Friday, August 19, 2022
manilastandard.net
ADVERTISEMENT
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
manilastandard.net
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion Columns Lowdown by Jojo Robles

Who backed Maute?

Jojo RoblesbyJojo Robles
May 25, 2017, 12:01 am
in Lowdown by Jojo Robles
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
78
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Email

Occam’s (or Ockham’s) Razor, the philosophical principle which states that the simplest explanation is probably the most correct, is very likely in play here. That, and the axiom of “Cui bono,” which postulates that whoever stands to benefit the most from a crime is at the head of the line in the search for its perpetrators.

The politicians—together with their principals and their various lackeys—ho are critical of President Rodrigo Duterte had a field day yesterday accusing the government of masterminding the terrorist crisis in Marawi City while the Chief Executive was in Moscow, of all places. According to this fantastic theory, the action of the ISIS-inspired Maute Group was planned by the Duterte administration to give the president an excuse to declare martial law in Mindanao.

The accusation followed an earlier narrative gleefully spread by the same group of politicians asking where Duterte was while Marawi was being besieged by Maute terrorists waving the dreaded black ISIS flag. When it became clear that Duterte would be cutting his historic trip to the Russian Federation short in order to address the crisis personally, they shifted to the more conspiratorial theory that the President himself had staged the crisis.

In other countries that have been attacked by ISIS and its affiliates (and wannabe ISIS affiliates like Maute and the Abu Sayyaf Group), the citizenry is immediately galvanized into action and united in purpose. Such is the power of terrorism to simultaneously unite and horrify that the world community itself unconditionally sympathizes with the victims and offers all sorts of assistance.

In the Philippines, opposition politicians think nothing of using a terrorist attack to further their partisan agenda. Like funeral parlor owners, they see only good in having the bodies pile up, because it gives them the opportunity to earn their ghoulish living.

ADVERTISEMENT

But even the most cursory examination of the events of the past three days immediately explodes this “Duterte did it” theory being propounded by the Yellows. Let’s begin with Duterte leaving with a 300-member delegation for his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Why on earth would Duterte haul himself—and his biggest delegation of Filipino government officials and businessmen to go abroad so far—halfway around the world to meet a man he has always said he admires if he was only preparing an alibi for when the Maute attacked Marawi? And why would he cut short his trip when he hadn’t met Putin yet, even if he did convince the Russian leader to talk to him right before he flew back home in a huff?

Occam’s Razor will not allow such a complicated scenario. More likely than not, the Maute perpetrated their attacks on a Marawi hospital and other installations, causing massive panic and evacuations, because Duterte was about to meet Putin—in order to embarrass the Philippine leader while he was away on his important trip.

Who set up the Maute, who are known (like their terroristic brethren the ASG) to accept huge wads of cash for their work? Somebody who would benefit from the attacks and Duterte’s embarrassment, that’s who.

Which leads us directly to “Cui bono?” And that “cui” is definitely not the jet-lagged Duterte, who spent exactly 24 hours in Moscow and nearly two days in a plane coming and going.

* * *

One of the most curious incidents was the presence in Marawi City of Liberal Party Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino a few days before the Maute siege. I’m not saying that “Bambam” Aquino, who became senator by impersonating his dead uncle Ninoy, was in Marawi to make sure everything was in place for the terrorist attacks—but if the Yellows can accuse Duterte of planning a terror strike with absolutely no evidence, then Aquino’s presence in Marawi is a bit more substantial.

Then, Vice President Leni Robredo got into the act, attending a security briefing at the military headquarters shortly before Duterte arrived yesterday. Nobody appointed Robredo caretaker of government while the president was away, of course, and she certainly has shown no prior interest or aptitude in counter-terrorism; but there she was, suddenly “taking charge,” even when it became clear that Duterte was returning—or perhaps to cover her tracks if she is accused of being in league with the Yellows in setting up the Maute.

Then there was the aforementioned outcry from the Yellow camp of Aquino and Robredo about Duterte’s supposed absence during a crisis and its later morphing into a denunciation of the president for fabricating an excuse to declare martial law. If that’s not a coordinated follow-up attack, like the impeachment, the ICC filing and Leni’s videotaped speech before a UN body, I don’t know what is.

(A famously pro-Yellow newspaper even uploaded five photographs supposedly depicting the carnage in Marawi, which were later proven by Cebu-based media personality Mike Acebedo Lopez to have been taken four years earlier in Cotabato. The photos were later taken down with profuse apologies—but not before they had circulated on the Internet for hours.)

The coming days will probably show, when the proper investigating bodies start conducting their work, who really backed the Marawi terror attacks. If Duterte is found to have planned them, well, he’s even more Machiavellian than anyone has ever given him credit for.

Tags: Marawi CityMaute GroupOccam’s RazorPresident Rodrigo DuterteRussian FederationSenator Paolo Benigno AquinoTerroristVice President Leni Robredo
ADVERTISEMENT
Jojo Robles

Jojo Robles

Related Posts

Out for pizza

February 8, 2018, 12:01 am
0
148
Out for pizza

Vice President Leni Robredo, I fear, is not really interested in speeding up the recount of the votes cast in...

