On deferring Yano’s adoption

The distinguished members of the City Council yesterday deferred the passing of the resolution formally adopting former Task Force Zamboanga commander now Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Alexander Yano as “Hijo de Zamboanga”.
This, following a question raised by Councilor Charlie Mariano in yesterday’s session on what Yano has done during the 2001 Siege at Cabatangan, where renegade members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) broke away into a faction led by the late Ustadz Julhambri Misuari, a close relative of the MNLF Founder Nurulaji Misuari, and took hostage some 125 Zamboangueños, mostly residents from Cabatangan and Pasonanca.
The City Council, upon the recommendation of the City Mayor, confers the honorary title to certain personalities as “Hijo de Zamboanga” signifying the person’s being an adopted son or daughter. To date, Asia’s Latin City’s adopted sons are the late Philippine Star publisher Maximo Soliven, and former Southern Command chief now Secretary of Energy Angelo Reyes, while the City’s adopted daughter is United States Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney. Should this resolution be passed, Yano will be the third son and the fourth to be conferred with the title—regarded by the local government as the highest and most prestigious honor given to a person.
Yano’s involvement in the peace negotiations during the peak of the Cabatangan siege was more than relevant. Many warfreak Zamboangueños at that time were out for blood against those who took their friends and relatives captive. But at that time, he handled the situation sans media galore—carefully taking in stride the tirades of furious residents who did not realize at the height of their anger that there was more damage that would have been inflicted had he, as a soldier and military commander, not considered dialogue as a nonviolent means to end that conflict.
Indeed, as Mariano said, there had been mortars and ammunition fired, but shouldn’t we all be relieved more that the mortars and ammunition did not fall on residences but on vacant lots at the Cabatangan Complex?
We all respect the honorable aldermen’s decision in postponing the session until issues re Yano’s involvement in the 2001 siege are cleared. Those who would not favor non-violence and cling to their views of avenging blood and pain for blood and more pain would probably reject outright the idea of Yano’s being an adopted son of Zamboanga. But those who were into the heart of the situation, who knew the story from both sides, and who had seen how the late Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat has appealed for peace and sobriety and a military decision for the greater good of Zamboanga and not the shedding of more blood nor the inflicting of more damage—would understand why Alexander B. Yano, the first Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff to ever hail from Mindanao and the Zamboanga Peninsula, deserves the title. He may not need it, nor would he ask for it—other cities have already conferred him the honor; he simply deserves it.