In August? More drama about that 'off-on' Erap visit to Washington,DC

Is the almost-scuttled "state visit" of the President to Washington, DC being revived? No sooner had our usual Palace sources written off the idea of President Estrada going to Washington, DC than American Ambassador Tom Hubbard scheduled a breakfast-meeting with Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo "Jun" Siazon yesterday to reassure him that the White House "invitation" was still on.

What we learned is that US Asst. Secretary of State Stanley Roth is arriving next week to call on the President and Siazon, and suggest that the visit, which couldn't be scheduled in late April, be reset to the month of August.

Will American President Bill Clinton find time to welcome Sir Erap by then? That is the peak of summer, with temperatures hitting 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and the homestretch of an equally sizzling US presidential campaign. But, okay -- que sera sera -- but we mustn't hold our breath. August is an interesting month, anyway, when historically "wars" start. Clinton, incidentally, is already at war. He's trading barbs with the powerful gun lobby, particularly with filmdom's former "Papa Moses," the National Rifle Association's spokesman, ex-actor Charlton Heston.

In this dust-up, Clinton is absolutely right. He wants stringent gun control. Heston (who also played El Cid, the Spanish hero, against the Moros) is angrily contesting Clinton's crackdown on guns -- and looking less and less either the prophet or the "hero" in the process. There are too many guns floating around the United States. The Constitution's "right to bear arms" has been grievously abused -- as the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) pointed out yesterday, there are 200 million firearms in the hands of civilians in America.

There are, in fact, the BBC report added, one million guns in the hands of school-children, "who bring them to school."

In his rebuttal of Heston's verbal assaults and the multi-million-dollar television ad campaign of the NRA, Clinton said that it might be easy for Heston to make such remarks on TV, but can he repeat them while "looking into the eyes of the parents of the six-year-old girl killed by a six-year- old classmate with a stolen gun?" He asked whether Heston could say such things to the parents and classmates of the kids slain by rampaging students at the Columbine high school, and in Memphis, etc.? That's the correct retort.

Even Moses would blink, as he didn't when he faced the furious Pharaoh. Wasn't it Moses who received the tablets of the Ten Commandments from the hands of God on Mount Sinai -- including the edict: "Thou shalt not kill"? Heston, if peevishly-inclined, though, might answer by citing another commandment: "Thou shalt not commit adultery."

It's tough keeping the commandments. No wonder even the Israelites, the Chosen People, went to the Stock Exchange to worship the Golden Calf.

I was told yesterday that even the Republican Party's virtually confirmed Presidential contender, Texas Governor George W. Bush, would be happy to meet President Estrada. The meeting place proposed was California. This makes sense for Bush, since California has a large Filipino-American population, and the photo opportunity of a handshake between Erap and Bush would go a long way for the tall Texan. (In a previous column, it was inadvertently published that "Gore" had a Hispanic wife. This should have read "Bush." With such a conjugal connection, and with brother Jeb Bush concurrently Governor of Florida, where the city of Miami is literally "the Spanish-speaking Capital of South America" and "Little Cuba," Bush may be able to corner the Texicano and Chicano vote).

As far as the Democrats are concerned, Mr. Estrada is also in good standing with the anointed Presidential standard-bearer, Vice-President Al Gore. Remember the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a couple of years ago? When Gore representing the US at that conference, called for support for the pro-demokrasi movement and reformasi (reforms), that speech fell with a thud among the authoritarian leaders of Asia. The only one who cheerfully backed Gore up, exclaiming to the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune that Gore's controversial address had been "wonderful", was Erap. Thereafter, Estrada and Gore were photographed frequently at that meeting literally holding hands with each other.

Incidentally, it was in Manila that George W.'s father, former US President George Bush, committed one of the worst gaffes of his career. As Veep, Bush came to Manila in July 1981 to represent Ronald Reagan on the occasion of Ferdinand Marcos "winning" a fresh mandate kuno. Mind you, Marcos "martial law" had been in place for nine years previously when Bush joined the celebration in Malacañang Palace. He toasted Apo Ferdie in a sentence the Filipino people never forgot -- or forgave -- to wit: "We love your adherence to democratic principles . . . We will not leave you in isolation . . . It would be turning our backs on history if we did!"

I recall we all had our mouths agape when we saw Bush on TV and in the newsreels saying this. In the United States, in a July 2 editorial, the Los Angeles Times asked the astonished question: "Where Has Bush Been?" He certainly hadn't been around Metro Manila or the Philippines, and seen the pain on the faces of the tyrannized Filipino people.

A year later, when I was allowed to travel abroad by the martial law government, I went to Washington, DC. That's when I first met Stanley Roth who had earlier served as one of the aides of Vice-President Bush. When I asked Roth what on earth had moved Bush to make such a ridiculous statement, praising the dictator, Roth shrugged and smiled: "Must have been jet lag."

Since Bush had been a Navy fighter pilot who had to ditch his TBM Avenger into the Pacific with four 500-pound bombs still unexploded in its belly on Sept. 2, 1944 during an aerial attack on Japanese installations in Chichi Jima (in the Bonins), I somehow doubted that jet lag had anything to do with this mistake. That crash must have jarred his brains, I ruefully concluded.

