The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are known to be aggressive and merciless against the enemies of the state hiding in the jungles of Mindanao. They have slowly gain successes as they try to weed out the undesirable elements that terrorize the peace-loving residents of Tawi-Tawi and Sulu.
If their victories are far in between, the AFP may be glad to know that in their battle for recognition and respect in social media, they are overwhelmingly thrashing their opponents.
In one side, we have Lieutenant Colonel Harold Cabunoc, AFP Public Affairs Office chief, who represents the heroic members of the AFP who regularly lay their lives in the service of the country. On the other side, we have the unknown personalities that are most probably online pencil-pushers whose loyalty to flag and country are still unknown and unproven.
The battle arena is Twitter. The mission objective of the AFP is to punish the illegal action of a foreigner, while that of the other camp is to forgive him despite violating the country’s law.
The spokesman of the AFP received thousands of online praises and recognition by standing his ground with witty answers as he answers questions on the issue that Marc Sueselbeck, the German fiance of slain Filipino male transgender Jennifer Laude, should suffer the consequences of his insulting and rude behavior.
Sueselbeck, who was supposed to fly to Kuala Lumpur after paying his last respects to his slain male fiance, but was prevented from leaving the Philippines on after he was declared an "undesirable alien" by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) and slapped with a “legal matter” to settle.
Last week Sueselbeck tried to enter the detention center of Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton, the suspected killer of Mr. Laude, at Camp Aguinaldo. The German climbed the fence and shoved a soldier manning the area.
Sueselbeck apologized several times and the AFP accepted them. For the military’s spokesman the apologies were not enough and majority agreed with him and said that Sueselbeck still has to face the consequences of his actions whether he is leaving the country or not.
Earlier Laude’s legal counsel, Atty. Harry Roque, said "Marc has apologized and AFP has accepted. Matter is closed. Preventing his departure today was cruel to one who is already down and out."
Very few online bashers also said that the AFP is “rubbing salt to a wound” by preventing the German national from leaving. They asked: why prevent him from leaving and then deport him, when he is leaving the country anyway?
In other words, the other side wants the AFP and the government to ignore the law because, as they claim, it will save the taxpayers money.
Unfortunately for the critics of AFP, they don’t have the law on their side. Majority of Filipinos want Sueselbeck to suffer the consequences of his action. He tried to insult, harass and bully the AFP, now he should be disgraced and humiliated in public as punishment. Cancelling his departure and deporting him even if he wants to leave anyway is the most humane way possible to make him pay the price.
If the opponents of AFP’s action wants to save the taxpayers money, then they better lobby to have the death penalty back so that the country can ease the overcrowding in public jails and minimize the expense of feeding all the guilty criminals.
If their victories are far in between, the AFP may be glad to know that in their battle for recognition and respect in social media, they are overwhelmingly thrashing their opponents.
In one side, we have Lieutenant Colonel Harold Cabunoc, AFP Public Affairs Office chief, who represents the heroic members of the AFP who regularly lay their lives in the service of the country. On the other side, we have the unknown personalities that are most probably online pencil-pushers whose loyalty to flag and country are still unknown and unproven.
The battle arena is Twitter. The mission objective of the AFP is to punish the illegal action of a foreigner, while that of the other camp is to forgive him despite violating the country’s law.
The spokesman of the AFP received thousands of online praises and recognition by standing his ground with witty answers as he answers questions on the issue that Marc Sueselbeck, the German fiance of slain Filipino male transgender Jennifer Laude, should suffer the consequences of his insulting and rude behavior.
Sueselbeck, who was supposed to fly to Kuala Lumpur after paying his last respects to his slain male fiance, but was prevented from leaving the Philippines on after he was declared an "undesirable alien" by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) and slapped with a “legal matter” to settle.
Last week Sueselbeck tried to enter the detention center of Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton, the suspected killer of Mr. Laude, at Camp Aguinaldo. The German climbed the fence and shoved a soldier manning the area.
Sueselbeck apologized several times and the AFP accepted them. For the military’s spokesman the apologies were not enough and majority agreed with him and said that Sueselbeck still has to face the consequences of his actions whether he is leaving the country or not.
Earlier Laude’s legal counsel, Atty. Harry Roque, said "Marc has apologized and AFP has accepted. Matter is closed. Preventing his departure today was cruel to one who is already down and out."
Very few online bashers also said that the AFP is “rubbing salt to a wound” by preventing the German national from leaving. They asked: why prevent him from leaving and then deport him, when he is leaving the country anyway?
In other words, the other side wants the AFP and the government to ignore the law because, as they claim, it will save the taxpayers money.
Unfortunately for the critics of AFP, they don’t have the law on their side. Majority of Filipinos want Sueselbeck to suffer the consequences of his action. He tried to insult, harass and bully the AFP, now he should be disgraced and humiliated in public as punishment. Cancelling his departure and deporting him even if he wants to leave anyway is the most humane way possible to make him pay the price.
If the opponents of AFP’s action wants to save the taxpayers money, then they better lobby to have the death penalty back so that the country can ease the overcrowding in public jails and minimize the expense of feeding all the guilty criminals.
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