Kin of SAF 44 asking too much

The families of the 44 police commandos killed in the encounter with Moro rebels in Mamasapano town, Maguindanao province are beginning to irk, instead of elicit sympathy from, the public because of their excessive demands.

They sound like they deserve more entitlement from the government which has bent over backwards to ease their sorrow and appease an angry public.

They have forgotten that other government troops killed while fighting in Mindanao were given much less attention but their families did not complain.

The families of the “Fallen 44” SAF (Special Action Force) troopers should not be influenced by people who want President Noy to resign for their own selfish reasons.

Yes, P-Noy ordered elite police commandos to take down an international terrorist.

If he, the Commander in Chief, made a mistake that led to the death of their loved ones, it was unfortunate.

The kin of the slain commandos, in particular, and the public, in general, should know that many other soldiers have died in battlefields because of wrong decisions made by their superiors.

Soldiers are not sent to battle to have a picnic. They know that their lives are expendable because that is the nature of their job.

The families of the 19 Army Special Forces (SF) soldiers killed in an encounter with Moro rebels and Abu Sayyaf terrorists in Al-Barka, Basilan province, in 2011 never complained over the deaths of their loved ones.

Why should the families of the SAF 44 complain over their losses when they know full well that part of a soldier’s job is to kill the enemy or get killed?

They’ve been given a surfeit of benefits, including housing and scholarships for their children, and still, they ask for more.

*                           *                        *

What’s the difference between the “Fallen 44 SAF troopers” and the 19 Army SF soldiers who were massacred by Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels and Abu Sayyaf terrorists in Al-Barka, Basilan province, in 2011?

Unlike the Fallen SAF 44, the “Slain SF 19” were not hailed as heroes even if they died trying to save some kidnap victims from MILF rebels and Abu Sayyaf terrorists.

The families of SF troopers were not given as much monetary and other benefits as the widows and orphans of the SAF 44.

And yet, the public has not heard even a whimper from the widows and orphans of the slain SF troopers.

*                           *                        *

Government prosecutors, formerly called fiscals, should be of above-average intelligence with a lot of common sense.

Puerto Princesa City Prosecutors Joy Olga Rabang and Marivic Adla Bungay dismissed a rape case in which the victim was a minor because she was no longer a virgin.

Cebu Prosecutor Liceria Lofranco-Rabillas downgraded the charge of frustrated murder to slight physical injuries against Pearl Ungab, wife of Vice Mayor Jonah John Ungab of Ronda town, who attacked a woman she suspected of having an affair with her husband with a baseball bat.

Rabillas said the assailant didn’t have any intention to kill  because she used only a baseball bat.

Quezon City Prosecutor Jennifer Cabanban-Ong downgraded a case for large-scale estafa, a nonbailable offense, to ordinary estafa against a woman who allegedly swindled numerous people because the police used mostly bond paper shaped like bills instead of real money to entrap the suspect who was demanding P20,000 from one of her prospective victims.