Q & A: War in Mindanao, BBL, Federalism

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano (R) in one of his interviews by Mortz C. Ortigoza,
columnist of Northern Watch.

 Interview held recently with Senator Alan Peter Cayetano by Mortz Ortigoza (Professor, Political Science), Yolly Sotelo (Philippine Daily Inquirer) and Eva Visperas (Philippine Star).
Excerpts:

Mortz C. Ortigoza (MCO): Sir, sabi ng MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) dapat daw iyong BBL (Bangsamoro Basic Law) lock, stock, and barrel na ipasa ng Congress, paano iyan pag ni-watered down ng Congress kasi galit sila doon sa ginawa ng MILF sa SAF (Special Action Force) -44, gigiyerahin na nila tayo nito?

ALAN PETER CAYETANO (APC): Ang peace process ay parating binabalanse sa national security. Kaya ako nakikipagpasok ng peace para walang gulo. Pero iyong  pinasukan mo ng peace ay mas malakas sa iyo, e paano kung agawin nila ang buong Mindanao? Paano kung maging haven ng terrorism o may criminal syndicate ang lugar nila? So iyong issue ng national security, hindi mo puweding alisin. Kung titingnan mo ang BBL sa present form niya ay masyadong dehado ang gobierno at ibat-ibang mga regions around the country. For example, ang police force nila 4000 to 8000 nasa ilalim ng chief minister nila. Wala ito sa PNP (Philippine National Police), so iyong paghati-an ng natural resources naririnig niyo iyong sinasabi ko kung kanino iyong all other region 2% to 4% gets but Metro Manila gets 34%. Pero sa batas na ipapasa ang BBL lahat ng natural resources nandoon kontrolado nila . So sila ang yayaman ng husto, paano naman iyong the rest of Mindanao? Wala iyong kabalance, gusto natin umunlad ang lugar nila. Mabuti kung ibibili doon ng classrooms, hospitals. Paano kong baril ang bilhin nila? Kaya ang sinasabi natin i-resolve ang Mamasapano bago natin pasukin ang BBL. Kasi kung si Marwan na $5 million nakapatong sa ulo ang hindi nila hinuli hindi nila pina-alis sa lugar nila, ano ang kasiguruhan natin ngayon, pa na ang BBL pinasang ganyan ang mangyayari there. So maraming sub issues is kailangan muna natin binanggit, but we have to see na sincere sila sa process.

Senator Scolds a General

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Special Action Force  2 - Star General  Getulio Napenas could be likened to Colonel George Fowler in the movie's " General's Daughter" casting John Travolta. Lieutenant General Joseph Campbell said Colonel Fowler would do anything for the general even by sacrificing his (Fowler) career.
It's like what the cover up of Gen. Napenas at the Senate in favor of former PNP Chief Alan Purisima.

Philippine Generals Attending a Senate Hearing. PHOTO CREDITS; Rappler.Com

But the Campbell and Fowler's bravados were just flick. Napenas and Purisima's stunt at the Senate was, salamabit, for real! What's the quid pro quo for Napenas? Gee whiz, the wherewithal and the favour Malacanang could give him that he could probably hard to refuse. Forget the millions of pesos of pensions and the emoluments Napenas would be getting this year from the PNP incase he would be indicted and convicted later. Big Brother in the Palace can give him four-fold or ten folds of what he would be losing if he remains mum that President PNoy had nothing to do with the blunder, skewing, and carnage of the SAF-44 at Mamasapano - the supposed Benghazi of the President.

“Iyong ibibigay kay Napenas isang buwan lang iyan na payola sa jueteng sa isang probinsiya o share sa tatlong araw na spoils ng broker and smuggler sa custom,” my gofer Procopio Matulis, said.

***
A frantic Malacanang Palace occupants want the up loaders of the graphic video (where a young Special Action Force’s trooper PO2 Joseph Sagonoy was mercilessly shot twice point blank by a Muslim rebel in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao) at the internet to take it out.

The Palace concerns, for me, was not really the sensibility of the video but it was afraid that it could exploit the already combustible feelings of Christians to agitate the government to wage war against the Muslims.
It could also be a powder keg for an uprising by groups of Filipinos to President Benigno Aquino III they blamed responsible for the massacre and executions of the gallant SAF 44 in Mindanao and his friendly attitude with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front who killed those commandos.
Another reason was the palace occupants were anxious that the ongoing peace talks by the MILF with the government would finally go to the dogs because of the video.
It shows a Muslim rebel videotaped from his cellular phone a companion with a .9mm pistol shot twice in the body and the jaw a still moving, wounded, and lying Sagonoy. The first shot saw the dying SAF commando jerked in pain his right arm from his body to his head while the second shot, the coup d' grace, saw blood squirting from his right jaw.
***

Psst readers, Caveat Emptor (Buyer’s Beware)! Some of the narration here are satire.
Was it Geoffrey Chaucer who writes that reading was not only to be informed but to be entertained?