Read more

Not so fast

February 6, 2018, 12:09 am
0
135
Not so fast

First of all, the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital team of experts didn’t state that 14 children died as...

Read more

Duque feels the heat

February 1, 2018, 12:01 am
0
133
Duque feels the heat

If Health Secretary-designate Francisco Duque thinks that he can get confirmed if he just keeps his head down and stays...

Read more

Did Martin invent socmed?

January 31, 2018, 12:07 am
0
132
Did Martin invent socmed?

How quickly we forget. “Weaponizing” the Internet and social media for political purposes, especially by government communications officials using state...

Read more

Noynoy’s barricade

January 30, 2018, 12:01 am
0
138
Noynoy’s barricade

For once, I miss Cory Aquino.  Because Cory really went out of her way not to show in public the...

Read more

The Thomasian Way

January 26, 2018, 12:01 am
0
131
The Thomasian Way

Over at UST, they will virtually lynch you for having the “wrong” politics. But they will turn a blind eye,...

Read more

Stories you may like

  • People …are talking about Liza Soberano

    Supermodel son is Philippine bet in Manhunt International

    12360 shares
    Share 4944 Tweet 3090
  • How love kept Zoey Taberna alive

    10464 shares
    Share 4186 Tweet 2616
  • SMART/MVP-PH Team joins ‘22 Asian Taekwondo Championship

    1127 shares
    Share 451 Tweet 282
  • CHERY Tiggo Crossovers release players, salute their contributions 

    1107 shares
    Share 443 Tweet 277
  • Solidum heads DOST, ex-solon envoy to Japan

    861 shares
    Share 344 Tweet 215

Print Edition

View More

Recent Posts

  • Depots yield hoarded sugar
  • Scarcity of white onions pushes price to P400/k
  • DSWD to extend cash aid to poor students
  • Carlos at WPS as China envoy calls on PBBM
  • Metro mayors stand pat on NCAP policy
  • Allies
  • COVID mutations now harder to detect
  • Animal exposure risk monkeypox infection—WHO

Advertisement

Latest News

Allies

byManila Standard
August 19, 2022, 12:27 am
0
131
Metro mayors stand pat on NCAP policy

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. meets with visiting US lawmakers led by Sen. Edward Markey. 'We look forward to continuing our...

Read more

COVID mutations now harder to detect

byWillie Casas
August 19, 2022, 12:25 am
0
133
Omicron now dominant virus variant in US

The World Health Organization has warned that a global decline in genome sequencing is making it “so much harder to...

Read more

Animal exposure risk monkeypox infection—WHO

byAFP
August 19, 2022, 12:20 am
0
131

The World Health Organization called Wednesday for people infected with monkeypox to avoid exposing animals to the virus following a...

Read more

Inflation pressures ebbing

byManila Standard
August 19, 2022, 12:15 am
0
131
Inflation pressures ebbing

Inflation pressures appear to be softening up, which is good news for everybody. Global oil prices, the main culprit behind...

Read more

Grasping the concept of residual exception

byTranquil G.S. Salvador III
August 19, 2022, 12:10 am
0
133
Nullity of marriage: a defense in bigamy cases

"There is no procedural canon against the exercise of common sense in deciding the admissibility of hearsay evidence" One of...

Read more

Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube

ABOUT US

Manila Standard

Manila Standard website (manilastandard.net), launched in August 2002, extends the newspaper’s reach beyond its traditional readers and makes its brand of Philippine news and opinion available to a much wider and geographically diverse readership here and overseas.

Digital Edition

In tone and content, the online edition mirrors the editorial thrust of the newspaper. While hewing to the traditional precepts of fairness and objectivity, MS believes the news of the day need not be staid, overly long or dry. Stories are succinct, readable and written in a lively style that has become a hallmark of the newspaper.

Download – Today’s Paper

Search

No Result
View All Result

6th Floor Universal Re Bldg., 106 Paseo De Roxas cor. Perea Street, Legaspi Village, 1226 Makati City Philippines

Trunklines: 832-5554, 832-5556, 832-5558

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Pop.Life
    • Newsmakers
    • Hangouts
    • A-Pop
    • Post Its
    • Performances
    • Malls & Bazaars
    • Hobbies & Collections
  • Technology
    • Gadgets
    • Computers
    • Business
    • Tech Plus
  • MS ON THE ROAD
    • Sedan
    • SUV
    • Truck
    • Bike
    • Accessories
    • Motoring Plus
    • Commuter’s Corner
  • Home & Design
    • Residential
    • Commercial
    • Construction
    • Interior
  • Spotlight
  • Gallery
    • Photos
    • Videos
  • Events
    • Seminars
    • Exhibits
    • Community
  • Biyahero
    • Travel Features
    • Travel Reels
    • Travel Logs
  • Pets
  • Advertise with Us

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Install Manila Standard Web App

Install App