AFTER 90 days, our military forces have finally taken over the grand mosque in Marawi City and are now clearing all the adjacent buildings that the Maute extremists and their Islamic State-related confederates had occupied since May 23rd. The extremists did not make a last stand, but simply pulled out before our troops arrived. This was the good news. The not so good news is that a number of hostages, including a Catholic priest, remain unaccounted for. This could mean that the extremists may have simply relocated to another base, from where to strike again as soon as they have regained their strength.
Let us do this chronologically.
Days before the release on July 12 of the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, at The Hague, on the Philippine maritime dispute with China, Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Jr. announced he was willing to sit down with Beijing for bilateral talks on the possible joint exploration of mineral and marine resources of the disputed maritime areas in the South China (West Philippine) Sea.
I grew up in a remote small village of Catanduanes, an island-province on this side of the Pacific where we had no court of law nor even a village cell to detain those who disturbed the peace. By necessity, we were obliged to maintain a zero crime rate. But neighbors and spouses still quarreled, sometimes violently, and whenever this happened, the parties would come to my father, who had a reputation for being a just and honest man, to conciliate or arbitrate. He would talk to the parties, ask a few questions, and then advise them to overlook each other’s defects and compose their differences. Somehow it always worked.
For the past several weeks, the government had been expecting the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague to rule in its favor on its dispute with China in the South China Sea.