Everybody’s talking about it. Local masses are joining their heads, sharing their opinions. Militant groups are parading around, voicing their protests. The media is running to and fro, eager to scoop up fresh news. And the President is attending meetings with important people, dealing with a very important issue. What is this event that caused so much upheaval in our country? It is the Balikatan 2002.
What exactly is this Balikatan? This exercise is designed to terminate the terrorist groups in our country, particularly the Abu Sayyaf. These terrorists have been pestering us for years with the crimes they cunningly plotted and put into action. So many lives are damaged and lost. Fear is etched in people’s minds. Opportunities for industrial development and financial stability are out of our grasp in the blink of an eye. Certainly these terrorist groups are a major headache for the Filipino society. Through the Balikatan, with our American friends behind us, these terrorists will be erased from our land; in the end they will be reduced to a bad dream that we’ll soon forget.
This should be music to our ears. But not everyone is hearing it right. Militant groups are on the rise again, saying that the President is a disappointment because she’s letting herself be controlled by the American government. A puppet, they called her.
This is not so. We are not controlled by the Americans and we don’t have to worry about being controlled - every step they make will be supervised by our government.
Questions plague our minds: Why? Can’t we do this on our own? Where is your sense of patriotism?
Unfortunately, we cannot do this on our own. We tried. We tried hard. But we simply cannot. How many peace talks have been held? How many times have “big” men shook hands in these peace talks? Still, how many times have these talks been dishonored? Countless times. So we need to change tactics. We have no choice. They choose to be tough, so we will choose it too. Only we need help. And the Americans are the only ones who can provide us this particular help. We need them to strengthen and improve our Armed Forces. It is the only way. And as the President said, “If you want to put obstacles to fighting the Abu Sayyaf, well definitely your patriotism is at stake.”
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