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[av_heading heading=’EDITORIAL | Screwing up again and again’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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Monday, June 19, 2017
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MANY have paid the ultimate price in the Marawi – and Mindanao for that matter – battlefield, and collateral damage is always evident in the civilians.
According to President Duterte, the proliferation of firearms and the seeming endless supply of ammunitions in Marawi City were due to the terrorists’ connivance with local politicians and warlords. In his own words: “All the while, itong Maute, with the connivance of the politicians there, ‘yung mga warlords, were stockpiling. Kaya ni hindi maubos ‘yung M203 na bala at napakarami. Ngayon, kalabas-labasan, itong Maute were bringing the firearms surreptitiously at hindi natin nakuha na gaano na karami ang ammo pati baril sa loob.”
The government must lay out plans and solutions that will lead to tangible and long-lasting results to avoid further risking human lives. One such solution is to enforce all laws regulating firearms in Mindanao and to implement a total gun ban in an affected area and not only when a problem arises.
Another is to investigate thoroughly all government officials, elected or appointed, for complicity with the enemy.
A tangible solution that will carry through working with all those lives involved in Mindanao is crucial so as not to put the lost lives of our troops and innocent civilians in vain. The peace and order in the south cannot and should not be regarded as an on and off thing.
The deaths and/or displacement of thousands of civilians in Mindanao due to armed conflict are not new. And yes, we are sick of the same old claims that the Abu Sayyaf and other lawless elements have been finally licked only for the same problems to resurrect again.
We cannot screw up in Mindanao or in any part of the country again and again.
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