Erap should rage at the danger to everybody's children, not only hisown

It was probably more than a gesture of bravado that an angry Erap dared the Communist hit-men to "target" him instead of his family. It was a father's instinctive reaction to the ambush of a son, Joel "Jono" Ejercito, in Pampanga.

The attack was, of course, like all ambuscades a treacherous act -- and we specially grieve for a colleague in journalism, dzMM reporter Vincent Rodriguez who was killed in the incident. However, it's equally certain that the rebels or bandits, whoever they are, won't accept the President's challenge to target him instead. Big shots, bristling with security, are difficult to get at, so it's almost axiomatic that killers will seek to hurt them where they're most vulnerable -- through their children and other family members. This has been true all through history, so Mr. Estrada had better warn his kith and kin to be more cautious and circumspect. They are his Achilles heel, and rebels as well as his critics and political foes know it.

The trouble with Erap's children, to begin with, is that they are so numerous, and seem to be everywhere. How can so many families be kept under guard night and day? In fact -- call me ignorant, if you will -- I never knew an elder son named Jojo, 39, even existed until the Pampanga River attack.

The second problem is that the President's children, particularly his various sons have been very visible and continue to go about in the full glare of publicity. In the present emergency, it might be wise for them to curtail their activities -- and their parties. True, Tourism Secretary Gemma Cruz Araneta is horrified that everyone is calling what's going on a "war" (Aray! No more tourists!), but this is "wartime" nonetheless. Even going shopping at the mall has become a somewhat chancy expedition, but, fortunately, Filipinos are tough enough to ignore the "mad bombers", and life has been returning slowly to those initially deserted pavilions.

On the other hand, the President's children will have to learn to be more careful. Since Erap ascended to Malacañang, they've been too high-profile -- sometimes recklessly so. But the most important thing for President Estrada -- as our Chief Executive, Commander-in-Chief, and Father of the Nation -- is that he mustn't take attacks on his family personally. Being the cynosure of all eyes, and having to brave an element of danger, are part and parcel of the perks and pelf -- and oftentimes dubious "popularity" -- they now enjoy. They have to adjust to conducting themselves appropriately. For everything they undertake, every caper on which they embark, and everything that happens to them or through them, reflects on their father's Presidency. They have to take the bad with the good. That's the way of the world, and nobody's immune to it -- or too sacred to touch.

And if Erap rages, he must rage at the threat to everybody's children the current climate of violence poses, not just to his own. For all are at risk in this endangered and embittered society, whether rich or poor. It is the President's job to assure their safety.

Now comes the somewhat screwy tale of a lone gunman "hijacking" a Manila-bound Philippine Airlines flight (PR 812) from Davao. What I heard as I batted out this column is that the hijacker, instead of making demands, passed the hat around to ask abuloy or cash "help" from the nervous passengers of the Airbus 330, then jumped off the plane by parachute shortly before the aircraft landed safely at the Manila airport.

I can't comment further on this incident, since I still don't have all the facts at this writing, but the hijack scared away inbound international flights, like a Cathay Pacific plane which turned around instead of landing at the NAIA and returned to Hong Kong. (I hope by this time, the pilot decided to make a U-turn back to Manila after the "crisis" ended, and mollified the outbound passengers stranded irritably at our airport.)

Whatever the final explanation for this zany episode, it's another embarrassment heaped on the head of an embattled President and government.

It's true that other hijackings and more terrible terrorist acts have occurred over the years. There's the explosion by a bomb allegedly planted by two Libyan terrorists of the Pan-American plane, homeward bound from London to America, over Lockerbie, Scotland. A Korean airliner was exploded over Burma (Myanmar), and another KAL plane was shot down by Soviet missiles over the Kamchatka peninsula, killing one of my own magazine editors, by the way, Jim Beirne. TWA, Lufthansa, British, Egyptair, and Chinese aircraft have been hijacked. There's even the hijack that resulted in a daring rescue by Israeli commandos of the hostaged passengers from Entebbe, Uganda. Commercial aircraft are always vulnerable to the determination and guile of a random hijacker or band of hijackers.

