Eighteen soldiers died in Basilan Saturday night, killed by Abu Sayyaf bandits who had set a ransom for foreign hostages and had threatened to behead some of them if demands were not met by Friday, April 8.
The bandits beheaded four of the 18 soldiers in the 10-hour fight.
Five died from the Abu front, including a Moroccan working to affiliate all kidnap-for-ransom groups with an international terrorist organization.
The bandits were led by Isnilon Hapilon, who is included in the list of terrorists in Asia most wanted by the United States government. Hapilon has a $5-million bounty on his head and has recently pledged allegiance to Islamic terrorists in Iraq and Syria.
An Italian priest had been freed on Friday, but there is no word on the condition of the 18 remaining hostages.
The slaughter of our soldiers occasions only rage and indignation, happening during the last few weeks of this callous administration and just when the people are being wooed to vote for their next leaders. How the sitting party—as if there were clear delineations among political organizations outside of convenience—could tell us we need to have more of this same indifference and self-righteousness in the face of utter inability to protect those who risk their lives for us is beyond our comprehension.
Recall that in January 2015, it took President Aquino several days to make a statement on the murder of 44 members of the Special Action Force directed to the enemy lair to arrest a terrorist, as if terrorists would raise their arms in surrender when shown a warrant.
When he did open his mouth, it was to both confound and astound us with his insensitivity and lame excuses, most unpresidentially blaming others at a time he should be showing leadership and compassion.
The same tendencies surfaced when he waited a full week to say something—anything—about the killing of farmers who were only asking for rice, bludgeoned as they were by hunger and poverty made worse by El Niño.
This joke of a leader announced that it took him a while to respond to what happened because he had been sick—the difficult job of the presidency was taking its toll on his health, he said.
He also said nothing about the bizarre awarding of medals to the men who dispersed the desperate farmers and local leaders—his political allies, by the way—blaming the farmers and the communists for what had happened.
Given this track record, it would be too much to expect a swift, decisive action, compassion or even good sense from Mr. Aquino. As the families of the fallen men grieve for them, killed in action on Day of Valor, we grieve too for what the Aquino leadership has brought us, only finding consolation in the fact it is bound to end soon.
