Politics in the Philippines, I am informed by insiders and history, is a rough and tumble business.
It’s filled with the kind of corruption I’d have to cross the Hudson River to North Jersey to discover. Mayors and other top elected officials in New Jersey never seem to get indicted until just after they get their best offer in an envelope. Then the feds drop by and slap the bracelet on them.
I’m not easily shocked by this as I was weaned on Boston’s legendary Mayor James Michael Curley (rhymes with vote often and early for…). The rogue Irishman even got elected while sitting in jail.
Now that’s political power.
But down and dirty politics is one thing and being thrust into the middle of a vicious war is another.
Some Pinoy pols like to throw boxing idol Manny Pacquiao’s name around as a possible peacemaker in the country’s continuing war with its equivalent of Al Queda, the Abu Sayyaf Muslim separatists who bring death and destruction wherever they go.
(See the GMA produced list of Abu Sayyaf atrocities below).
I don't claim to be knowledgeable about the bloodshed here or the history behind it. I certainly have no idea, other than through military force, how it can be ended. But I do know an entertainer named Pacquiao has no place anywhere in it.
Forget any jokes about these militants being Manny’s toughest opponent. There’s nothing comical about beaheadings, airport bombings, blowing up ferries or killing infants.
Any political figure, and that includes President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who wants to see Pacquiao mixed up, even as peacemaker holding out an olive branch, in this dangerous situation is not the fighter’s friend.
I understand politicians tugging on the famous coat of Pacman but there should be a limit to it.
Who’s to say some deranged terrorist wouldn’t want to kill the nation’s most famous worldwide personality as a sick sort of trophy?
Who’s to say there’s not some Lee Harvey Oswald type lurking in the Philippines?
Let Pacquiao do his electoral thing in Sarrangani next year.
But he has no place even being mentioned in the war between crazed militants and the Philippine armed forces.
That’s a fight that Pacquiao needs to sit out.
The Bible says blessed are the peacemakers, I know, but let’s keep this sporting hero out of a bloody fight in which he has no place.
Abu Sayyaf killings under Arroyo administration
2001: Beheads Dos Palmas cook Sonny Dacquer and Dos Palmas security guard Armando Bayona
- Kills 16 soldiers in a firefight in Tuburan, Basilan
2002: Beheads two members of the Jehovah’s Witness, puts the men’s heads inside plastic bags and leaves them in Jolo market
2003: Claims responsibility for the death of 21 people in the Davao airport bombing
2004: Bombs Super Ferry 14 off the coast of Manila, resulting in the death of 116 people
2005: Kills four personnel of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology after Abu Sayyaf leaders attempted to escape from Bicutan prison
2006: Kills six people, including an infant in a farm in Patikul, Sulu
-Kills Marine officer in an encounter in Patikul, Sulu
2007: Kills 29 soldiers in an encounter in Basilan
2008: Kills Catholic missionary in a raid in Tawi-Tawi province
2009: Kills a hostage from a Christian community in Lamitan, Basilan
- Beheads a 61-year-old man in Basilan - GMANews.TV
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