The Cost of War is Surrender

How long has the Philippines been at war with communist insurgents and Islamic terrorists?  Since at least 1970.  That's 37 years.  And what of the cost?

http://www.manilatimes.net/mindanao-war-cost-p2t-in-31-years-study/173423/

The Mindanao war has cost the Philippine government a staggering P2.013 trillion during the 31-year period from 1970 to 2001, an amount nearly equivalent to the P2.606 trillion 2015 national budget. 

The years of fighting had killed nearly 120,000 people, excluding the tens of thousands of wounded from both sides and civilians caught in the crossfire. It was a bloody conventional warfare as the MNLF forces directly attacked military camps and installations.

2,000,000,000,000 pesos!!!  That's only from 1970 - 2001. How much more has been spent in the past 16 years? And why has this war been allowed to continue for nearly 40 years now? Could the leadership of the AFP be that incompetent that they can't get a few terrorists under control within 40 years? And how about the government who is deluded enough to think peace talks will solve anything.

The war ended when the Philippine government and MNLF signed the historic peace agreement on Sept. 2, 1996 during the administration of President Fidel V. Ramos. 

But the 1996 peace accord was disrupted when the breakaway group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) protested the signing and continued its war with the government.

A ceasefire was signed in 1997 but this did not last long when a new administration under President Joseph Estrada declared an all-out war against the MILF in the summer of 2000 after the rebels launched several attacks on military and civilian population.

It was only during the time of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that peace talks between the government and the MILF resumed sometime in 2004. 

However, fighting erupted anew in 2008 when the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) about to be signed was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. 

It was only in 2009 that the peace process reopened during the remaining six months of the Arroyo government and was pursued by a new administration under President Benigno S. Aquino 3rd in 2010 that resulted in the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB) between the government and MILF on March 27, 2014.

Its a rollercoaster ride of war, ceasefire and peace talks, war, ceasefire and peace talks, etc, etc, ad nauseam.  

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/05/25/1703489/milf-mnlf-reaffirm-commitment-peace-process-amid-marawi-siege

Who cares if the MNLF is committed to the peace process. Of course this group wants peace rather than annihilation. Why would the government, after spending trillions and after losing the lives of thousands, seek peace with these murderous terrorists?  Why would they give them a piece of Mindanao as their own autonomous region? Why would the Philippine government sanction a terrorist state in their midst? After all the time, money, and lives wasted in the war against Islamic terrorists why would the government surrender? 

The MNLF is not committed to peace. If they were they would surrender unconditionally. They MNLF is committed to watching the Philippine government capitulate to their demands and hand over to them their very own state! And the government is stupid enough grant their wish.

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/06/21/1712237/duterte-review-bbl-draft

Duterte said he and the MILF leaders would meet on Monday to hold “frank” discussions on the provisions of the BBL. 

“The BBL has been completed. And the MI (MILF) will give it to me, I will sign it during the Eid’l Fitr,” the president told reporters in Cagayan de Oro City last Wednesday. 

He was referring to the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to be celebrated on Monday. 

“We made a promise to the (MILF) that it would be on time. And we’ll meet in Malacañan on Eid’l Fitr,” Duterte said. 

“It would be better to be frank. It’s time to be candid and to be brutally frank. What is this? (Will this) document (be) the floodgate of peace in the land of Mindanao?” he added. 

The Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC), a panel with representatives from the government, the MILF and local stakeholders, has completed the draft BBL earlier this month.  The measure aims to form a new Bangsamoro political entity with enhanced political and economic powers

The blood of thousands of innocent Filipinos cries out from the ground!

Jeepney Art 2

Jeepneys are decorated every kind of way.  Enjoy some more Jeepney art.

AFP Planned to Defeat Maute by June 2017

While searching for something else I stumbled across a very interesting article from January 2017.

http://malaya.com.ph/business-news/news/new-deadline-defeat-abu-sayyaf-maute-biff

ARMED Forces chief Gen. Eduardo Año has given the military six months to defeat the terrorist groups Abu Sayyaf, Maute, and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said yesterday. 

The new deadline can be extended up to the end of the year. 

“That is our target… If we can do it in six months, good. If we cannot do it in six months, we can extend it (deadline) up to the end of the year,” said Lorenzana after a joint New Year’s call of the Department of National Defense and the Armed Forces in Camp Aguinaldo, which was attended by top defense and military officials. 

Año said the objective is to “significantly defeat” the three groups. “Significant defeat means we have rendered them, their capability very minimal.” He said 51 battalions are operating against the groups. 

