While the Senate hearings may have yielded vital information about the Mamasapano massacre that killed 44 gallant Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police, the almost detailed media coverage has effectively provided rebels reason to celebrate. They now see the seeming disarray among our defense forces in confronting enemies of state. They also now see the distrust of one defense establishment against the others like the revelation of the police hierarchy frankly expressing their distrust of our Philippine army, the reason why they violated the instructions from no less than their Commander- in- Chief to establish links and coordination with the Philippine army before they got inside unfriendly forces in enemy territory that resulted in the massacre of our PNP’ Special Action Force whose primarily objective was only to arrest two international terrorists.
And many other ugly revelations were unnecessarily revealed like suspended PNP Chief General Alan Purisima being still actively involved in the implementation of the plan in spite of his having suspended because of corruption at the time the mission was implemented.
There should be an in-depth study that should delineate what aspect of military operations that the public may know and those that will purely be discussed in executive sessions with solely trusted officials to participate in future session.
Another strategy which is to be considered is why should there be separate hearings with one done by senators and the other by congressmen. They were asking similar questions. It was a waste of time and resources. A joint hearing could still have generated the same findings.

Our justice system appears lopsided in administering decisions especially on cases that involve the rich, the influential and powerful individuals in Philippine society. How easy it is to implement suspension orders to less powerful and not wealthy public officials and how hard it is to implement suspension orders to wealthy and powerful officials in the land.

Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr. has been suspended by the Ombudsman of alleged misdemeanors in public office that is related to graft and corruption. Similar alleged corrupt acts have also been discovered to have been committed by Vice President Jojo Binay, Sr. when he was Makati mayor.

The Ombudsman took more than a year to study evidences that gave strength to this suspension order to the incumbent son- Mayor Binay and is filing cases. But the Binays have immediately mobilized hundreds of their supporters to block officials who will serve the 60 day suspension order, and at the same time – filed a temporary restraining order. The Court of Appeals in only four, repeat 4 days ,decided to nullify the TRO. Junjun Binay remains the mayor but sadly public services were likewise suspended by closing the municipal hall to the detriment of Makati citizens.

The Binay dynasty no doubt is a wealthy clan. A 200-million reasons would suffice to influence a court ruling, if they will. We hope that Honorable Justices Acosta, Reyes and Peralta of the 6th division of the Court of Appeals should explain their decision the bases of such nauseating TRO.