The spoiled SAF 44 families

ONE YEAR after the debacle at Mamasapano, Maguindanao province, where 44 police elite troops were slaughtered in a bungling commando raid, President Noynoy has not taken full responsibility for the fiasco.

To appease the families of the slain commandos, the President flooded them with benefits to partially alleviate their sorrows.

Just like a father who mistakenly whips his child, realizes his fault later, and then showers the toddler with tons of candies, making his other children jealous.

Is it hard for the President to say, “I’m sorry” or “I’m responsible?”

Remember the massacre of eight Hong Kong tourists at the Luneta on Aug. 23, 2010, at the hands of their hostage-taker, a dismissed cop, and their clumsy rescuers?

Up to now, P-Noy hasn’t apologized to the Hong Kong government for the bungled police rescue which was managed on the ground by his friend, then Interior Undersecretary Rico Puno.

It was Manila Mayor Erap who apologized for the Philippine government, even if the city mayor then was Alfredo Lim.

The mark of a good leader is his ability to own up to his mistake.

Definitely, P-Noy is not one.

What is most unfortunate is that the citizenry hasn’t seen through the President’s irresponsible ways and continues to give him high popularity ratings.

Daang matuwid (straight path and narrow path), my eye!

Daang matagtag (bumpy road), yes.

But most Filipinos seem to be enjoying the bumpy ride.

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Hasn’t it occurred to P-Noy that he has left out other policemen, soldiers and Marines who were killed in Mindanao during his watch and whose relatives deserve the same kind of benefits given to the SAF 44 families?

The President makes one mistake—sending elite troops into a lion’s lair, as Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte puts it—and then makes another by spoiling the families of the slain commandos.

One of the SAF widows was given P300,000 to bankroll her Internet café business in addition to a bucket of other benefits from the Philippine National Police, National Police Commission, Senate, House of Representatives, Department of Social Welfare and Development, President’s Social Fund, National Housing Authority, Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Department of Health, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), etc., ad nauseam.

The mother of one of the dead SAF commandos asked for—and was granted—the concreting of a feeder road in a far-flung village that cost the P20 million.

Sobra naman ‘yan! (That’s too much!)

Did the widows or relatives of the other policemen and soldiers who were killed by Moro rebels or communist insurgents get the same benefits?

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Now that the heroism of the slain 44 SAF commandos has been extolled, the surviving SAF troopers who were sent to Mamasapano on the same mission should be investigated for possible cowardice.

While their comrades were being massacred on a cornfield, the other commandos—there were 392 SAF troops deployed to Mamasapano—were just sitting or lying on a highway when Army reinforcements arrived.