Lorenzana said the deadline is realistic, given the support of residents and local government officials. 

“We will just have to do all we can, combining military operations and developmental projects to end what they are doing,” he said. 

Lorenzana said the military will take a new approach in dealing with the three groups, including the assignment of new military to commanders to lead the campaign “so that we’ll have new fresh approach in ending these lawless elements.” 

He declined to discuss the other measures, saying operational plans may be telegraphed to the groups. “We’ll just do it,” he said. 

“We are going to do something new or innovative to finish this problem (of terrorism) once and for all,” said Lorenzana. “For the record, our goal is to defeat the Abu Sayyaf and Maute (in six months).” 

As to the BIFF, Lorenzana said, “Its also six months.” 

Año said the military will craft a program to encourage the community to give more assistance to government troops. He said the community is important in monitoring potential terrorists. 

The Abu Sayyaf, composed of around 300 to 400 men, is operating mostly in Sulu and Basilan. The Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf is holding 27 foreign and Filipino hostages and has been linked to bombings and beheadings. 

The Maute Group, which has about 200 to 300 followers, is behind some high-profile atrocities, including the September 2 Davao City bombing that killed 15 people.
The BIFF is also involved in bombings and extortion activities. The group is composed of around 300 to 400 members, mostly former members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. 

The three groups pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria about two years ago. The military said there is no indication the ISIS has recognized these groups as affiliates. 

Año’s predecessor, now retired Gen. Ricardo Visaya, also aimed to defeat the Abu Sayyaf during his term -- from July to December but failed. The Abu Sayyaf even intensified its kidnappings during the period.

Pretty funny in light of the circumstances now six months later with a declaration of martial law in Mindanao because the Maute group attacked and occupied Marawi  City.

The leadership of the AFP is quite full of themselves.

How many decades have they been battling commies and Mulisms?  How many arbitrary deadlines have they set and missed? Have they ever completed a goal on or before time?

What's really sickening is how overconfident they are of the whole situation.  The support of residents and local officials?  You mean the residents and local officials who are enabling the terrorist groups to operate?

And never forget that the government had prior knowledge of the Marawi attack and did NOTHING! So much for wanting to defeat Maute!

And how about in April when the AFP was monitoring the movements of Abu Sayyaf as they snuck into Bohol?  Remember that?

How can AFP Chief Eduardo Año possibly say he wants the AFP to defeat the terrorist groups within six months and then do nothing about it when a real threat arises, a threat they knew about because they were monitoring the groups movements??  You can read about the failures of what happened in April 2016 here and here. Año knew about the threat Abu Sayyaf posed to Bohol, did nothing, and then lied about it to the public. What a disgrace.

Read the last sentence from the article again.  While the AFP previously said they will defeat Abu Sayyaf in six months, Abu Sayyaf was intensifying its operations. Same thing with Maute. AFP says they will defeat Maute in six months and things have only intensified and the region has erupted into chaos.

Oh well its all good because as Lorenza says:

If we can do it in six months, good. If we cannot do it in six months, we can extend it (deadline) up to the end of the year

It's like he doesn't even believe the AFP can do it and already has an excuse planned for their inevitable failure.

Noise: Squatters Village

Previously I have written about loud church noise and loud barangay fiesta noise but today I want to tell you about something a little more sinister:

Loud bass-heavy music blasting out of stacks of speakers in the yard of some poor shanty in a squatters village.

What's up with this anyway?  How can these poor people afford these sound systems?  And why are they sitting around listening to loud bass-heavy music?  Do they really find BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM-BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM to be relaxing? Who listens to techno outside of the club?

Karaoke and awful pop music is very popular in the Philippines it's a wonder they don't listen to that.

I think I know the answer why. The Philippines at heart is a deeply pagan nation which worships idols and is superstitious beyond many other peoples.  Despite the Spanish Catholics sowing their religion the Filipinos never became Christians.  They simply appropriated the trappings of Roman Catholicism and blended it with their native animistic religions.

We can see this with Sinulog which is supposed to be a religious festival where they worship the idol Santo Niño but it's really a dance festival!  They are dancing to loud music just like they did before they were civilised and just like the tribes in the mountains of northern Luzon do to this day.

So when the Filipino turns up the bass loud enough that it can be heard miles away its more than just loud music.  The loud music touches the deepest religious impulses in the Filipino psyche.  It fires up the collective unconscious allowing him to participate in the memories of his ancestors who danced naked around bonfires to the sound of loud drumming before the hunt or after the hunt or when propitiating the gods.

