Manila Bulletin

The gen­er­als have spo­ken

- By HEC­TOR R. R. VIL­LANUEVA ‘The last temp­ta­tion is the great­est trea­son: To do the right deed for the wrong rea­son.’ — T.S. El­lot U.S. News · Politics · Agriculture · Industries · Benigno Aquino III · Mamasapano · Francis Pangilinan · U.S. Supreme Court · Brazilian Air Force · United States of America · Barack Obama · China · Vladimir Putin · Russia · Russian Empire · Japan · Shinzō Abe · Proceso Alcala

PRES­I­DENT Benigno Noynoy Simeon Aquino is for­tu­nate that he is on his last eight months in of­fice in which pru­dence dic­tates that he be al­lowed to fin­ish his term.

Had the Man­i­festo of Re­tired Of­fi­cers been is­sued at the height of the Ma­mas­apano mas­sacre and mil­i­tary fi­asco, the im­pli­ca­tions and fate of Pres­i­dent Noynoy Aquino may have turned out for the worse.

Co­in­ci­den­tally, the re­lease of the Man­i­festo came out at about the same time as the abrupt and un­ex­plained res­ig­na­tion of Trade Sec. Greg Domingo (who has been pre­vailed to stay on un­til af­ter APEC in Novem­ber), and the equally sud­den res­ig­na­tion of for­mer Sen­a­tor Kiko Pangili­nan as par­al­lel sec­re­tary of cab­i­net rank for agri­cul­tural mod­ern­iza­tion which has been a frus­trat­ing and in­ef­fec­tual of­fice since Agri­cul­ture Sec. Pro­ceso Al­cala re­mains in place.

The res­ig­na­tion of two cab­i­net men of ster­ling char­ac­ter and rep­u­ta­tion, co­in­ci­den­tally with the cat­e­gor­i­cal and forth­right mes­sage of the Man­i­festo of Re­tired Of­fi­cers, are symp­to­matic of the un­rav­el­ing of P Noy’s bizarre style of gov­er­nance, am­biva­lence, and in­sen­si­tiv­ity to so­cial is­sues and peo­ple’s sen­ti­ments.

In­deed, while re­dress­ing in­jus­tices against the Mus­lim mi­nori­ties and seek­ing last­ing peace in Min­danao may be noble in in­ten­tions, but the mo­tives and course taken by P Noy and his peace ad­vis­ers are the wrong rea­sons for the right deeds.

To quote the Man­i­festo, “Our un­sul­lied sup­port for and re-af­fir­ma­tion of the Philconsa pe­ti­tion to the Supreme Court to de­clare the FAB and the CAB un­con­sti­tu­tional and void and to pre­vent their im­ple­men­ta­tion as well as to re­lated ac­tions of var­i­ous en­ti­ties and in­di­vid­u­als be­ing taken against the FAB, CAB, and BBL (in its orig­i­nal form) or any move or mea­sure that would pre­vent these three in­stru­ments from ma­te­ri­al­iz­ing.”

More­over, for peace to be durable and last­ing, all stake­hold­ers must be in­volved, and not just the MILF.

To add in­sult to in­jury to the Fallen 44, MILF and Palace spin mas­ters are try­ing to put a new twist to the Ma­mas­apano gun­fight and the killing of Mar­wan.

Which­ever way it is viewed, Mar­wan was not a state pri­or­ity or emer­gency.

The raid on Mar­wan was a Noynoy ini­tia­tive and mas­ter­minded by sus­pended PNP Chief Alan Purisima.

The mis­ad­ven­ture and dis­as­trous mis­sion was not even a col­lec­tive ef­fort which makes Pres­i­dent Noynoy Aquino solely re­spon­si­ble and cul­pa­ble for the death of the 44 SAF com­man­dos whose stigma Pres­i­dent Benigno Aquino will carry for the rest of his life.

When all is said and done, the un­rav­el­ing of the Aquino ad­min­is­tra­tion has be­gun, and there will be more res­ig­na­tions as the ad­min­is­tra­tion winds down.

As the econ­omy slack­ens and the OFWs are un­happy over their ba­lik­bayan boxes, and as un­em­ploy­ment rises, the bright spot in the hori­zon is the APEC Lead­ers’ Sum­mit in Novem­ber, pro­vided US Pres. Barack Obama (US elec­tions in Novem­ber), Pres. XI Jin­ping of China, Putin of Rus­sia, and Ja­pan’s PM Shinzo Abe will at­tend.

You be the judge.

*** (For com­ments and views please email chaff_ fromthe­grain@ya­hoo.com.ph)

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