WE believe that President Rodrigo Duterte was referring to the United States’ Barack Obama the person, not the US President, when he answered the question by a Reuters reporter regarding the possible discussion of the so-called extra-judicial killings (EJK) in the administration’s on-going war against drugs by retorting his own question, “Who is he?”.
It is our view that President Duterte made reference to Obama as the face of the United States government that needs to be reminded that while it is so concerned of the violation by other governments of the human rights of its citizens the US seems oblivious of the fact that in any place that it has its presence either in its involvement in actual and psychological warfare, or on a mission of economic subjugation, it has left strings of unforgettable human rights violations itself.
Yes, the US government through President Obama, should have done some researches as to its historical misadventures in the long years of its conquest in Europe, Africa and in Asia that US history writers may have been ordered to deliberately exclude or tone down.
In the Philippines alone there are three major incidents that soaked Philippine soil with the blood of its people during the early years of American occupation in the turn of the 1900s. Perhaps it is worth to remember the Samar massacre that is now made more famous with the carting away of the Balangiga church bell. Then who would want to forget the carnage of the Filipino soldiers under Gen. Gregorio del Pilar in Tirad Pass while protecting the rear of the main troops of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo?
And in Mindanao, the American soldiers’ frustration in their campaign to subjugate the Moro Provinces, poured their best men and war materiel with the backing of local constables from the Visayas and Luzon, attacked on March 6, 1906 the Moro defenders holed in at Bud Daho in the province of Sulu. Armed only with their kris, barongs and spears the Moro people held their ground for two days up to the last man standing.
Apparently, President Duterte is reminding President Obama that he could not place himself on high moral ground to bring out the issue of human rights violations in the Philippine President’s war against drugs because the US chief executive is not coming out with clean hands himself.
Of course we agree to the views of some people that the Philippine President could have erred in the way he brought his argument out; that Duterte should have chosen a more diplomatic language and appropriate occasion to air his lamentations.
After all, the question of the Reuters reporter was conjectural. That is, on the assumption that President Obama will bring out the issue in their now scuttled bilateral talks as an aside on the Laos-hosted ASEAN meeting.
Now it is already “water under the bridge.” Media reports say the scheduled bilateral talks was unilaterally cancelled by the US President while statements from Malacanang people claim it was a mutual decision to hold the talks between the two Presidents “on a later date.”
But whatever the real situation was, it is clear that there are already some diplomatic issues involved. And these have to be fixed if we want the Philippines to continue remaining a respected member of the global community.
–ooOoo–
We agree with the statement of Philippine National Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa that he is not dissatisfied with the performance of the police in Davao City under director Sr. Supt. John Michael Dubria.
We also believe that one successful bombing activity in the city is enough to judge the performance of the leadership of Task Force Davao commander Col. Henry Robinson Jr. as below par. However, we support one hundred percent the fact that it is the prerogative of Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio to demand for their replacement if she feels they have not done their best according to her standard.
PNP Chief Dela Rosa also raised the issue that even the most sophisticated operation of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been outwitted by the terrorists and the US’s most guarded defense infrastructures penetrated. So, he was short of saying that the PNP and other security forces of the Philippines cannot be expected 100 percent impenetrable by those who would want to do havoc to the country, specifically in places that will afford them maximum media mileage like Davao City being the home city of the President.
Of course, security lapses in countries like the US, France, Turkey and Belgium should not be made legitimate excuse for the Philippine security agencies to justify the terrorists’ success in bombing the Roxas night market crowd.
Personally we have no doubt that the police and the TF-Davao people were doing their job in keeping their eyes on possible terrorists as they have already been warning the Davao public of a terror threat.
But then again, the terrorist elements are no kindergarten kids. They are trained how to do their job; to do counter-intelligence activities. And above all else, they are keeping their eyes on those who are tasked to track them down. And unfortunately for the government security forces in the city, they have hardly any idea who the public enemies are. Add to it the government-imposed restrictions on searching and frisking anyone because doing these is a violation of the person’s human rights.
So, there goes the answer to the question why the terrorists succeeded in their distorted mission of killing and maiming innocent civilians.