Or maybe they are just rude people who don't care about the well-being of their neighbours and who cannot comprehend the consequences of their actions.  Who wants to hear loud bass all day?  But no one complains and that just compounds the problem.  If enough people complained and said turn it down then it might just get turned down.

And if they still refuse to listen?  Well just go on over there and turn it down yourself.

Martial Law As A Tool of Economic Development

The biggest revelation last week regarding Marawi and marital law was that the government had prior knowledge of the impending attack.  SolGen Calida made the announcement and PNP Chief Bato confirmed it.

http://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/national/govt-had-prior-info-on-marawi-attack-bato-admits/ar-BBCBWtV?

Curiously the media has been silent on this issue.  The government admits they knew the attack was coming and no one wants to follow up on this?  Just something else for the memory hole.

We also learned last week that the USA is providing logistical support to the AFP.  Is this even a good thing?  Leni Robredo and China think so.

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/157953/robredo-china-welcome-us-military-aid-marawicaption

But not everyone sees US assistance as positive.

http://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/national/duterte-urged-to-fire-security-defense-chiefs-over-us-‘intervention’-in-marawi/ar-BBCxHHp?li

Militant partylist lawmakers urged President Rodrigo Duterte to sack Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon for allowing the Americans to intervene in the military operations in Marawi City without his approval. 

Partylist Representative Carlos Zarate of Bayan Muna also called for a congressional investigation into the “US meddling.” 

“This is very alarming and a shameless sellout of our sovereignty. The commander-in-chief himself does not know that his military and security officials have already asked assistance from a country that he has continually hit as a hypocrite and is only looking out for its own self-interest,” Zarate said.

Does Rep. Zarate realise that the USA has been providing logistical support in Mindanao for years?? Does he not know that Duterte asked for the USA's help back in April?

The Supreme Court has started hearings on the validity of martial law.  We learned that the AFP told Duterte that they had the situation under control.  This revelation underscores Dutrete's declaration that no one recommended martial law and that he called for it all on his own.

The AFP said three times that the situation was under control. Even twenty minutes before Duterte made his proclamation the AFP said the situation had stabilised and they were fully in control. This is only more proof that Duterte used this situation as a pretext to usher in his planned dictatorship.

No ruling yet by the Supreme Court but Duterte has vowed to withdraw all troops from Marawi if they rule there is no factual basis for martial law.

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/06/19/1711603/marcos-copycat-martial-law-will-not-be-marcos-spokesmen-say

Duterte has vowed to pull out military troops in Marawi City if the Supreme Court decides that his martial law declaration in Mindanao has no factual basis. None of the petitions on martial law at the Supreme Court argue that security forces should not be deployed against the Maute local terror group that controls part of the city.

The president, however, warned that he would no longer listen to anyone if Mindanao is plagued anew with violence that would require him to declare martial law for the second time.

According to the president, the next martial law he would declare could be a “copycat” of that of ousted President Ferdinand Marcos, the late dictator who placed the entire country under military rule in 1972.

What a great leader. If the Supreme Court takes away his martial law then he will take away the troops and allow the area to descend into chaos just so he can declare martial law again and this time nationwide! Martial law is not needed to engage in military operations. For decades the AFP has been fighting communists and terrorists both with martial law under Marcos and without after the EDSA Revolution.

He would allow Mindanao to go up in flames just so he can have his dictatorship. And what about the people? This week we began to hear about the toll the situation is taking on ordinary civilians.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/906106/philippine-war-babies-to-live-with-martial-law-legacy

Raisah Labay gently cradles her newborn, a boy who was named Martial to mark her flight from a war-torn Philippine city and his birth under newly imposed military rule. 

“I named him Martial as a sign that he was born in the time of war,” Labay, 21, told AFP while seated on the bleachers of an evacuation camp in a nearby city. 

“During martial law, our lives collapsed. Someday I want to tell him about the painful ordeal I went through: going into labour while evacuating our family and telling myself: ‘No, don’t push him out yet’.”

http://www.philstar.com/nation/2017/06/16/1710673/39-marawi-evacuees-die-illnesses

http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/06/15/17/residents-eating-boxes-desperation-builds-in-war-torn-marawi

All this horror because the government failed to act on knowledge it had of the impending attack.  All this fear because Duterte, on his own, decided to declare martial law.

And when will it end?  After 60 days?  

