Someone had blundered

ON the fourth anniversary of the Mamasapano Massacre which resulted in the death of 44 police­men belonging to the Special Action Force, let me reprise what Iwrote for this publicationthree years ago.

I borrowed from the famous “Charge of the Light Brigade”by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

The “Charge of the Light Brigade” commemorates a disastrous attack by British light cavalry against a well-entrenched combined Russian and Cossack force during the Battle of Balaclava on Oct. 25, 1894 during the Crimean War.

Only one out of four British caval­rymen survived in the attack.

There were investigations by the British parliament. There was the usual finger-pointing. There was political grandstanding. But poet Alfred Lord Tennyson preferred to ignore them.

Tennyson instead focused on the valor of the ordinary soldier and his stoic, unquestioning, obedience to orders.

The tribute became so popular that it has become in subsequent generations a favorite declamation piece of British, American and later, even of Filipino students.

Except for the “One Hundred”, the supplied/substituted data corre­spond more or less with what trans­pired on that fateful day in Jan. 25, 2015 in the fields of Tukanalipao, Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

An Ode to the Special Action Force Forward, the SAF One Hundred

Was there a man dismay’d?

Not tho’ the SAF knew

Someone had blunder’d:

Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do and die:

Into the cornfield of death

Walked the SAF One Hundred.

MILF to the right of them,

BIFF to the left of them,

Private armed groups in front of them

Shouting and firing ;

Storm’d at with shot and shell,

Boldly they fought back but, oh, not well, “Sir, reinforcement, Sir

“Sir, cas evac, Sir”

“Sir” was miles and miles away,

In civvy and texting,

Just texting and texting, While into the jaws of death,

Into the mouth of hell

Walked the SAF One Hundred.

When can their glory fade?

Alas, a brave but botched charge they made!

The whole country and Congress wondered.

Still, we honor the charge they made,

Noble and brave One Hundred.