The Real Costs of the Mindanao War

Last September 7, 2008, the Philippine Air Force reportedly bombed a village in Maguindanao, killing civilians, including a pregnant woman. The AFP and the PAF tried to deny that there was indiscriminate bombing. The official AFP statement: these civilians were caught in a crossfire.
Yeah, they were. These civilians were in the air, caught between a flying attack Bronco and MILF rebels firing in the air. Look at these photos sent by a friend. See whose telling the truth.

How about this pregnant woman? What do you think killed her?                             

Was it bullets sprayed by soldiers or those of the Bangsamoro rebels?

Or shrapnels from a bomb which the Air Force dropped there? You'll be the judge. As far as the medico-legal report says, her throat was smashed when bomb shrapnels hit her. 

What killed these kids? Are they just shrapnels or bullets? Were they caught in a crossfire as the AFP says they were? Or they were casualties in a stupid war sparked by a nincompoop of a president? 

Defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro says the AFP still needs at least 80 billion to sustain the war against the Bangsamoro rebels. I ask Mr. Teodoro---how much more bombs will you authorize to drop on these communities in Mindanao? How many more rounds of ammo will you send flying to the direction of innocent civilians? How many mortar rounds would it possibly need for you and the entire government to force these Bangsamoro rebels to their knees? And how much more money do you need to rebuild these lives lost because of this insane war?

When will you and these Bangsamoro rebels stop?

History has shown that government spent billions and billions of pesos waging this decades-old war and it's still there. One thing I learned from history school---one bullet fired by both sides, additional month of war.