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/06/17/1710935/still-no-timeline-lifting-martial-law-mindanao

No timeline?  That's actually a good thing. Several times now the AFP have said the fighting is almost over.  Three more days.  By independence day. And now they have finally realised that they should concentrate on fighting rather than setting arbitrary deadlines.  We can be confident that martial law will end when everything is safe and secure.

Or can we?

Some people want martial law extended and for reasons that have nothing to do with terrorism.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/906260/alvarez-wants-martial-law-extended-till-2022

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Friday said that he was open to the idea of extending martial law in Mindanao until President Duterte steps down in 2022 to fast-track development and address the Marawi crisis and other peace and security problems in the region. 

Alvarez said the nearly month-old martial rule had been well-received by majority of the more than 20 million people in the Philippine south and that critics, particularly those who were not from Mindanao, had no reason to oppose or worry about it.

“I would like to extend this up to the end of the term of the President. My grounds: To really ensure the end of this conflict in Mindanao, and to fast-track the infrastructure projects. This is for our interest, isn’t it?” he said.

“They have to respect the will of the Mindanaoans. If that’s what we wanted why should [people outside Mindanao] meddle? We want [this region] to develop,” Alvarez told reporters. 

Fast-track development and infrastructure projects?? Is martial law now to be a tool of economic development? This is Alvarez's own opinion and it is a stupid and worthless opinion.  Martial law is not a tool of economic development.  It is a tool to be used to quell rebellions and repel invasions.

But how long will this remain only Alvarez's opinion? Seeing how he rammed through the Death Penalty Bill by bullying and threatening everyone to approve it, it is highly likely that he could do the same for extending martial law.

With men like Alvarez leading the country it's no wonder the Philippines remains a third world nation. 

Don't Lend Filipinos Money

Ashley Madison Winners is (not the real name of) a lady I know who owns a small and seemingly profitable construction business.  Seemingly profitable because if it was not then she would have closed down by now.  Who runs an unprofitable business? And who would work for someone who can't pay them? And who spends a million pesos to buy a truck to use for a failing business?

Money to buy a new truck but no money to pay debts

A while ago a foreigner was persuaded to invest in her business.  He gave so much money and would get a slight return every month. This would go to support his fianceé while he was back in his home country preparing for her arrival.

Alas everything went sour and real fast.  Money was paid at first and then not at all. Calls and texts were made and promises of future payment agreed to but not much has come of it except frustrations and empty promises.

And that's that really. Just another cautionary tale in a land full of cautionary tales about lending money to people who simply will not repay the loan. Reminds me so much of Goodfellas.

  

Stewie and Brian also come to mind.

This is nothing new though.  In 1720 Gaspar de San Agustín wrote a letter detailing many of the characteristics of Filipinos. Even 300 years ago he knew to never lend a Filipino anything, especially money.

9. First, they are remarkable for their ingratitude; and although ingratitude is an innate vice in all people, through the corruption of original sin in our vitiated nature, it is not corrected in them by the understanding, and they lack magnanimity. Therefore, it is all one to do a good turn to an Indian, and to prepare oneself to receive the blow of his ingratitude. Consequently, if one lend them money, they do not pay it; but instead they run away from the father. Hence there is ground for scruples in regard to lending money to them; for that is a benefit from which evil must result, as they absent themselves and do not come to mass. 

So long as they receive, they kiss the hands of him who gives, and humble themselves with promises. But when it comes time to pay, they will beg for time (for they are beggars, and not givers); and they will utter tedious and complaining words, and the time is spent in vain. Even though one can pay, he can be got to do so only with great difficulty. 

10. If they borrow anything that is not money, they will never return it until it is requested; and, as an excuse for not having returned it; they say that they have not been asked for it.  

Gaspar de San Augustín letter on the Filipinos

The Signs of Leni Robredo

The 2016 elections have come and gone. Duterte is president and the Yellow party is out of power.  Leni Robredo lurks in the background with Bongbong Marcos hanging over her head casting a shadow of doubt on the validity of her election to the Vice Presidency.

But something else is hanging. 

It's garbage.  Political garbage.

Left over political campaign banners.

After the election the signs stayed up until the elements slowly wore them away. Tied to fences, plastered to electric poles they fluttered and flapped and slowly dissolved. Oh, the wind and rain!

And now here we are over a year later and these Mar/Leni signs are still up!

With all the hatred for Leni going around it's a wonder someone has not torn these down.  Seems like Filipino rage is only for Facebook and not real life.