Commemorating our day of humiliation

By Rod Kapunan

Nobody wants to say we have an utterly ignorant President or one falling to the category of a closeted traitor.   But his enthusiasm to spearhead in commemorating the so-called “Jabida massacre” completely exposed his lack of understanding of the serious implication of what he did.

Indeed, it was revealing for either President Aquino has no idea why that dark episode was hatched, or is plainly playing fire to elicit sentiment from an already betrayed people whose jingoistic fervor has been heightened by the insults received from Malaysia.  Adding to this is his inexplicable washing of hands as if to disown those Filipino-Muslims who were slaughtered and continue to be slaughtered by the Malaysian authorities.  In fact, he went one step further to condemn Sultan Jamalul Kiram III and his followers, accusing them of trying to sabotage his government’s peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), while Malaysia stonewalling on our overtures to allow the return of the dead bodies for decent burial, and for the peaceful surrender of those remaining holdouts in Lahad Datu.

There is no doubt the so-called “Jabida Massacre” is a day of infamy and humiliation for this country.  It is for that why we need not publicly commemorate that day, more so if headed by an ignoramus President and applauded by his self-righteous hypocrites.  Whatever this disoriented government would say of that incident in the island of Corregidor on March 18,1968, that day is definitely being celebrated with much rejoice in Malaysia for it saved the day for them to bloodily defend their land grabbed territory.  That idiotic ritual amounts to rubbing insult to injury for admittedly that bungled operations resulted in our failure to liberate Sabah.  PNoy has no business recalling that debacle alongside with those co-opted Filipino Muslims who now appear to have regretted for allowing themselves to be used as proxy pawns in  Malaysia’s bloody war of revenge against this country in the late 70’s.

If President Aquino truly understood the position he represents, he would have promptly cancelled all activities commemorating that incident that would highlight the truth that we are some kind of psychos when it comes to understanding what nationalism and patriotism is.  That should have served instead as his guiding post in analyzing the implication of that humiliating ritual.   Rather, he was there for a banal reason which is to exploit the so-called “Jabida Massacre” as his political ammunition in this coming election with the usual line of making Marcos his whipping boy.

He could not even rationally comprehend that President Marcos in that instance and for whatever they would say of him, was fighting for the country’s national interest, one that has been defined as a national policy.  Paradoxically, he was mandated to carry that out.  The top secret operation called “Operation Merdeka,” where a special squad known as “Jabida” was created, was integral to an official state policy to reclaim Sabah, it being a part of our national territory.

That policy predated the Marcos administration, which claim was vigorously pursued through various diplomatic channels by the Macapagal administration.  Resolution No. 32 passed by the Fifth Congress  urged the President (and all succeeding Presidents) to take the necessary steps to recover a certain portion of the island of Borneo and adjacent islands which appertain to the Philippines.  That resolution remains in force and effect to this day for all the Presidents to enforce (execute) until and after that has been superseded or retracted by subsequent resolution.

The trouble with this disoriented President is he interprets our Sabah claim as a personal ambition of President Marcos, and to make a snide at his administration on that issue.  He forgot that by his crooked pronouncements, he is insulting himself as incapable of comprehending that a claim or defense of national territory is indivisible to defending our national sovereignty.  It is for this reason why some think we elected some kind of clown surrounded by political jesters because his actuations and pronouncements that could determine the fate of this nation appear to be in derogation of a declared policy of this Republic.

As one commented, if there is a war that now exists with that British-created federation, PNoy’s stand would have merited his being indicted for treason.  The trouble is he seems not to understand that a declared national policy often transcends the term of the President unless, as said, revised or retracted by Congress, or amended if written in the Constitution.   He does not even have a sense of historical recollection.  By his ignorance, he practically insulted our fallen heroes who were immediately and summarily executed by Malaysia after the discovery of that botched operation.

By unfortunate coincidence, it was the father of this disoriented President, former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr.,  who heightened the cry for revenge by Malaysia after coming out with his usual grandstanding of delivering a privilege speech capitalizing on our debacle  for his own political ambition.  By his participation in that ugly commemoration to the listening delight of those pro-Malaysian Muslims who witnessed the installing of a marker for those mutineers, he brushed aside the truth that hundred of Filipinos were butchered by Malaysia that even the body of Col. Abdul Latif Martilino has yet to be recovered.

No sooner after the discovery of the top secret operation, thousands of Filipino Muslims, mostly Tausugs, were forcibly evicted in Sabah, and in the years that followed, this country had to fight a lonely but bloody secessionist war funded by Malaysia.  Surprisingly, that separatist war was carried out by the MNLF resulting in them losing their homeland.    Now Misuari and his MNLF want to renew the fighting this time to recover Sabah, but that’s too late because Malaysia has already found their new stooge which explains why they were treated as persona non grata in that peace agreement with the MILF.

rpkapunan@gmail.com

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