The high cost of peace

MANILA: We may have effectively compromised part of our territory in the 2012 peace agreement with Moro rebels, but we certainly did not bargain away our duty to condemn terrorism and go after terrorists. The peace agreement must not be used to allow the rebels to harbour terrorists and immunise them from the full force of the law.

We grieve at the sight of body bags carrying the fallen troops, and to quote Lincoln, pledge “to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan”. But we must not forget how Lincoln closed that pledge: “To do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”