Shame on you, Mr President

I am writing this in anger, and the next lines are an attempt at bringing it out. 

I have, however, left the last line open, and suggest that readers add on to this screed.

Shame on you, Mr President, for sending a team on a mission with no knowledge of an area which every local knows as MILF territory.

Shame on you for not sharing with the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division information on this critical operation when this unit has the better knowledge of the terrain and the deployment of all armed groups, all in the effort to keep the peace.

Shame on you for not directly telling the MILF to order their troops to stop fighting, knowing that these elements were only a cell phone text away.

Shame on you, Mr President, for allowing a suspended chief of the police to oversee an operation that is not his responsibility anymore.

Shame on you for passing the buck and not admitting responsibility for this bungled operations.

Shame on you for not immediately going to every family of every policeman killed, to express your sympathies and vow to seek justice for its loved ones.

Shame on you for not addressing the national police to similarly extend your condolences, praise the fallen, and promise to make the BIFF and the MILF account for the killings.

Shame on you for going on television to call for a day of national mourning, then head to a car plant instead of meeting the bodies of the slain 44 in the tarmac.

Shame on you for ordering Abigail Valte to make that lame excuse that you did not need go to the tarmac because you would give the eulogy at the wake anyway.

Shame on you for… (please fill in your sentiment) – Rappler.com

Patricio N. Abinales is professor of Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. He is from Mindanao.