Image grabbed from GMA News
Iran found a scapegoat in last week’s downing of a Ukrainian plane with 176 crew and passengers. The missile battery operator, a lowly soldier with the country’s Aerospace Command, was blamed for acting alone and in deciding to shoot down the Boeing 737-800 jet, which he mistook for a cruise missile targeting Iran, according to an Iranian general.
The aerospace commander claimed there was a breakdown of communications and the operator had to decide to squeeze the trigger in just 10 seconds, as Iran awaited an American response to a barrage of missiles it had launched on US positions in Iraq. The response never came.
Brig. Gen. Amirali Hajizadeh said a “bad decision” was made by the missile operator when he could not contact his superiors for confirmation that there was really a missile response from the United States. But the explanation was not believable because the plane left an airport in Iran, so its direction was outward. An American cruise missile would be inbound.
Although Tehran has admitted a terrible error, or a “disastrous mistake” in shooting down a civilian plane, blaming the poor missile operator is a lame excuse to justify unnecessary action. It further exposed a weakness in Iran’s command and control and communications; a structure that could risk a costly war and a larger conflagration in the Middle East.
If it was a real war situation, you could just imagine how Iran’s military was communicating with one another, how it was organized, and how it was moving its forces to win battles. There would be complete chaos and Tehran could be firing off indiscriminately towards multiple targets in many areas, like Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, and even US positions in Qatar, Iraq and Turkey.
Iran could become at war with everybody in the region. Judging from the missile launches it had made in Iraq, it seemed Tehran has a very poor targeting system. Its weapons appeared to be more inferior compared with advanced American precision-guided missiles and bombs. In just a few days, it could take out Iran’s defenses and render its offensive weapons useless, as shown by the “shock and awe” operations during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Fortunately, Tehran found a scapegoat, an ordinary foot soldier (not a general), to blame for the disaster. Still, Iran’s military must take action not only on the missile operator but on the whole command; this is the time-honored principle of command responsibility.
In the Philippines, a police general had to make a poor excuse in confiscating the mobile phone of a known television journalist, Jun Veneracion of GMA News, during the Black Nazarene procession on Jan. 9 in Manila.
A day after the phone-snatching incident, Brig. Gen. Nolasco Bathan apologized to Veneracion but made a terrible and poor excuse on why he decided to grab the mobile phone of a man filming a scuffle between police officers and Black Nazarene devotees at Ayala Bridge.
He claimed he did not know Veneracion and did not know he was a journalist. He said he thought Veneracion was a threat, so he grabbed the reporter’s phone. Bathan even tried to make himself a hero by saying he would still stop the man even if he carried a grenade.
General Bathan, you are overreacting. Your action lacked logic and it was very lame PALUSOT.
If General Bathan really did not recognize Veneracion, whose face is splashed on television news almost every night, grabbing the phone is not the appropriate action, even if he was considered a threat.
Police officers are trained to grab, tackle and pin down an identified threat. The person is handcuffed and brought straight to the nearest police station. What is the PNP’s standard practice for neutralizing a perceived threat?
Bathan also did not specify what kind of threat Veneracion was at that time. Who was he directly threatening, the police or the devotees, or both? Why was he making a threat and how was the threat made?
If Bathan had recognized Veneracion was only holding a mobile phone, perhaps the general was thinking the GMA News reporter might detonate an improvised explosive. Very heroic for Bathan to intervene. But wait, there was no phone signal at that time. Sabit naman ang palusot ni general.
Why was Veneracion not arrested if he was indeed a threat? Hindi naman kasi talaga.
The truth is Bathan only wanted to stop the journalist from doing his job – reporting what was happening on the ground. A very legitimate and newsworthy story.
Even if Veneracion was an ordinary kibitzer, it would also be perfectly alright for him to film an unusual event, a scuffle that could become viral and make him famous as a citizen journalist. It was in a public place and a public event.
General Bathan’s excuse does not count. It was purely an abuse of power, an attack on press freedom and a violation of free expression.
A public apology is not enough. The Department of the Interior and Local Government, the National Police Commission, the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the local police board in Manila must impose the appropriate sanction against him.
If General Bathan was a lowly patrolman, he would have been punished immediately, like the missile operator in Iran. But he belonged to a special class of citizens, which is held by the government in high esteem. They are the same people who are destroying the image and credibility of the national police as well as the trust of the people on law enforcers.
You want to bring the police closer to the people? The police must do more to respect the rights of citizens and not try to censor the filming of an incident that could place police officers in a bad light. Discipline the general, show an example, and perhaps, the people’s trust and confidence will be restored. The same will be true for Rodrigo Duterte, who can now appoint a permanent national police chief.