U.S Senator Barbara Boxer (Democrat,California) chides
Army Brig. Michael Walsh in a Senate Hearing.

Pastor sexed with Drunk Mom, Sober Goat

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Political satires have been written on news magazines, newspapers, and others. Some of them became viral. But one of them, for me, was a standout. It was the satire of smut magazine Hustler publisher Larry Flynt posting on his prurience catering mags Baptist Reverend Jerry Falwell having sex with his drunk mother and a female goat in a barn on the putative Camparari ads “You’ll Never Forget about your First Time.
An enraged Falwell sued Flynt with libel and millions of dollars moral damages. The case, Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46 (1988), was not only dismissed by the U.S Supreme Court but became bedrock of jurisprudence on Freedom of Expression that legal practitioners and scholars in democratic countries like the Philippines zealously quote.
Here’s my attempt on satire and not necessarily my bet for a Supreme Court’s libel suit classic jurisprudence since my editor and I have been wary of libel charge that hits us in this paper years ago. You can accessed that satire news entitled
" AQUINO RESIGNS, BINAY ASSUMES PHILIPPINE PRESIDENCY
God Saves the Filipinos" at http://wwwmortzcortigoza.blogspot.com/2015/02/binay-assumes-ph-presidency-aquino.html.

Q & A: The interview of Republican Attack Dog Southern Baptist Minister Jerry Falwell
on his purportedly, er, parody coitus with his drunk mom and the defenseless
goat inside their barn in the U.S.

****

Here's a broadcaster (a pastor who accidentally became a radio commentator of a religious station) who asked the mayor of a city why the hizzoner practiced double standard on filling a corruption cases against the city treasurer, cashier, and a clerk who were found to have Prima Facie (Latin words “on the first appearance”) on the cases they allegedly committed.

Aquino Resigns, Binay Assumes PH Presidency

God Saves the Filipinos

Reprinted from CNN.Com

MANILA – Emulating his national police chief who resigned Thursday, the Philippine president tendered too his resignation because of the death of 44 commandos he blamed to himself and the police chief.

16th PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC: President Jojo Binay

President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III submitted his resignation papers at 10 Am today at the office of the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. He was accompanied by his four sobbing sisters at the office of Senate President Franklin Drilon and the chief of Black and White Movement singer Leah Navarro and her group at the office of House Speaker Feliciano "Sonny" Belmonte. Navarro figured recently in a spat at Twitter with the president's former girl friend TV-5 host Grace Lee on the fiasco’s that befell the 44 elite Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police in a rebel infested town in the Southern part island Mindanao in the Philippines.

“With the blunder after blunder I and Alan( Purisima, former chief of the Philippine National Police) have been committing, my conscience could not allow me to continue serving the Filipinos on this thankless job called the presidency,” a poker faced but coughing president speaks.

PMAyers call PD Biay: “Military” rites to 2 dead commandos

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Just like what the U.S military have been doing to their fallen comrades, members of the Philippine Military Academy in the Philippine National Police call Police Provincial Director of Pangasinan to hold a hero's welcome and a dignified police burial rite to two members of the elite members of the Special Action Force who died last January 25 in Maguindanao province.

The 44 caskets of the Philippines' commandos who perished in an encounter
with Muslim rebels in Mindanao are carried by pall bearers.

Senior Superintendent Eric Noble, chief comptroller at the police regional office in San Fernando City, La Union, said just like what former Pangasinan Police Provincial Director (PPD) Senior Supt. Marlou Chan had done to the remains of SAF’s PO2 Christopher Hernaez  in San Quintin, Pangasinan, he wishes Senior Supt. Rey Biay, Pangasinan PPD, to emulate just like what the Americans have been honoring their heroes who died in combat.

Hernandez perished in September, 2012 fighting the Moro National Liberation Front in Zamboanga City.
(You can accessed that story at http://wwwmortzcortigoza.blogspot.com/2013/09/psinan-witness-safs-heros-burial.html )

Noble also said Police Regional Office's Region 1 Director Chief Supt. Roman Felix, a SAF and a pilot, intimated to him the two dead commandos should be given a police welcome and funeral.

Felix, Chan, Biay, and Noble are all graduates of the Philippine Military Academy.

A military or police entombment may feature guards of honour, the firing of volley shots as a salute, drumming, hallowed tune taps, and other military elements, with a flag draping over the coffin.

“Town halls in the municipalities of the duo should have their flag hoisted in half mast. Provincial and municipal officials should attend the rites so we can show our respect to the protectors of our freedom and way of life,” Noble, a police national awardee, said.