P5M to the MILF: Pres. PNoy's hands are soiled with blood!

I fully agree with the observations of Rep. Jack Enrile, Jr. that the Aquino government must move swiftly in order to stave off a possible food shortage next year, which has been caused by the unprecedented flooding that hit many parts of Luzon and our neighbors Vietnam and Thailand, ASEAN countries where we get our rice.

As Rep. Enrile said, “We are again appealing to the President to act decisively on warnings that are being sounded by both local and international experts. With rising pressures on food production not only in the Philippines but in many food-producing countries in the region, the government should not lose time in instituting meaningful reforms in our agricultural sector if we are to protect our people from a potential food crisis.”

Amidst this appeal, Rep. Enrile is asking Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III to certify as urgent the passage of House Bill No. 4626 or the Food for Filipinos First Act of 2011. Unfortunately, we know nothing about this bill as it has not yet been debated unlike the highly controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Bill. But then what good would having a law on Reproductive Health be when the people are starving?

Last Oct. 21, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that Southeast Asia is now facing serious food shortages after massive flooding in the region. That report showed that floods have damaged 12.5 percent of riceland in Thailand, 12 percent in Cambodia and 7.5 percent in Laos, 0.4 percent in Vietnam and 6 percent in the Philippines.

You may think that these figures are miniscule. But please do not forget that when push comes to shove, the Vietnamese, the Thais or the Cambodians would certainly use their rice stocks to feed their people first when things get worse. A couple of years ago when we had a rice shortage, I went to our farm in Catigbian, Bohol to talk to the farmers and indeed, they told me that they heard about the rice shortage on the radio, hence they were keeping their own rice stocks to feed themselves first before selling it to the marketplace.

If the Aquino administration doesn’t give priority to our agriculture sector, especially with the knowledge that the flooding in many areas of ASEAN have not yet subsided, Pres. PNoy may just have his hands full trying to stop people from rioting or rampaging stores to get food. That may be the worse scenario, but under the kind of leadership of the nonchalant Pres. PNoy, this scenario is not farfetched.

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I was still in Paris looking at the Philippine Star news reports when I learned that Pres. PNoy admitted last Oct.26th that he had given a check of P5 million to Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chairman Murad Ebrahim. As the report goes, Chief Peace Negotiator Marvic Leonen gave this check to Ebrahim during the formal exploratory talks held in Kuala Lumpur last August 22.

Wow! Is this the transparency that the Aquino administration is bragging about? How come this was given last August, but it only surfaced a month later? Or perhaps they wanted this kept secret, but someone blurted it out in the open and has now caused the Aquino administration untold embarrassment more so that the MILF has killed 19 soldiers? If you ask me, giving money to terrorists is an act of treason! If Pres. PNoy is true to his word and tested the waters by asking a survey whether or not he should give the MILF money, I’m sure that the surveys would yield a negative result.

But as usual Palace sycophants like spokesman Edwin Lacierda justified the President’s giving of this P5 million check by saying that it was for the establishment of the Bangsamoro Management and Leadership Institute (BLMI) in order “to train future Bangsamoro leaders.” Perhaps Mr. Lacierda should tell us how much money was given to the Liberal Party in order “to train future Liberal Party leaders?” Isn’t this a total bull?

Using their misplaced logic and reasoning, therefore can we expect Pres. PNoy Aquino to also give a similar amount to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) or National Democratic Front (NDF) using the same argument; after all, their leadership has not changed in decades. It is still headed by Chairman Jose Maria “Joma” Sison and Fr. Luis Jalandoni.

This is the kind of government the Filipino people elected into office, which now gives money to groups that vowed to destroy our well-established form of government. Already, many text messages are saying that the money was used to buy arms. But then our naïve President defended his actions, while our poor soldiers are killed in ambush by the very same people whom he gave our precious tax money without our permission! I dare say that the blood of our dead soldiers has also soiled the hands of Pres. PNoy.

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