A current inquirer.net article says it all,

For Legarda, finding the right connection to the kidnappers and being firm with them was the key to her eighth successful negotiation.

But if we look at it from the point of view of the whole aspect of government policy towards the non-payment of ransom. She is zero for eight. And if she really was successful in her endeavors, then truly there should never have been even more kidnappings after her first “success”. Give us all a friggin break, Madam Senator, this is not for the good of the people, for if it were, she would just have sat on the sidelines.

But she cared, you say? If she wanted this for the greater good of our nation, then she should have made the hardest decision of them all, to keep negotiators in front, keep the no-ransom policy intact so that we wouldn’t embolden the enemy.

The fact that there has been eight kidnappings with her as the hero of them all, is testament to the fact that the word successful is subjective if at all a reality. The fact that a senator is “needed” is testament that our military is more politicized than we thought, where politics trumps standard operating procedures. Where training is no longer needed for a negotiator, the person only needs to be a politician.

The fact that a mayor was the key negotiator, and by extension Loren Legarda, shows that the military has the lack of Standard Operating Procedures in place, where they do not have for themselves, a central individual where all information and dialogue go through. And if they do have, as they should, these SOPs, then as I have said, it is politics that still trumps everything when it comes to police and military action.

This is why we have to have ransom being paid, because there are so many people who want to be involved, that the kidnappers get what they want, the politicians get what they want, and we are all left scratching our heads as to how the kidnappers have just bamboozled us out of millions once again.

And don’t even start with me that no ransom was paid.

Board and lodging fee is ransom! Payment for LIVELIHOOD PROJECTS is ransom! Who the hell does the government think they are trying to fool? Kindergartners? Even my five-year-old niece would probably cry out, RANSOM!

Read the writing on the wall. RANSOM WAS PAID!

Let’s define ransom, “payment for the release of someone”. Uhmmm… They were released. Payment was made? Ergo, RANSOM!

The stupidity of our government, the stupidity of our politicians, does not have to trickle down to non-politicians, and actual thinking beings such as ourselves.

In the end, this was a travesty where lives were used as pawns, where politics reared its ugly head where it did not have to be, and we The Filipino People, especially those in Sulu, are no closer to getting rid of these terrorists, than before the kidnappings even took place.

Success for Loren Legarda? I’m afraid only in terms of poll numbers.

She has destabilized our negotiation process, not strengthened it. She has made a mockery of these kidnappings. And the military has once again shown why they are whipped and need to shape up if they wish to end this decades long insurgency. Ces Drilon was released by utilizing nothing short of a chaotic mess that is representative of our government and military.

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