This assessment was further confirmed years later, at the climax of the Gulf War and Operation "Desert Storm" when George Bush was the triumphant "war leader" of the Allied forces mobilized and ranged against Iraq's despot, Saddam Hussein. American and Allied forces stormed across the desert, indeed, to liberate Kuwait and punish Baghdad and Saddam's "Republican Guards" with a relentless assault from the air and rocket attack. But just as the forces of "Stormin' Norman" Schwarzkopf" were pouring across the Iraqi border, Bush ordered all the victorious armies to "stop." What happened? He managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Saddam Insane is still in power in Baghdad, while Bush in the US and Maggie Thatcher in England, his two foremost foes, are no longer in office.

Will Georgie Jr. be a clone of George Sr.? Hope not. George Sr. had his good points. But also his lapses.

Frankly, I don't know what our President can expect to get from the US except a warm abrazo and a fond farewell from his friend, Bill Clinton -- who's on his way out, anyway, and, in his next reincarnation may (if she succeeds) be only the husband of a New York senator named Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I guess every Filipino President feels himself entitled to a trip to Disneyland and a courtesy call on the Great White Father who speaks with forked tongue. Since he was among the "Valiant Twelve" senators who booted the American bases out of Clark, Subic, and other places here years ago, Erap must resign himself to the lower priority role the Philippines must play in the scheme of America's worldwide geopolitics and its military umbrella.

For example, we made too much fuss over the added two million dollars we recently got in US assistance under the so-called FMA (foreign military assistance) program. This amount, even when tacked on to the earlier $46 million the US committed for our external defense security, doesn't amount to much. It would, in the logistical scale, be equivalent to what we would pay for one and a half jet fighter-bombers, brand-new.

What amuses and annoys me is the contention of some senators and members of the Lower House (Biazon, Zubiri, et al) that US aid must not be used against our Filipino rebels, whether in the New People's Army or the Moro insurgency. Sus, what inane quibbling. What would the Americans do if we "misused" that measly aid allocation: Turn off the spigot and deny us more aid? I'm not saying we should turn up our noses at a few million bucks, but the amount is peanuts. (Israel gets $4 billion or thereabouts annually, while Egypt gets almost as much so that Egypt won't attack Israel!) So, let's not sweat it.

If you ask me, every bullet and every piece of military hardware we can scrape together should be utilized in the defense of the Republic, against enemies (domestic or foreign) who seek to overthrow our government.

On Friday, March 17, will be the anniversary of the tragic death by plane crash on a mountain peak -- Mount Manunggal in Cebu -- of one of our greatest Presidents, Ramon Magsaysay. "Monching", as we called him affectionately or "The Guy," was a simple man. This is why his "presidential plane" was a mere surplus C-47 propeller aircraft. Some might say that if he had been flying a shiny new jet, Magsaysay might not have died in fire and flame on that lonely mountaintop. But what is written is written: God's will determines, despite all precautions, man's fate. To die and leave us grieving orphans, while at the height of his popularity, was Magsaysay's destiny.

It was also Monching's destiny to lead a dispirited Filipino people, with Communist rebellion already threatening the outskirts of Manila, from the darkness into the light. Magsaysay never quibbled. He used American aid without hesitation in fighting the insurgency that threatened to overwhelm us, even when he first arrived at the battlefront as an unknown congressman appointed by Elpidio Quirino his Defense Secretary.

Magsaysay had what was known as the Four F's of engagement against the Communist Huks: Find 'em, Fool 'em, Fight 'em, Finish 'em.

He offered the rebels "all-out friendship" or "all-out force." If they surrendered, and had not committed crimes of murder, arson or rape, he gave them land -- in Mindanao -- so they could return to peaceful farming. If they resisted, he vowed to crush them. That's what he did. He kept his promises and his threats. And the US government of that time so trusted Magsaysay that they provided him the weapons and logistics he needed.

He didn't bleat: "Fellows, I won't use these bullets and arms against fellow Filipinos." He said that any insurgent, whether Filipino or foreign, who wanted to subvert the Constitution and topple the government was "the enemy" and had to be defeated with every means at our command, even sticks and stones, bows and arrows. Everytime he needed to equip a new "Battalion Combat Team" (BCT) to hurl against the foe, he called on Washington, DC and the Americans air-lifted the cannon, the shells, the armor he needed to win that desperate fight.

And, by golly, he united our nation as never before. Everybody was overcome by the tidal wave of his sincerity. He was absolutely honest, absolutely dedicated, and absolutely sure of what he was doing. He wasn't a genius. He would cry out: "I was just a mechanic!" He would look into the eyes of all he encountered, and win them over with the fervor of his faith and the disarming quality of his smile -- even his diffidence and old-world courtesy worked wonders for him. He challenged Filipinos to do their best and be their best -- and they responded magnificently.

This I believe: As He did with Magsaysay, God sends us leaders in our hour of need. Or He inspires common men to become leaders: Such was Ramon Magsaysay. Then, God takes them away so we do not grow so dependent on the charisma and magic of a single individual that we forget that "nationhood" means an entire people working together, struggling in unison, joined in heart and hand, to pursue the goal of a national destiny.

We felt that "bond" oh-so-briefly in the glorious EDSA People Power days when we all stood at the barricades from Aparri to Jolo, breaking with the strength of a common will the shackles of a 20-year dictatorship. We shall, I am confident, someday recapture that glow again.

In the meantime, we live in hope.