’d prefer ink and not write it as: “to sign and forge a peace agreement.”

    Trust is not trust which alters when its alteration finds; or bends with the remover to remove. O, no TRUST just like love is an everlasting mark that looks on tempest and is never shaken…if this be error and upon us proved, we never writ nor no peace panels ever trusted nor loved!

   

    War Is Bloody Real: Justice is Blind:Truth is a Silent Witness:and they did say War just like Cupid is stupid.



Oh, well! These luminaries who justify the rejection of BBL by romanticizing waywardly the GPH-MILF peace panel relationship that is now rocked by loyalty-trust-challenged from some if not ALL in their midst and from without inspired me to misquote Shakespeare’s Sonnet CXVI.

    Ignorance is a misfortune;

    BUT ignorance of statesmen and legislators

    about historical Injustice committed against Moros

     is a tragic misfortune!

    To Almighty ALLAH The Peace, The Most Just, The Truth, The All-Knowing and The Omniscient, we supplicate patiently for guidance as we exhort each other towards truth, peace and justice, as we exhort each other not to be among those who cause mischief as well as corruption on Earth; for whosoever ALLAH misguides no one will guide him and whosoever ALLAH guides no one can lead him astray. And indeed only You O ALLAH can avert the imminent death of Peace and Social Justice by its slayers in the Hallowed Halls of Congress...Ameen Ya Rabb.