ARMY PATROL. An Army truck full of soldiers patrol the streets of Marawi city. They are still fighting in most streets in the predominantly Muslim city nearly a month after the Maute Group members attempted to take hold of the city. (GSD FILE PHOTO BY FROILAN GALLARDO)
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Manny Valdehuesa .

ONE can be certain of one thing about the Marawi crisis: it didn’t develop overnight. So the question is, what chain of events led to the buildup of insurgency and rebellion?

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During the time it took for the trouble to heat up and boil over, what were the city’s officials doing? There was the City Mayor and the city councilors. There were uniformed and civilian services. There were dozens of barangays with their chairmen, kagawads, tanods, and what have you. And there were agencies and functionaries, local and national, operating with them.

Holding salaried and privileged positions, were they at work performing their duties to serve the community, to safeguard the people’s interests, to look out for the government, to secure the welfare of the jurisdiction? Hard to believe.

How was it that shadowy characters native and alien were going in and out, guns and ammunition were smuggled in, arsenals and supplies were building up—and no alerts were forthcoming?

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How about the inhabitants of the neighborhoods where those untoward activities were going on? Were they aware of what was going on? More important, did they care one way or the other?

It’s hard to contemplate that traitorous activities can take place in a community and no one notices it, or have an inkling of it, and nothing is done to address it.

Harder still to realize that all the boast of government and the bureaucracy that they are the guardians of our democracy and the leaders of our society ring hollow when push comes to shove.

Through all the years, their mission was to establish and institutionalize good government on all levels. They were to have orientated, trained, and empowered the people to perform their duty in partnering with their officials so that nothing untoward would befall the community and the nation as a whole.

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But when the pressure was on; when the situation became critical and urgent; when the time for action came; they failed their mission.

It was their job to secure the wellbeing of the community no matter how difficult; that is the time government and people must spring to action and live up to their sworn duty and obligation to serve and partner with each other.

Was their failure in Marawi a betrayal the public trust? Did it matter that they failed the expectations of their constituents? Or, and this is really the tough question, is it possible that both Marawi’s officialdom and citizenry in fact colluded to bring events to where they led?

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So far, there has been no mention of any investigation or inquiry into the horrendous happenings that befell the city and the reasons why.

Has anyone inquired into these questions? Shouldn’t there be an effort to establish the whys and wherefores of the devastations, let alone the traumas it caused?

Our society needs answers to these questions. More than that, it needs measures to prevent such horrors from ever happening to any community or barangay.

Enough of the government’s reflexive resort to Martial Law when unrest erupts and afflicts any part of our republic!

 

(Manny Valdehuesa Jr. is a former Unesco regional director for Asia-Pacific; secretary-general, Southeast Asia Publishers Association; director, development academy of Philippines; member, Philippine Mission to the UN;  vice chair, Local Government Academy; member, government peace panel during the administration of Corazon Aquino; awardee, PPI-Unicef outstanding columnist. An author of books on governance, he is chairman/convenor of Gising Barangay Movement Inc.. E-mail: valdehuesa@gmail.com)

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