Mamasapano battle will make good movie

Come to think of it, a great movie can be made out of the Mamasapano firefight that resulted in the deaths of 44 police commandos. It should show the dilemmas that leaders and commanders have to face and the gallantry of foot soldiers in battle. And how one small mistake can lead to deadly results.

It would be a great action and historical movie, like “Pearl Harbor” or “Tora! Tora! Tora!” Or like the movies “Charge of the Light Brigade,” or “They Died with their Boots On,” both about the last stand of battle units—the latter about the last stand of the famed 7th Cavalry of Gen. George Armstrong Custer against Indians under Chief Crazy Horse in the Little Big Horn River, which is so similar to the last stand of the blocking force of the Special Action Force in a cornfield and swampy area of Mamasapano. Video clips taken by combatants and by the US drone that watched the battle from the air should be included like actual battle footage taken by war cameramen and correspondents.

And stop calling them the “Fallen 44.” That is negative. Instead, call them the “The Gallant 44” or “The Heroic 44” or “The Fighting 44,” like the famed “Fighting 69th” of World War I. It would be a great movie. Good luck!

And while we are still at it, why not have a monument for the “Fighting 44” possibly on the site of the battle? And declare Jan. 25 a regular holiday to commemorate the tragedy.

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Rep. Emil Ong of Northern Samar asked in a privileged speech why the government has no program for the very young children of poor families. Taking a cue from Glyzelle Iris Palomar, who asked Pope Francis during his meeting with the youth at the University of Santo Tomas campus: “Why does God allow children to suffer?” To which the Pope had no answer.

“She is the only one who has put a question for which there is no answer,” the Pope said, “and she wasn’t even able to express it in words but in tears.”

Ong called the attention of the government to the millions of children between two and six years old who are left to shape their own lives. Their parents are too poor and too busy earning a living that they have no time to take care of them. These children are “vulnerable to sad and brutal experiences and sometimes end up in drug addiction and prostitution,” Ong said.

“All these are happening because the government has no program for their healthy growth and development.”

Health and education authorities gave nine reasons why the government should address this lack:

1. These are the most critical years in the lives of children because their brains are developing more rapidly than at any other time in the future. (If their brains do not develop, they grow up to become politicians.)

2. Children face many risks while growing up and failure to meet their development needs will have serious consequences.

3. Children are biologically primed for learning at this time.

4. Special sensitivity to experience is the defining characteristic of early childhood. This is the time when experiences must be available to the child so that normal development can take place.

5. A baby not raised properly often becomes stunted physically, cognitively and emotionally (and become politicians).

6. The child’s ability to learn is at its peak in the early years.

7. The experiences children learn in their early years leave lasting imprints on their young minds.

8. If nature’s timetable is subverted, through neglect or abuse, for example, the physiological processes of growing up will be distorted. The neural pathways could be altered and the development outcomes changed.

9. Human development is essentially the story of extraordinary changes that take place inside the head of a child.

Ong proposed the passage of a law to develop an “early child education program.” It will restructure the entire educational system so that early child education will be the first and basic school system. Elementary classes will then become the second; high school, the third; and college or tertiary education, the fourth.

Glyzelle asked why God allows children to suffer and why few people are helping them.

“God has not abandoned these children,” Ong said. “We did.”

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Inquirer columnist Emily Marcelo fell down a flight of stairs and tore a tendon in her shoulder. She is in extreme pain and has to undergo surgery at the East Avenue Medical Center this weekend. The bill starts at P300,000 which she cannot afford. So she is asking donations from friends and kind-hearted individuals to help defray the expenses.

She will be very grateful and promises to remember the donors in her daily prayers.

Donations may be deposited in her bank account at BPI 3025.2720.04.

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KAPIHAN NOTES: Guests at this morning’s Kapihan sa Manila at the Diamond Hotel are two outstanding gentlemen from the Philippine Military Academy: They are former PNP chief, former senator and now-outgoing rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson, and former AFP chief, former senator and now Rep. Rodolfo Biazon. They will talk about the Mamasapano massacre, the Bangsamoro Basic Law and the peace process in Mindanao. Lacson will also talk about the new PNP leadership, the PNP board of inquiry to investigate the Mamasapano massacre, and the reason he resigned as rehabilitation czar.