MANILA, Philippines—The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) claims it has killed more than 500 government troops in 10 months of fighting since the collapse of the peace talks.

Wow, that’s a huge number—equivalent to a battalion—if the report is true!

But the MILF is just one big hot air balloon, so its report is not credible.

Ten percent of the reported fatalities allegedly inflicted by the Moro rebels on government troops—about 50—since the peace talks collapsed would be more likely.

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The Armed Forces is in a bind.

If it counted the casualties on the MILF side—and I’m sure there are many because the government has better weapons—the military would be accused of genocide or the mass killing of the Muslim population.

If the military claimed to have suffered a big number of casualties, it would be looked upon as a weakling or a bungling organization.

Either way, it reflects on the Armed Forces commander in chief, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

So long as she stays in power with the help of the generals, GMA doesn’t care about the lives of soldiers in the field.

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For all his faults, former President Erap earned the respect of the Moros.

Erap whipped the Moros and made them realize who was boss.

Erap sicced the “dogs of war” on the MILF and invaded Camp Abubakar that was once considered “holy.”

When GMA took over from Erap, she gave back the territories that the MILF lost to the government troops at great loss of lives.

As I said above, President Gloria doesn’t care for the soldiers in the field.

She only cares about the generals who stay in their air-conditioned offices while their men are being killed in the battlefields.

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Jonathan Dean Thorp, president of Nomad Sports Club, writes his reaction to an item in this space last Thursday.

In that column, I said that Nomad built a bridge over an accretion which had caused flooding on a creek beneath it.

The bridge is on the Moonwalk extension road in Parañaque.

“The area where the bridge has been constructed is now clear of garbage and Nomad Sports Club, at its own expense, has dredged the small creek which was full of garbage,” Thorp said. The cause of the flooding, he added, was the garbage thrown in the creek.

The bridge, Thorp said, was built in more than four months and will be opened today, Saturday.

Per Thorp’s letter, the flooding was not caused by the bridge but by the trash thrown into the creek by residents.

As usual, if we abuse the environment it will get back at us through floods and other calamities.