Heroes

Alighting from the pedicab, I was thinking of what to write about today. I thought of Sunshine's manna from heaven (read: bird poop) that she got last night would be funny. Writing that she indulged in treating me to Dunkin's bunwich after the incident would have been enough gratitude from my end. Squinting at the bright day, I rode a tricycle that dropped two ladies (one in her late thirties and the other probably her mother, an octogenarian) right in front of me. I asked the driver to bring me to Ateneo then he asked whether in Purisima or Tumaga. As I was about to say Purisima, he quickly added "and how much ?" I said 30. Then he started the tryke and off we went to Ateneo. I was still wondering what to write about. As we were nearing the Manaog Church near the Tumaga Bridge, I noticed a bit of a traffic jam. There were vehicles lined up in the other lane, all sorts of vehicles. There were PUJs, tricycles, and a few cars. I also saw two uniformed men from the army near the entrance of the Church. There were also ladies crowded near the same entrance. They seemed to be teachers of a high school as their uniform suggested. Then there seemed to be a flag carried by, again, men in uniform. I realized that they were carrying a coffin draped with the Philippine Flag. He probably was one of the four men who had an encounter with the Abu Sayyaf recently, the man in inside that is. The coffin was cream in color, a mixture of yellow and dirty white. There were a few delicate carvings that seemed to be flowers, but I wasn't sure because the tryke was starting to speed up. It seemed small, the coffin. He could not have been taller than 5'4". He probably had dark skin, browned by the many hours that he might have spent under sun in some coast of Basilan. I could see him chatting with his comrades, probably wondering when they would be home. I suddenly felt like I was drowning in doldrums.
The government's stand to eliminate the Abu Sayyaf is totally understandable. It's stand that peace will be attained once it will win this war is one pill I cannot swallow. They say that the government shouldn't go to war if it's not sure it's going to win. I disagree. Nobody wins in a war. Granting that the Abu Sayyaf will be eliminated, every one of its members, doesn't the government think that there will be a number who will be more than willing to continue what the Abu Sayyaf has started and see to fruition its mission?
So long as there are parents who will not let their daughter marry her boyfriend because he happens to be Muslim and so long as there are parents who will not let their daughter marry her boyfriend because he is Christian, I don't think we will ever solve this problem. I don't think we will ever win this one.