EDITORIAL - Have Filipinos really been fair to its military?

The military, like any organization, is not perfect. Just as the church even has a few sexual perverts, so does the military have its scalawags. The communists, against whom the state has been at war for decades, harbor their own criminals.

When both the military and the communists commit similar ghastly acts of violence or abuse, it is understandable for the reactions to be varied. The military is the personification of law and order while communists seek the violent overthrow of democratic government.

Thus our expectations hew closely to perception. As agents of the law, the military is expected to toe the straight and narrow while for rebels, who do not recognize duly-constituted authority, violence and abuse come with the territory.

But there is something lacking in this equation. The human element cannot and should not take the backseat to what is legal or regular. Just because the communists operate outside the law does not mean their illegal acts can just be ignored, or worse, tolerated.

When the military commits human rights abuses, it is only natural that the perpetrators be pursued and meted appropriate punishment. But why is there hardly a peep when the communists commit similar, or even worse, abuses.

In fact, because military operations are directed at specific targets — the enemies of the state — casualties of war should be the more appropriate term to use, unless specific abuses are borne out by evidence in proper procedures in courts of law.

On the other hand, because the communists operate just like the Muslim secessionists and other terrorists, their victims involve more innocents, making their acts more senseless, and therefore more abusive of basic human rights and dignities.

What the Filipino public seems to be missing out in all of this is the fact that without the agents of law and order, despite the clear presence of a few scalawags, this country would have been in a far worse lot than it is now.

So, instead of always condemning the military as an institution, we should in fact be thanking it that it is still there, ready to sacrifice the lives of its good men in defense of a freedom that, in our lack of appreciation, we could unwittingly pawn to the real enemy.