We Can Avert A War

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My husband says Lt Col Angel Benitez’ name is exactly what he is: 

                                                                                                                

                         An Angel

 

 

Though two years his senior (My hubby, Maj Arvin Lagamon, belongs to PMA Class 1992), they worked together at the Office of the Joint Chief for Civil-Military Operations  (J-7) in Camp Aguinaldo a few years back. Honestly, I barely knew him, but he seemed like a nice guy, funny too.

We knew he had died hours after the report was confirmed Monday afternoon.  My husband was silent throughout dinner that night. I didn’t press further. But when we saw the television footage and some photos, there was obviously more than just a gunfight and a bullet to the head. LtCol Benitez had slash marks on his body–which most likey were caused by an “bolo.” It seems likely that the convoy was stopped in the dead on night by some kind of MILF checkpoint, the passengers somehow put-up a fight but were overpowered and LtCol Benitez and the other soldiers tortured and hacked before they were shot.

But that’s a reality and a risk that all soldiers know could happen.

Now the question is, what happens to his family?

Sure, there are benefits, but no amount of wealth can ever replace the loss of a father, certainly not for children in their formative or precarious years, or a husband.

As a military wife myself, I am all too aware that Death dabbles often with the lives of soldiers. Like Ma’am Cookie, I’ve had to get used to sudden deployments to wherever, and not to ask too many questions (believe me, that’s HARD for me, especially when I was still a journalist).

But when will it stop? Can the Benitez family, just like the many other families of soldiers who were killed by the NPA, MILF and many other groups, find closure and justice? I don’t know.

This so-called war with the MILF is not new, it’s a story that gets recycled over and over again, only the players and locations change.

At the heart of the problem–a Muslim minority that simply cannot abide by Christian rule; a Muslim minority that wants to do their own thing.

Yes, I dare say, it’s ALL ABOUT RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL INTOLERANCE–mind you, by a minority that resorts to violence.

I bet a month’s salary Allah and the Prophet Mohammad are squirming with worry.

What do you do when people fight in your name and in keeping with the tenets of the Koran.

To put things in perspective, Muslims comprise less than half of the FIlipino population. History, poverty and other circumstances have reduced their ancestral territory mostly to southern and central Mindanao. But even in Mindanao, only about a third of the total land area is dominated by Muslims. Northern Mindanao (e.g. Cagayan de Oro) and Western Mindanao (e.g. Zamboanga) are predominantly Christian.

So what are Muslim separatists cowing about?

They are a MINORITY.

And so to avert a war, to stop the bloodshed, to enable thousands of innocent people to live peaceful and prosperous lives in Mindanao, here are some possible opportunities:

1. Government at all levels must have the political will to sincerely reduce these dissidents to sub-atomic proportions. The era of having a hero-government and some kind of anti-hero is SOOOO passe. Kennedy had his Cold War and the Bushes had a Saddam and the Al Queda, but now is the time to be practical. The era of warfare is no longer in bloodshed, but in MONEY, yes, in business. Whoever controls Mindanao has access to a very, very vast arsenal of resources, natural and otherwise. Agribusiness, mining, tourism–all very lucrative cash cows, all can be done in Mindanao.

2. Hire top hitmen to get rid of the key MILF leaders and other Muslim dissidents. For short, emasculate them so that they have no more Mojo. (hey we can do that for other groups too–hmmmm)

3. Do an East Timor in Mindanao. Get the UN to do a referendum of sorts on the people. Put the ARMM on hold and truly ask people if they want a separate country. Chances are, majority of the population under the ARMM will say they want to remain Filipinos.

4. If they indeed want a Bangsamoro state, then give them the Southern and Central portions of Mindanao. Put up a big, high wall and kick-ass border control and let Filipinos and Bangsamoro Muslims live totally separate lives.

Whatever it is, there’s gotta be a better option to this. The majority must be allowed peace and harmony. We have to end decades of strife and conflict. We, the majority, deserve better. Military wives and kids do not have to endure loss. Soldiers don’t have to die for causes that don’t even matter to many average Filipinos who simply want a better life.

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