Alas, there are hostages.
You can condemn this to death until you’re blue in the face, and you can release tons of press releases on how many laws have been violated … but in the quiet of your situation room (i hope you are already working in your situation room and I hope it is orderly) you’ll still need to draw up scenarios and how to resolve each of them.
Just some notes:
ISA LANG ANG MAGSASALITA! [rough translation: there should only be one pointman as far as releasing the public statements are concerned – the English translation is more modulated]. Here, you have a local AFP spokesperson releasing info on hostages, a national AFP spokesperson talking about the captors, a local mayor talking about the instructions given by the President, a local governor talking about the peace talks, a Palace spokesperson talking about lawlessness, etc. etc.
Since lives are at stake here, it might be a good idea to assign only one spokesperson, and this policy should bind all officials. Pagsabihan mo yung mga nagsasalita nang hindi authorized.
This one pointman should clear whatever he/she will say with the crisis committee. Please. Hwag kayo bara-bara at magulo.
Second, for the flow of information, this situation can be considered as — to use the words of the Supreme Court in a case on prior restraint– “tantamount to war” , such that you are authorized to establish a liaison with the news media to ensure that… lives are not put at greater risk (i can’t use certain words so i hope you’ve caught on… ok, i hope you got this.) You need to appoint a pointman (another pointman for liaison aside from the crisis spokesperson) who is not stupid and who is respected by the news media. Liaison ito. The release and flow of information on the following can be controlled in a situation “tantamount to war”: number and location of troops, troop movements, oplan, details of talks, etc. etc., this is a list, you can ask media law students, i don’t want to be too talkative where hostages are involved.
The rest are operational and I probably should not write about them (like… you should not assign grandstanding politicians as negotiators, etc. etc…).
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On the contrary, this is yet another opportunity for grandstanding among politicians and those who are so dying to do it will find this one rare event that should not be missed.
Another point which could be one of the facts leading to a “tantamount to war” situation is this: While it is important to know who did the first shot, it is also equally vital to know how were the MNLF troops massing in those few villages. For example: if they (MNLF armed elements) are moving like they own Zamboanga City and they can just hoist their independence flags at the city hall, they are inviting trouble and therefore should not surprise us if the government soldiers fired at them first.
Just another point again: the MNLF is entitled to express its grievance on how the government is handling the 1996 Final Peace Agreement but not by declaring independence and moving around like their “independence” was already granted. This is inviting trouble and this again is “tantamount to war”. Professor Misuari knows that there is a much better venue and avenue to express the MNLF’s “disappointment” over the government’s treatment (from their own point of view) of the Peace Agreement they signed.
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