Team DailyPedia
Last October 31, the FORMA (Friends of Rafael Alunan III) Facebook page posted an open letter penned by former DILG Secretary turned senatorial candidate Rafael Alunan III. The letter was a scathing rebuke of the government’s downplaying the number of instances of “tanim-bala” or “laglag bala” at the NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport.)
“National Sabotage,” Alunan calls the laglag bala scheme, because it is the country’s “reputation, tourism, trust and confidence” that are adversely affected. He stresses that it is the country that is the main victim.
“It is sins of omission and commission like this with impunity that prolong our stay in the kangkungan…. It is not a question of how few the incidents are, but the global publicity it gets that sabotages our wellbeing because of inaction against the root causes of the people’s discontent.” Alunan explains further.
Facebook user Mark Lopez takes the sentiment further, remarking on the apparent detached feelings of the government for the plight of the people. “The disconnect between Malacanang and the real plight of the country is so egregiously obvious!” He states. “We have an inept government, led by an idiot president.”
Dennis Caneja thinks that it is the president’s advisers who are perpetuating the president’s disconnection from national sentiment. He posts, “The people surrounding P.NOY should tell him the real situation and not feeding him garbage and based on their own perception which puts P.NOY in bad spot light.”
Netizen Victor Samuel, on the other hand, thinks that the sabotage is not being perpetrated by the government, rather, it is being done to cast a bad light on the current government. He explains that tanim-bala is “simply a political sabotage against the government at galitin ang mga pilipino, (and to anger Filipinos,) si grace poe at binay lang panalo dito. (Grace Poe and Binay are the only winners here.)”
Meanwhile, last November 2, Supt. Jeanne Panisan of the PNP Avsegroup reported in a press conference that there were no syndicates behind laglag bala. She added that Filipinos were fond of bringing along anting-anting (lucky charms,) including bullets, as protection against bad luck and unseen elements.
A lot of netizens criticized the statement, stressing how stupid they thought it was. “Hahaha anting2, bakit pati mga DAYUHAN? (Hahaha amulets, even foreigners?)” Rodz Sabling asks. “alam b nila Ang anting2… isa ka ring walang utak! (Do they know what anting-anting is… you have no brains!)”
Perhaps not satisfied with the government’s statements on the matter also, Former Secretary Alunan offered PNoy a step-by-step solution to the tanim bala scheme. Here are the steps as posted on the FORMA page:
“STEP ONE: Relieve the entire chain, starting from the suspect unit and all the way up to the disciplining authority that failed to do its job.
STEP TWO Replace them with reliable indians and chiefs soonest possible, like within 24-48hrs;
STEP THREE: Throw the book at those relieved after due process, the bigger the book the better;
STEP FOUR: Make amends to those who were victimized, apologize to inang laya and juan de la cruz, in public and before he [sic] world;
STEP FIVE: swallow all the bullets used for the kotong or frame-up operations as penance. There’s no mistaking that this is a syndicated kotong operation that’s protected by high above. The chain of command is weak at every link.”
