Binay Flashes APO Sign in Proclamation: A Hope Rekindled 
Brother Jejomar Binay walked through the Batasan’s session floor and climbed the steps up to where the Senate President and Speaker of the House were waiting that fateful June 9. Reaching the top, he first shook hands with the Senate President, who was also a PMP partymate. And then he did it!
On national television, Vice President-elect Jejomar Binay flashed the all too familiar three-fingered sign of APhiO. He did not only flash it, he waved it high and with a beaming smile all over his face. He flashed it towards the brothers and sisters who had come to the session hall to witness his proclamation.
My chest swelled with pride at that moment. APhiO Phils has reached another pinnacle worth telling to the next generations of this beloved organization. Finally and for the first time, a full pledged and initiated brod of APhiO has been elected by the Filipino people to be the Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines. Jejomar Binay is not just another wrongfully accepted honorary (politician) member, but a full blooded and full pledged brother! Hanep talaga!
This is what I have dreamed about for a long time. A bearer of the torch that is worth emulating by the younger generations in the practice of the cardinal principles of Leadership, Friendship and Service, both in personal life and in public life. A living monument of Alpha Phi Omega.
I wallowed in that feeling of pride and anticipation for a few moments. And then some more. And then I returned to reality and the other things that surround his vice-presidency. This is after all a matter of governance. A six-year term with the lives of all citizens figuratively placed on his and Noynoy’s hands; Filipinos, Moro, Lumad, majority, minority, Christian, Muslim, pagan, etc. ALL of us.
Several relevant questions came to mind.
Will he also assume the platform of Erap, particularly of pushing for another “All-Out-War’ in Mindanao? He has said publicly that his core competency is the DILG. some even say that he would be a good DND chief.
But the DILG does not only deal with the LGUs. It also deals with the PNP. And during the time of Ronaldo Puno (“Punong Magikero” or Punong Tagapagbitay” among us Mindanao peace workers) he had used his powers as DILG chief and the alibi of anti-terrorism and anti-insurgency in chronically displacing so many civilians in Basilan, Sulu, Maguindanao and :Lanao del Sur.
The alleged “surgical operation” done in tandem with Ex- DND Secretary Gibo Teodoro wreaked untold damage to thousands of civilian lives in Mindanao.
The Brgy. Ipil, Maimbung, Sulu massacre of February 2008 is one of hundred clear examples I can personally enumerate. An MNLF-integree to the AFP who was on vacation killed in front of his wife, an entire magazine of M-16 bullets unloaded at the back of his spine. A 4-month pregnant lady injured, then gang raped. A four year old baby girl strafed by M-30 bullets. The entire case covered up despite the internet posts and submission of incident reports to media outfits. The perpetrators commended, awarded with medals, and promoted to higher rank.
I dearly hope this will not be the case.
I hope that the many Moro who are members of APhiO could reach out to Brod Jojo and share with him the story of Mindanao. Not the story fabricated by Gregorio Zaide and Teodoro Agoncillo on their widely read history books. But the story as told without bias, without prejudice and with true professional lense.
About why the Moro of Mindanao want their right to self-determination (NOT independence!) restored by government.
About what is the difference between the word “moro” which is ethnic and ‘muslim” which is universally religious. And that this is not a conflict between two religions (which is the intrigue but is actually not the truth) but a conflict in resources and a conflict in identity.
About why a small portion of the Moro people became hopeless in talking to past governments and started to form the MNLF and the MILF.
About the Moro identity as a people and a nation long before the establishment of the Malolos Republic and Republic of the Philippines.
About the reason why after so many long decades under the unitary Philippine rule, the predominantly Moro / Muslim ARMM remain the poorest in the Philippines in spite of the billions in aid given by international donors and official development assistances.
I also dearly hope he does not have the same deep sense of discrimination and prejudice as Erap towards the Moro people. Many people from Luzon and Visayas do not understand the root cause of the unpeace in Mindanao and have the same views as Erap. They just conclude from a distance and even dare to say, “buti nga sa kanila”. To these people I only pray that war does not happen in their places. Because the war here in Mindanao waged by Erap saw the gang rape of wives and Mor/Muslim mothers, the bashing of Moro/Muslim babies against walls, the cooking of pork inside the mosque, and the use of pages of the Holy Qur’an as tissue paper during the last All-Out-War.
Whatever small time peacebuilders like me do to assuage the pain and the hurt of these civilians is small compared to what a truly responsive and truly responsible and pluralistic government can do.
And I hope and pray that Brod Jejomar Binay will once more be the model and show to all and sundry what the true and sincere meaning of the cardinal principles and the twelve jewels are in the practice of governance and in the service of humanity. These are some of the things that even 1,000 paddles, 1,000 lashes, 1,000 rounds of “endoctrination with touch”, etc. can NEVER inculcate on the heart and mind of a fledgling APhiO. Loyalty will never be gained through physical pain. Never.
Let that APO sign matter to all of us, Brod Jojo.
May your kind increase in numbers. Not only within the APhiO ranks, but outside.
Tommy Pangcoga
Thumbtacks IV
0624-89-17333
*Also published in Global APO Network (GAPON)
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