Terror attacks exposes the Filipino crabs!

The bombing of Davao City’s night market last Friday night has revealed the reality in the Philippines that we know today… that thanks to our ugly political system, we only produced Filipinos with a serious crab mentality. Remember the old story about Filipino crabs? To refresh your memories, let me retell this story once again. In a beach off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco… there was a man who was getting crabs into his basket. Then a passerby notice that the lid in his basket was not closed and told the man catching crabs that his catch might escape. He then told the passerby, “No those crabs won’t be leaving my basket, you see I’m catching Filipino crabs. When one gets near the top… everyone pulls him down back to the bottom of the basket!”

When news of the bombing in Davao City was splashed in the social media networks…there were two types of reaction coming from two types of Filipinos. One group prayed for solidarity for the nation and for Davao in particular, giving their all out support for Davaoenos in these crucial times. But another group declared… “Kala namin, safe ang Davao? Hindi pala?” If you checked the names of these people, they are mostly supporters of the previous regime… who have tasted a good life for six years under the Presidency of Pres. Aquino…but are still bitter that Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte and not Mar Roxas won the 2016 Presidential elections.

Naturally, people, especially supporters of Pres. Duterte bombarded those groups saying that when France was hit by terrorist attacks…they showed their support for France even changing the colors of their Facebook page to the tri-colors of the French flag. But when Davao is bombed… they cannot find it in their hearts to rally behind the people of Davao and our nation during this terrorist threats. What a shame! By now, we should act as a Filipino nation…not followers of Pres. Duterte or the former President.

So when Pres. Duterte declared that we are in a State of Lawlessness… these yellow bloodied anti-Duterte people comes out of the woodwork to warn us about the specter of Martial Law as the next episode in this political game. Come now, wasn’t this threat of the return to Martial Law tagged against then Mayor Duterte during the Presidential campaign? Clearly the election campaign fever has not left the supporters of the yellow regime! Why can’t you people move on, huh?

That we are in a state of war against the drug lords or pushers of illegal drugs is a reality that you already know by now. But the more serious war is what our soldiers in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are fighting today in the hinterlands of Basilan and Sulu Province against the Abu Sayyaf who have made a mockery out of laws and our security forces for nearly two decades now. Since their creation in 1991, they have only pillaged towns, committed murder, kidnapping with ransom and rape and in April 1995, they attacked and burned the town of Ipil in Zamboanga Sibugay. Their objective is not ideological…but plain and simple banditry to gain millions in ransom money from their captives and they bask on the publicity that the media gives their group.

The Abu Sayyaf has been tagged as a terrorist group by the United Nations (UN), including the United States, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and Canada. Their most famous captives were Martin and Gracia Burnham, a missionary couple whom they abducted in a daring raid in May 2001 Dos Palmas Resort. Martin Burnham was killed during an attempt to free his fellow captives by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Only last June 2016, I saw the video that they uploaded via Facebook when they beheaded their Canadian captive Robert Hall and John Ridsdel which Marites Flor, the girlfriend of Robert Hall tearfully recounted to then President elect Rodrigo Duterte. I’m sure that it was then that Pres. Duterte resolved that the only way to solve the problem of the Abu Sayyaf is to eradicate them. Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Soc Villegas in “Prayerful Communion with the victims said, “We pray for peace for the dead victims. We pray for healing for the wounded. We pray for strength for the bereaved families. We pray for the restoration of brotherhood and harmony for Davao and for the nation,” he said.

The CBCP head also called for peace rather than vengeance. Let not vengeance be our response but peace! Christ our peace, restore our peace.”

Frankly speaking, I don’t know what Bishop Villegas meant when he said, “Let not vengeance be our response but peace!” Time and time again, the Abu Sayyaf told the government that it doesn’t want peace and continued with their terrorist ways and I dare say that it is the sacred duty of our government to eradicate this terror group and keep the nation safe from them.

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