Who Gets The ASG Reward Money?

The GMA Administration, or the country in general, has been making significant strides in the war against terror, particularly against the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), where a number of their leaders have recently fallen under the gun.

As a result of these successes, though, a main issue has come up: Most of these leaders had significant reward money on their heads. A recent ASG leader that was recently confirmed to have been killed by the AFP, for example, had a $5M reward price for information leading to his capture, or death. That's almost 250 Million in Philippine Peso, a VERY large sum of money in the country.

So, the question is, who gets the money, or what to do with it?

'Gun-For-Hire Mentality'
The first thing that comes into mind, is that the money should be given to the unit involved in the operation resulting in the death or capture of the ASG leader. That makes some sense.

However, that will have some ethical problems involved. It might end up in soldiers becoming more materialistic, prioritizing only jobs w/ large reward money instead of what is required of them.

At the very least, it just doesn't look right for PROFESSIONAL soldiers getting money for such successes. It will foster something like a "Bounty Hunter", or "Gun-For-Hire" mentality, whether we like it, or not.

'Compromise'
On the other hand, seeing somebody, or nobody else get the money, will likely affect morale, leading to less enthusiasm to the anti-terror effort. Everybody likes to be rewarded in some way for a job well done.

Perhaps a good compromise, would be to give the money not in the form of cash, but in some other form that would benefit the soldiers in the MEDIUM or LONG TERM.

The reward could be given in the form of PENSION, EDUCATIONAL or HOSPITAL FUNDS, for example. Somebody in the a Forum suggested some of it be given to the KAWAL Foundation, a foundation for the benefit of disabled soldiers.

I think this would be the FAIREST thing to do for everybody involved.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Popular Posts