Expanded

The boundaries of war expanded vastly this week.

Midweek, hundreds of pagers all over Lebanon simultaneously exploded. At least nine people, including a child, were confirmed killed by these explosions.

The pager explosions wounded about 2,800 people. About 170 of this number are in critical condition.

It turns out, the pagers were purchased by the Iranian-backed militia group Hezbollah. They were manufactured in Taiwan, although the lot was coursed through what is now suspected to be a shell company in Europe.

Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo denies the installation of explosive devices on the pagers happened in their plants. The exploding pagers are widely suspected to be a joint operation of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Tel Aviv has not explicitly admitted responsibility for the operation.

Why pagers, a rather archaic means of communication long abandoned everywhere else?

In the past months and years, Israeli intelligence has been easily monitoring Hezbollah leaders through the mobile phones they use. Through electronic surveillance, Israeli forces have launched a number of pinpoint missile strikes, mainly in Lebanon, to decapitate the militia. The militants decided to shift their communications to more primitive technology to avoid Israeli surveillance.

Somewhere along the route from the Taiwanese manufacturer to the European company that delivered the devices to the Hezbollah, Israeli operatives should have tampered with the devices. This set the stage for the spectacle of hundreds of pagers exploding simultaneously.

More remarkable, the very next day after the pagers exploded, hand-held radios used by the Hezbollah (apparently also recently acquired) exploded at the same instant. The walkie-talkie explosions killed 20 people outright and injured 450. The Japanese manufacturers of the two-way radios say they have ceased manufacturing of both the device and the battery it runs on over a decade ago.

While, no doubt, non-combatants might have been killed or injured, it is also likely that most of the casualties were Hezbollah militants. The gadgets are part of the gear issued by the militia movement to reduce their organization’s dependence on locatable mobile phones.

The spectacular exploding pagers and walkie-talkies must have injured hundreds of Hezbollah fighters, seriously depleting the group’s fighting capabilities. More important, it has produced chaos and confusion in the terrorist group. The militia’s command-and-control is basically shot.

Imagine the panic this has caused among the militants. Now they fear using any communications device, anxious that the Israelis might have planted explosives in their other devices. The militant group is now in a state of paralysis. No gadget, it seems, is safe. The entire range of information technology has now been drafted for purposes of war.

Given that paralysis, some analysts are speculating that the gadget explosions could be a prelude to a full-scale Israeli ground operation against the Hezbollah. What better time could there be for a ground attack than when the enemy is in disarray.

For weeks now, the IDF and the Hezbollah have been engaged in fierce artillery and missile barrages. The Houthis, in far-off Yemen, have successfully launched a hypersonic missile that landed in the vicinity of Tel Aviv this week. Once more, the situation in the Middle East appears truly explosive.

Prepaid

In a previous column on local races shaping up in Metro Manila (“Domestic,” Aug. 27, 2024), I mentioned that the Las Piñas local government was running after companies owned by spouses Manuel and Cynthia Villar for unpaid realty taxes. It turns out, the Statements of Account (SOAs) issued by the local government were found erroneous.

Sen. Cynthia Villar clarified that there were numerous errors covering the names of the taxpayers, the estimated market value on the real property that is being taxed, the taxes levied on Brittany Corporation for land that has been converted into a public road and the case of Mella Hotel where the real property tax is being charged to a private foundation owned by the Villars.

The senator has communicated the errors to the City Assessor of Las Piñas and requested that the records be rectified. On Nov. 30, 2023, the Villar companies paid a total of P151.8 million to the City Treasurer of Las Piñas. This includes advance payment on 2024 real property taxes in the subject properties. The City Treasurer issued the corresponding tax clearances on Dec. 1, 2023.

Should any other taxes remain outstanding for Brittany Corporation and the Villar Foundation on the basis of a rectified Statement of Account, Sen. Villar assures that they will be more than willing to settle their obligations. Their real properties in Las Piñas are negligible compared to their vast holdings in neighboring municipalities. No tax issues have emerged in the other local governments.

Sen. Villar, who has reached her term limits, is planning to run for the city’s congressional seat. Her daughter, Camille, who currently represents this district, will in turn seek a seat in the Senate.

The mother and her daughter will be running against other members of the Aguilar family or their proteges. She seemed confident both she and her daughter will win their respective contests handily.

Cynthia Villar, after all, has never neglected her home base. In addition to her productive tenure in the Senate, she has overseen projects in every village in Las Piñas. The Villar couple generously donated land for roads and even the right-of-way for the LRT to pass through.