After mercilessly shooting wounded police commandos already lying prostrate or belly up, some of the armed men in that sickening video shouted, “Allahu akbar,” which means “God is great.”
What is “great” about killing people who are helpless?
Why invoke the name of God in butchering people who could no longer defend themselves?
God, by any other name (Allah, Yahweh, Jehovah, Abba, etc.), is all loving, all merciful and all compassionate.
The God of Islam—to which the heartless gunmen belong—is the same God of the Christians, most of whom lay helpless on the cornfield of Mamasapano, Maguindanao province, on that fateful day.
Could our Muslim brothers and sisters tell me why those men had to praise God after killing defenseless fellow human beings?
***
The Senate and House hearing on the Mamasapano fiasco showed the quality of the current batch of military generals in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
If Gen. Pio Catapang and Maj. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan are representatives of the whole caboodle, it shows that our military leaders lack common sense, a trait leaders should have.
Catapang, as we all know by now, is the chief of staff of the AFP, while Pangilinan is commander of the Army 6th Infantry Division stationed in Maguindanao.
Catapang is so strict in upholding the peace process with the Moros, he would never—if he were to have his way—come to the aid of beleaguered fellow soldiers for “encroaching” on the territory of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Pangilinan, on the other hand, did not give artillery support to the beleaguered troops of the Special Action Force (SAF) because they didn’t coordinate with him when they entered his area of responsibility.
Catapang and Pangilinan would not help government troops who did not coordinate with them even if these soldiers were already lying helpless on the ground and were being shot like rabid dogs by the enemy.
***
The quality of generals in an army matches the quality of leadership of their commander in chief.
But what do you expect from a commander in chief whose idea of war he only learned from war games on the Internet. The President should stop playing these games.
***
Every year, foreign doctors and nurses come to the country to undertake medical missions in far-flung areas.
They come unobtrusively and leave inconspicuously— no fanfare.
Although they do their charitable work without expecting anything in return, I think it’s incumbent upon the government—the Department of Health (DOH), especially—to thank them for their efforts.
A dinner for those good-Samaritan doctors and nurses hosted by officials of the DOH, for example, is a fitting tribute.
For 17 years in a row, doctors and nurses from Colorado, USA, who compose the International Surgical Mission (ISM), have been going to Northern Samar province to conduct medical missions.
The ISM group is headed by Dr. Paul Radway.
Another group, the Aloha Medical Missions of Hawaii, also treats the poor in Samar. It is led by Dr. Ramon Sy and volunteers from Guam headed by Dr. Jerome Landstrom.
On Feb. 17-27, Biri, an island town in Northern Samar, will become the beneficiary of the ISM medical mission.
Apart from Radway, the ISM mission is composed of doctors Luis Javier, Tropha White, Praveen Chandra Prasad and Brent Izu—all surgeons—and Paul James McCarthy, a pathologist.