How does one know if the leaders of a country are manipulative and shrewd?
One good indication is when the leaders -- faced with crucial societal issues that determine the future and the life and death of their political system – routinely create bureaucratic committees, panels, task forces, and commissions and perfunctorily hold junket workshops, seminars and summits on the pretext of studying a national problem instead of directly and bravely attacking the national disease by courageously and fairly applying and enforcing the law, no matter who might get hurt.
This immobilizing syndrome called “self-inflicted paralysis by over-analysis” is best exemplified in Pres. Gloria Arroyo’s reaction to the age-old existence of private armies in feudal local government units in the Philippines. She has just created an inutile and expensive presidential commission to “study” the issue of private armies. In the first place, she exacerbated the problem by issuing a few years ago Executive Order No. 546 which created the military-backed civilian volunteer organizations (CVO) in rebellion-infested parts of the country.
The CVO units were armed and trained by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and subsequently entrusted by the latter to Pres. Arroyo’s favorite local government executives, who are nothing else but rich and powerful feudal warlords tasked to maintain Pres. Arroyo and her ruling party in perpetual power.
Read below the recent editorial of the Philippine Daily Inquirer on the same issue and you will know what I mean.
I have been consistently writing in this blog about the grave issue of private armies, warlordism, and political dynasties in the Philippines because they are the terminal cancers that will directly and surely lead Philippine democracy to its early death in this generation.
The rule of law and the justice system will die with it.
Editorial
Superfluous
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:52:00 01/04/2010
THE CREATION of a six-man commission assigned to dismantle private armies before the May elections has met with mixed reactions. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s allies in Congress expectedly welcomed the naming of the members of the commission. Others, like former Commission on Elections Chairman Christian Monsod, were not impressed by the commission’s purported broad powers.
Monsod said he understood that the commission was only a recommendatory body, and if that was so, “it’s not going to be very useful.” Bukidnon Representative Teofisto Guingona III said the commission’s assignment to study the problem of private armies was “a redundancy” because their existence was already a matter of public knowledge. He urged government forces to go after the private armies, which he said were illegal, and start dismantling them.
Monsod and Guingona are right. If the main purpose of the commission is to study the problem of private armies and make recommendations, then it is wasting precious time that could be used instead to immediately bear down on the private armies and dismantle them before they can create havoc in the May elections. It is already established that private armies are illegal; the thing to do now is to go after these illegal groups, break them up and disarm them.
The President, as commander-in-chief, should order the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police to immediately dismantle the private armies. The process of dismantling the private army of the Ampatuans in Maguindanao is under way, and this is being done even without the special commission. Why can’t a similar operation be undertaken in other areas where private armies are known to exist?
Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales recently cited intelligence reports of heavy purchases of weapons by local politicians. He said at least 132 private armies existed in various parts of the country, armed with close to a million loose firearms.
One million loose firearms constitute a lot of firepower. They’re enough to start a nationwide war. What’s the government, and particularly the AFP and the PNP, doing about this? Are they waiting for a conflagration to break out before they act?
Ms Arroyo’s spokesperson Gary Olivar said the permanent dismantling of private armies was “a tall order.” Indeed, it is a very difficult task, considering that private armies have been in existence for nearly six decades and have become permanent fixtures during elections. Private armies have been used by politicians to intimidate and kill their political opponents and to terrorize voters into voting for them.
Instead of forming a commission, it would have been better if the President had acted directly, ordering the AFP and the PNP to wage a nationwide campaign to seek out the private armies, arrest, and prosecute those suspected of having killed or wounded people in the past, confiscate all their loose firearms, and seize other guns pending verification of how they came into the possession of these armed groups. This has been done in Maguindanao; there is no reason to believe that a similar operation cannot be done in other areas in the country, provided the President is determined to exercise political will and act decisively to stamp out this bane in Philippine politics.
Will she do it? Or is she merely grandstanding to show her concern over the evil influence of private armies on national politics? She owes a lot to private armies. She owes a lot particularly to the Ampatuan political dynasty and its private army, which made it possible for her to amass a huge lead over opposition candidate Fernando Poe Jr. in Maguindanao in 2004 and for the administration senatorial slate to lead also in Maguindanao in 2007.
But since it appears that the President’s order creating the six-man commission can no longer be revoked, let it then conduct studies, including a review of Executive Order 546 which authorized the creation of private armed groups like the Civilian Volunteer Organizations. But even before the commission buckles down to work, nothing but lack of resolve prevents the President from ordering the military and the police to get on with the task of dismantling the private armies before they create any more damage.
See:
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/editorial/view/20100104-245519/Superfluous
