Two cases November 15, 2006
THE first case has to do with the Marines who are currently under detention in Fort San Felipe, Cavite City. Tuesday last week was the 55th anniversary of the Marines. I don't know that they had much to celebrate.
This country has only two living Marines who have received the Medal of Honor for bravery. They are Lt. Col. Ariel O. Querubin and Capt. Custodio P. Parcon Jr. Querubin was given the medal for leading his men against the heavily fortified camp Abdulatef of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Despite heavy bombardment, he and his men held their ground. At great personal risk, Querubin drew enemy fire to himself to expose the enemy's position. They continued to hold their ground despite several ferocious assaults by the enemy. After their reinforcements arrived, they subdued the camp.
Parcon got his medal for rescuing Abu Sayyaf kidnap victim Luis Anthony Biel III. His citation reads almost like an FPJ movie. In the course of a three-day engagement with the bandits, Parcon's unit was pinned down by enemy fire. Parcon crawled toward the enemy under cover of grass and bush and took out the enemy single-handedly. When reinforcements arrived, they overran the Abu Sayyaf camp and rescued Biel.
Both Querubin and Parcon are currently detained in the maximum-security prison in Cavite, along with four other much decorated Marines.
The other case has to do with Dodong Nemenzo. Who is Dodong Nemenzo? Well, you must have lived in the mountains or some obscure corner abroad all this time to not know him. You don't even have to be a graduate of the University of the Philippines (UP) to know him. Though Dodong was at one point the UP president, his accomplishments go well past UP. He is one of the foremost political scientists in this country. His academic credentials are formidable, and well known beyond this country's borders.
He has never hidden his activist bent, but has openly expressed it, if not indeed advertised it. In the past, that was regarded as a boon: to be an activist while an academic meant to practice as one preached. It meant to stop being academic while being an academic. Today, that is regarded as a crime. Stealing the vote is not regarded as a crime, murder is not regarded as a crime, ruling without a mandate is not regarded as a crime. Activism is regarded as a crime.
The first thing that these two cases have in common is that they involve people who have shown courage and/or dedication over and beyond the call of duty. The first thing they have in common is that they have shown an enormous capacity and desire to serve the people. What are they being tried for?
Lt. Col. Achilles Segumalian, the burly Marine we all saw on TV at the Fort Bonifacio standoff saying all the Marines wanted were clean and honest elections, hit the nail on the head with a joke. He "offered" government his services to cheat in next year's elections. "Since wanting clean and honest elections will send you to jail, I am now supporting election fraud so I can be free and be promoted like those who were involved in cheating." Segumalian, like Lt. Col. Alexander Balutan and Brig. Gen. Francisco Gudani, personally witnessed the cheating in Lanao and neighboring areas.
What are they in jail for? They are in jail for believing the Marines should live up to their code of honor and duty.
Nemenzo on the other hand is being tried for plotting to oust the people currently holding power (I doubt if he would call them "government"). He is on trial because of the word of people whom Armed Forces chief Hermogenes Esperon's boys are guarding like the national treasure, and who cannot be interviewed by the media to see if they were not made to say things under duress. He is on trial because, as he himself put it in his opening statement (he refused to have a lawyer say it for him), he is resolved to defend the democracy this country won back during the two People Power uprisings at much sacrifice.
He argues that rebellion involves the use of arms or force, and he has never used arms or force, other than the arms of solidarity and the force of reason. A rally, he says, however mammoth, does not constitute rebellion. Wishing for a coup, however ardent, is not rebellion. Indeed, he says, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is lucky the protest movement has not yet reached the stage of rebellion—but which this trial among others is likely to spark.
But even if you grant that what he has done constitutes rebellion, even if you grant that what Querubin et al. have done constitutes rebellion, the question is: What are they rebelling against?
They are rebelling against an order that was put up against the wishes of the voters and against all the tenets that the military and academic communities at their best stand for. They are rebelling against an order that extols -- no, sanctifies -- wrongdoing of every possible shape and hue, and damns -- no, extirpates -- every effort to correct it. They are rebelling against an order that has resurrected the corpse of dictatorship and is regaling the world with its stench, calling it enchanted. They are rebelling against an order that is so rotten to the core the maggots are oozing out of it like pus from gangrenous wound. They are rebelling against an order that has no right to exist.
The only thing worse than setting a hundred guilty persons free is jailing one innocent one. The only thing worse than rewarding a hundred people who do wrong is punishing one person who tries to stop it. The only thing worse than Arroyo and Esperon not being tried for plain existing is Nemenzo and Querubin et al. being tried for bravely rebelling.
As with most cases in this country, particularly today, these cases do not reflect on the tried, they reflect on the trier. You charge Nemenzo and Querubin with rebellion, you might as well charge 85 million Filipinos with rebellion.
