EDITORIAL - True grit

If you want to breed torturers, start them young. In the Armed Forces of the Philippines, initiation into the ways of inhumanity starts during hazing rites for plebes in the Philippine Military Academy. Those who do not belong to the AFP officer corps get their own violent initiation. Or at least this is the picture that has emerged from a 14-minute video uploaded on the Internet, showing members of the Army’s 9th Infantry Division undergoing what AFP officials have described as a training exercise.

The video showed soldiers beating young trainees with ropes and sticks. Loud screams could be heard. The video was uploaded on Youtube about a month after the AFP launched a probe into another video, circulated on Facebook, showing Marines kicking four civilians who were blindfolded and whose hands were tied behind their backs. The venue was a coconut grove.

Military officials said the video uploaded on Youtube was taken in 2008 and was part of an “escape and evasion” training exercise in the Bicol Region. Such exercises have been stopped, AFP officials said, adding that the video was uploaded by a group known as a communist front. If this is true, the nation should thank the rebels for it. A military that resorts to torture for any purpose cannot hope to win any war. Some short-term objectives may be achieved, but such tactics will not lead to lasting victories. It could even aggravate insurgencies, as new soldiers who are tortured by their superior officers could take out their suffering on future captives.

The Aquino administration should make sure the AFP is telling the truth when it says such brutal activities have been discontinued. There can’t be a sane explanation for senseless brutality. If that violent training was supposed to prepare men for the rigors of combat, the AFP must be told that courage, not inhuman behavior, will get soldiers through the toughest challenges in conflict zones. True grit does not come from giving full rein to one’s inner beast. In fact inflicting harm on the defenseless smacks of cowardice.