Noynoy insists Jabidah massacre true, wants it in history books

From the Daily Tribune (Mar 19): Noynoy insists Jabidah massacre true, wants it in history books

President Aquino insisted yesterday that the Jabidah massacre, which involved a made for movies story of an elite Muslim commando unit formed to destabilize Sabah and who were all massacred after turning mutinous, was real as revealed by his father, the late Sen. Ninoy Aquino Jr. in a privilege speech in 1968.

The massacre supposedly led to the forming of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the start of the bloody secessionist war in Mindanao.

Aquino led the commemoration of the 45th anniversary of the infamous Jabidah Massacre in Corregidor, the first time that a President acknowledges the massacre as having taken place.

Aquino cemented what others refer to as a myth, portraying this as a reality even if it was based mainly on a privilege speech of his father without any hard proof and President Aquino even wanted the episode to be recounted in the nation’s history books.

“It has been four and a half decades since the bloody events here in Corregidor.
Members of the Jabidah unit were slain, and on top of that, their ordeal has almost been forgotten. To this day, government has yet to officially recognize it; the incident is taught in class or inserted into books as if it were mere gossip; no measures have been taken to record it in history,” Aquino said.

He said that while he did not want to raise false hopes on bringing the perpetrators of the heinous deed to justice as “two generations have passed since this incident took place.”

The prescriptive period for murder only lasts 20 years; after this, no cases can be filed against the so-called perpetrators of this operation. A court martial has also acquitted the accused.

“But the fact that so much time has gone by does not preclude us from seeking true justice. How can a wound heal, if we cannot bring ourselves to even look at it? How can these wrongs be righted, if we cannot bring ourselves to face the truth?,” Aquino said.

Aquino said “the issue of the ownership of Sabah is connected to the Jabidah Incident that he has ordered the both departments of Foreign Affairs and Justice and his executive secretary, Paquito Ochoa, to craft the direction of writing history.

“We will begin to resolve this issue not through speculation or mere opinion, but by identifying irrefutable truths. I have a responsibility to dissect history in search of these truths, and from there, to lay down the direction that our country will take with regard to Sabah — a direction that I guarantee you will not involve the use of violence. I have already directed the DFA, DoJ, and our Executive Secretary to conduct the research, and to recommend a roadmap that will lead us to the peaceful resolution of the Sabah issue,” Aquino said.

Aquino said that “today, we are opening the eyes of the Filipino people to the Jabidah Massacre.

“This happened. And it is our responsibility to recognize this event as part of our national narrative. Today, we are in Corregidor, an island whose ground was watered by the blood of so many Filipinos and stood as refuge for the Voice of Freedom during the last world war, to etch in our collective consciousness the grim truth of what happened to the Jabidah unit — and to ensure that this will not happen again. Because, if the eyes of Filipinos are kept blind to the events that took place in Corregidor on March 18, 1968, then we might as well have discarded the lessons we learned then,” Aquino said.

Aquino also “directed the National Historical Commission of the Philippines to designate the Mindanao Garden of Peace on this island as a historical landmark.”
“Some details have also been made available to the public on our Official Gazette, in coordination with the NHCP: the history of the events surrounding the Jabidah unit, the timeline of the peace process between the national government and the MNLF and MILF, and other information that can be useful to the public and raise the level of discourse,” Aquino said.

Aquino said that “in March of 1968, my father exposed the Jabidah Massacre, while holding firm to the basic principle that the life of each Filipino is invaluable.”
“In his speech, he said: “The life of a Filipino, no matter how lowly he is… is as important as the life of a high official, as important as the life of a President.”

But taking from the copy of the Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., there was no showing how concrete that there was a massacre took place except from the account of what was claimed to be a survivor in the name of Jibin Arula.

By historical account, there were no records that a single family from what was to be massacred came out or even investigated by any government agency in 1968.

What was there was the “Operation Merdeka” as it was considered a State secret of the Marcos administration.

The Merdeka issue was floated when during a deliberation for the confirmation of then AFP chief of staff Fabian Ver and then Philipine Constabulary chief Fidel Ramos in the Commission on Appointments, then Sen. Aquino raised the question addressed to Ramos about the Operation Merdeka.

Then Senate President Gil Puyat immediately struck the gavel and called for the suspension of the Senate session.

A few days thereafter of the Senate incident, the issue of Jabidah came in.
Veteran journalist Rigoberto Tiglao in his Monday column said that the Jabidah story could be “one of the most successful propaganda coups in our history.”

http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/item/11884-noynoy-insists-jabidah-massacre-true-wants-it-in-history-books.html