You will find them guilty as charged.
http://opinion.inq7.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=32600
This country has only two living Marines who have received the Medal of Honor for bravery. They are Lt. Col. Ariel O. Querubin and Capt. Custodio P. Parcon Jr. Querubin was given the medal for leading his men against the heavily fortified camp Abdulatef of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Despite heavy bombardment, he and his men held their ground. At great personal risk, Querubin drew enemy fire to himself to expose the enemy's position. They continued to hold their ground despite several ferocious assaults by the enemy. After their reinforcements arrived, they subdued the camp.
Parcon got his medal for rescuing Abu Sayyaf kidnap victim Luis Anthony Biel III. His citation reads almost like an FPJ movie. In the course of a three-day engagement with the bandits, Parcon's unit was pinned down by enemy fire. Parcon crawled toward the enemy under cover of grass and bush and took out the enemy single-handedly. When reinforcements arrived, they overran the Abu Sayyaf camp and rescued Biel.
Both Querubin and Parcon are currently detained in the maximum-security prison in Cavite, along with four other much decorated Marines.
The other case has to do with Dodong Nemenzo. Who is Dodong Nemenzo? Well, you must have lived in the mountains or some obscure corner abroad all this time to not know him. You don't even have to be a graduate of the University of the Philippines (UP) to know him. Though Dodong was at one point the UP president, his accomplishments go well past UP. He is one of the foremost political scientists in this country. His academic credentials are formidable, and well known beyond this country's borders.
He has never hidden his activist bent, but has openly expressed it, if not indeed advertised it. In the past, that was regarded as a boon: to be an activist while an academic meant to practice as one preached. It meant to stop being academic while being an academic. Today, that is regarded as a crime. Stealing the vote is not regarded as a crime, murder is not regarded as a crime, ruling without a mandate is not regarded as a crime. Activism is regarded as a crime.
The first thing that these two cases have in common is that they involve people who have shown courage and/or dedication over and beyond the call of duty. The first thing they have in common is that they have shown an enormous capacity and desire to serve the people. What are they being tried for?
Lt. Col. Achilles Segumalian, the burly Marine we all saw on TV at the Fort Bonifacio standoff saying all the Marines wanted were clean and honest elections, hit the nail on the head with a joke. He "offered" government his services to cheat in next year's elections. "Since wanting clean and honest elections will send you to jail, I am now supporting election fraud so I can be free and be promoted like those who were involved in cheating." Segumalian, like Lt. Col. Alexander Balutan and Brig. Gen. Francisco Gudani, personally witnessed the cheating in Lanao and neighboring areas.
What are they in jail for? They are in jail for believing the Marines should live up to their code of honor and duty.
Nemenzo on the other hand is being tried for plotting to oust the people currently holding power (I doubt if he would call them "government"). He is on trial because of the word of people whom Armed Forces chief Hermogenes Esperon's boys are guarding like the national treasure, and who cannot be interviewed by the media to see if they were not made to say things under duress. He is on trial because, as he himself put it in his opening statement (he refused to have a lawyer say it for him), he is resolved to defend the democracy this country won back during the two People Power uprisings at much sacrifice.
He argues that rebellion involves the use of arms or force, and he has never used arms or force, other than the arms of solidarity and the force of reason. A rally, he says, however mammoth, does not constitute rebellion. Wishing for a coup, however ardent, is not rebellion. Indeed, he says, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is lucky the protest movement has not yet reached the stage of rebellion—but which this trial among others is likely to spark.
But even if you grant that what he has done constitutes rebellion, even if you grant that what Querubin et al. have done constitutes rebellion, the question is: What are they rebelling against?
They are rebelling against an order that was put up against the wishes of the voters and against all the tenets that the military and academic communities at their best stand for. They are rebelling against an order that extols -- no, sanctifies -- wrongdoing of every possible shape and hue, and damns -- no, extirpates -- every effort to correct it. They are rebelling against an order that has resurrected the corpse of dictatorship and is regaling the world with its stench, calling it enchanted. They are rebelling against an order that is so rotten to the core the maggots are oozing out of it like pus from gangrenous wound. They are rebelling against an order that has no right to exist.
The only thing worse than setting a hundred guilty persons free is jailing one innocent one. The only thing worse than rewarding a hundred people who do wrong is punishing one person who tries to stop it. The only thing worse than Arroyo and Esperon not being tried for plain existing is Nemenzo and Querubin et al. being tried for bravely rebelling.
As with most cases in this country, particularly today, these cases do not reflect on the tried, they reflect on the trier. You charge Nemenzo and Querubin with rebellion, you might as well charge 85 million Filipinos with rebellion.
You will find them guilty as charged.
http://opinion.inq7.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=32600
posted by dqfan06 @ 11:31 AM
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