The Philippine Military recently released a video of an alleged MILF training camp where what appeared to be children were being trained in the use of arms and in warfare. And the MILF has promptly denied this. Well, not exactly. The MILF did not deny providing military training to children who have volunteered to join their ranks. What the MILF denied was having children in the ranks of their regular troops and actively recruiting children to join their ranks.
Given the atrocities committed by members of the MILF in recent months, and now the allegations of violating the rights of children, one would expect that the present administration would move to declare the MILF as a terrorist organization.
But the Philippines is Wonderland and Gloria Arroyo is the Queen of Hearts. Nothing makes sense. What, you ask, would one have to do to be declared as a terrorist organization here? Atrocities and wanton human rights violations aside, one only need to be of no use to Gloria Arroyo. The MILF is fortunate enough that the current administration can use them to make and end run on charter change in order to perpetuate Gloria Arroyo's hold on power. The New People's Army, which is arguably less vicious, but probably less willing to be manipulated by the current administration has found itself on that terror list. That may be giving the NPA more credit that is due them. It may only be that the NPA has no claim on ancestral domain to dangle in front of Gloria Arroyo.
This is just great. (Sarcastic.) Not only do we have the dubious distinction of ranking second only to Iraq in terms of number of journalists killed, or for being up there in the corruption index, now we have joined the ranks of Somalia, Sierra Leone, and other African countries that have child soldiers.
Of course Gloria Arroyo's overly generous accommodations are not limited to the MILF. One only need to look at the incompetent, corrupt, and abusive people entrenched in government positions to comprehend the extent of her “generosity.”
Given the atrocities committed by members of the MILF in recent months, and now the allegations of violating the rights of children, one would expect that the present administration would move to declare the MILF as a terrorist organization.
But the Philippines is Wonderland and Gloria Arroyo is the Queen of Hearts. Nothing makes sense. What, you ask, would one have to do to be declared as a terrorist organization here? Atrocities and wanton human rights violations aside, one only need to be of no use to Gloria Arroyo. The MILF is fortunate enough that the current administration can use them to make and end run on charter change in order to perpetuate Gloria Arroyo's hold on power. The New People's Army, which is arguably less vicious, but probably less willing to be manipulated by the current administration has found itself on that terror list. That may be giving the NPA more credit that is due them. It may only be that the NPA has no claim on ancestral domain to dangle in front of Gloria Arroyo.
This is just great. (Sarcastic.) Not only do we have the dubious distinction of ranking second only to Iraq in terms of number of journalists killed, or for being up there in the corruption index, now we have joined the ranks of Somalia, Sierra Leone, and other African countries that have child soldiers.
Of course Gloria Arroyo's overly generous accommodations are not limited to the MILF. One only need to look at the incompetent, corrupt, and abusive people entrenched in government positions to comprehend the extent of her “generosity.”
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