The search for an enemy after Mamasapano

The recent events in the Philippines were as heartbreaking as it was frustrating. The hearings in the Senate, as well as everything reported about Mamasapano, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the 44 troops massacred on January 25, generated more unanswered questions.

Images of families losing their fathers, sons, and brothers continue to haunt my own mind. I sometimes try my best not to care, afraid of getting consumed by hatred or despair. But the Filipino in me couldn’t help but be restless in the face of everything I witness despite being in a quiet dorm room in a cold but peaceful city, halfway around the world. 

Everyone, myself included, cannot grapple with the thought that no clear group or person emerges as the one ultimately responsible for all this. Some blame the incompetence of President Benigno Aquino III. Others point at Aquino’s erstwhile friend Alan Purisima, the MILF, the peace panel, and even the troops and their ground commanders.

Who is the real enemy?

Both sides to the conflict seem to have a valid explanation, or at least an acceptable one. Thus, the frustration continues – the search for an enemy who seems to be nowhere in sight.

I realized a few things in this heartbreaking saga. The fighters who killed each other on the cornfields of that quiet town in Maguindanao had no reason to kill, more so, each other. After all, the SAF 44, the rebels and the civilians who perished in that tragic firefight were all suffering the same injustice and poverty, something so deeply common to them, and would have made them the best of friends if only they knew.

I, too, discovered, after my impaired and limited perusal of the hearings, social media and articles, that the real enemy wasn’t the MILF to the SAF, nor the SAF to the MILF. The real enemy is a corrupt, unjust, and vile political system of patronage, greed, and power. It is The same enemy that caused an otherwise honest and decent President to permit a suspended PNP Chief to take charge of a sensitive operation violating every canon of propriety.

The same enemy that caused those who knew of the operation to keep allied troops in the dark for the vanity of a promising accomplishment. And perhaps, the same enemy that continues to make the rebels demand with the threat of arms and violence for more than what should be sought. 

Those who fell fighting never reaped the true rewards of democracy and freedom for they died burdened by poverty and lack of equal and fair opportunities. They all fought either for or against a system that promised them a better life. It is the same system that urged them to fight so their miseries may end. And indeed, they fought but died fighting, troops and rebels alike, never to wake up to savor the dawn of that promise.

I admit I was quick to judge the incident, giving in to my natural bias and dwelt on issues apparent on the surface. I came from a military family. My stepfather was a military hero and the most decorated officer in history. My younger brother is a lieutenant beginning his own journey in the profession of arms. I felt the outrage, pain and sufferings the families must have felt, fearing the possibility that it could happen to those close to me.

‘The enemy still lives’

But lost in that fear, I failed to grasp the humanity of the conflict. That this search for answers was beyond operational lapses and the personalities involved. As I listened to the quiet, painful, sometimes burdened truths spoken in the Senate or posted on social media, I cannot help but also search for my own truths. I looked for the real enemies within me that surfaced in the face of the tragedy – hatred, pride, and the lack of compassion. These are the enemies I myself grapple with each day which cause war, death, and destruction. These are enemies I myself have to defeat, if I am to make a positive contribution to this world badly distressed by conflict and violence.

I bet none of them had the same lust for power those who commanded them into the valley of death had. Neither did they have anything to gain from killing each other – not one of them killed or died for power, glory or vanity. They were actually long lost comrades, bound by their common sufferings, pains, and hopeless dreams for themselves and their families. They were put in the arena of combat by invisible enemies seated in the corridors of power.

While Congress should reassess, overhaul, and reexamine the Bangsamoro Basic Law, and the peace panel should rethink its directions moving forward, it should work 24/7 to find lasting solutions to the peace process and never relent in its struggle for peace that is animated by justice. Never should we lose more lives in the search for the real enemy. We cannot afford to see the innocent killed in the crossfires, comrades die in vain, and children lose their fathers, or wives their husbands fighting an enemy that can never be beaten by war. 

What is clear is that the real enemy was not killed in that encounter. That enemy still lives, to sow more conflict, more violence, and seems determined to take more lives. But I am hopeful that we, as a nation, can rise above the ashes and find that enemy, no matter what it takes. And once captured, locked up in the dungeons of our collective past as a nation, never allowing it to ruin our peace. – Rappler.com