For all his faults, Joseph Ejercito Estrada, aka Erap, was presidential in dealing with some fiercely abusive Moros.
Of all Philippine presidents, Erap was the only one who tamed the Moros.
Compared to Erap, President Noy is babakla-bakla—a weakling—since he’s trying to pacify people who respect authority only when it wields a gun.
* * *
In order not to hurt the sensibilities of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), P-Noy’s government justifies the air strikes and ground assault on MILF positions as being aimed at “rogue elements” within the MILF.
Hahaha!
How can government bomb and bullets distinguish between the good Moros from the bad Moros?
The problem with the P-Noy administration is that it thinks all Filipinos are simpletons like some of his Cabinet members.
* * *
If there are places that government troops cannot enter because they are under the control of the MILF, then the government has accorded the rebel group a state of belligerency.
When a government gives belligerency status to an armed group, it recognizes that group as an equal.
When P-Noy met with MILF leaders in Tokyo last month he, in effect, recognized the MILF as a separate government.
Oh, Mr. Aquino, what kind of mentality do you have?
* * *
October is Indigenous People’s Month as provided for by law.
But are the rights of indigenous people really respected?
In General Santos City, the Gandam-Bangon clan of the B’laan tribe complained to “Isumbong Mo kay Tulfo” that they were being deprived of their ancestral land allegedly by the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP).
The NCIP is tasked to protect the rights of indigenous Filipinos.
Instead, the NCIP allegedly exploited the ignorance of the B’laan tribe by having other people claim ownership of the tribe’s 512 hectares of ancestral lands.
* * *
Politics is delaying the first-ever engineered sanitary landfill in Central Luzon—a 44-hectare former fishpond in Barangay Salambao, Obando, Bulacan province.
The operation of the landfill would make Obando the first zero-waste town not only in Central Luzon but in the entire country as well.
Sanitary landfills process and bury the community’s garbage and other solid waste in a specially designed structure, doing away with open dumps.
Dumps are now illegal.
But a group composed of former local officials and defeated candidates is ganging up on incumbent officials by opposing the landfill project.
They probably want a piece of the action, so to speak.