All the more now, we need sober voices to keep all parties firmly on the path of seeking justice and peace.
A dark genie has been uncorked with the uploading on the Internet of the graphic video showing armed men finishing off wounded members of the Special Action Force (SAF) as they lay helpless on the ground in the Mamasapano clash.
The video was verified by family members of PO2 Joseph Sagonoy of Samar. A sibling recognized his slain brother, still alive in the footage, but not for long.
The barbarism of war showed its true face in those images.
In that bloodied cornfield, there was no respect for a GRP-MILF Peace Agreement, the Articles of War, or Geneva Convention rules on engagement. It just showed cruelty at its worst.
Whoever uploaded that video was not out to enshrine the truth; the author was mocking all sense of humanity. The video, taken by a camera that was apparently mounted on the barrel of one of the assailants’ weapons, was intended to escalate pain, to further demoralize the PNP and make Filipinos feel even more betrayed and helpless.
The agent who posted the video likely knew he was twisting a knife in the still gaping wound that we will always remember as the Fallen 44, who died in a mission which to this day has us asking how it was executed with such tragic results.
The cry for “answers” to satisfy the grieving families and comrades of the SAF commandos reached a crescendo with the eloquent appeal of OIC PNP Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina in Wednesday’s hearing of the House committee on public order and security.
Espina had been kept in the dark until the last minute about “Oplan Exodus,” a mission that committed 398 SAF elite policemen to serve a warrant of arrest against Southeast Asia’s most wanted terrorist, Zulkifli bin Hir alias “Marwan,” and his Filipino bomb-making cohort.
They eliminated Marwan, but Espina himself is denied the satisfaction of telling his men “Mission accomplished” because of unfinished business with their killers.
“We seek answers for my men,” thundered Espina, who showed more leadership in three minutes than President Aquino has demonstrated since the Jan. 25 debacle. Espina, holding back tears, said he lost sleep after reading the medico-legal reports that showed the slain PNP members suffered nonlethal injuries and gunshots to the head.
Espina’s anger in calling the deaths an “overkill” was based on facts in a scientific report, not the viral video.
The poison of that video threatens to inflame already seething degrees of public anger.
It’s too late to return the genie in its bottle. Its malevolent presence online can do irreversible damage unless leaders commit firmly to a path of peace and continue investigations with minds and speech that are sober and clear.
At the rate the House committee is proceeding – with all the antics of puffed-up political clowns (some even dared to laugh after Espina’s declaration) – peace talks for Mindanao and justice for the 44 Fallen will be the unintended casualties.
The suggestion of Cebu Rep. Gwen Garcia to show the six-minute video in the hearing, with TV cameras rolling, was an invitation for legislative mayhem. Fortunately, the idea was dropped.
At the Senate, where Sen. Grace Poe is steering the committee on public order hearing with surprising cool and mastery, members have agreed to view the video in an executive session with only the necessary people in the room.
The public has already seen the gore. Let’s give space now for parties to present facts, to listen deeply to testimonies and to probe with clean hearts, those with the lone intention to navigate a path for peace and help settle the deaths of the 44 Fallen with true justice.