There will be a great deal of finger-pointing over the laxity of security at the Davao airport. One of my editors who hails from Davao told me yesterday that Davao airport security is, indeed, poor. Isn't that also where the Air Philippines plane crashed because it hadn't been alerted by the airport tower that another plane was still on the tarmac?

In any event, this is, indeed, Erap's Summer of Discontent. It has been one thing after another.

Already, TIME magazine has just bashed him with a cover story proclaiming Estrada as "IN OVER HIS HEAD." The subtitle asked mischievously: "Rebels, cronies, kidnappers -- What's a President to do?"

The cover photo was even more uncomplimentary. It depicted a bewildered-looking Erap in a comic pose, snipped from one of his old 1971 movies, Okey Ka, Erap.

When Malacañang, through an annoyed Executive Secretary Ronnie Zamora, growled that the TIME piece done by Terry McCarthy had "gone too far" and was beyond the bounds of fairness, this was enough to ensure that the May 29 issue sold out in two days.

I guess we never learn. The best way to make certain people rush over to the newsstands and bookshops to snap up a magazine or periodical is to condemn it. In the US, when the Catholic bishops were more aggressive and militant, the Bishop of Boston "censored" all novels and non-fiction books which offended faith or morals, with heretical or lewd passages. Alas, when a book could brag it had been "Banned in Boston," it became a bestseller.

I was having dinner with Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Wednesday night when her cellphone rang. After a brief conversation with one of her staffers in the field, she told me that four towns in Lanao del Sur were being evacuated -- and that her Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) was gearing up to take care of their immediate needs.

The Vice President says that the displacement of half a million refugees in Mindanao is the painful toll the fighting in Mindanao between the armed forces and Muslim rebels is taking. Helpless Muslim and Christian civilians alike are being forced to abandon their villages and towns as the clashes escalate. Gloria says that her P140 million budget and "savings" have, thus far, enabled her and her DSWD officials and social workers to cope, such as providing the dislocated families with food, blankets, and other necessities, and first-aid, while the Department of Health (DOH) supplies the medicines and medical attention.

"When I go to Mindanao," the Vice President explained, "I go without prior notice or fanfare. I don't want the military, police, or local officials, like the mayors and governors, to be distracted from their more urgent duties in order to greet me, or dance attendance on me." She said she would visit the fresh wave of refugees and evacuees soon, but would not set a definite date so as to retain her low-profile stance, "but my people are on the job."

As for her political plans, Gloria said she is remaining a "working" member of the Cabinet. "This is no time to talk politics," she smiled. "It's time for work." She said she was precisely avoiding any comment on political plans, for "even the most innocent remark is immediately given political color."

My translation of this is that she's biding her time. If I may venture my opinion, this is wise. At this point, the opposition Lakas-NUCD needs her more than she needs Lakas. She already has a role, while the opposition is in desperate search of a leader or a rallying point. Things may clear before the Year 2001 Senate elections, but not sooner.

In keeping with the troubled times, US Ambassador Tom Hubbard has just been assigned by his government a state-of-the-art, bullet-proof, gadget-equipped BMW. What? A German car, not an American vehicle? What would Detroit say?

So you see it's not just James Bond, the epitome of excellence in spookdom, British-style, who uses a gadget-equipped BMW -- but Bond's car is a sporty one. Hubbard's is a rolling fortress.

Anyway, the American Ambassador is leaving for Washington, DC next Monday to initiate preparations for the "visit" of President Estrada and his meeting with Bill Clinton next July 27th. Hubbard, who is expected to be gone three weeks, will also be discussing, my sources say, how the US can help the Philippine government in counter-terrorism and other anti-subversive measures. The way to get the Americans' dander up and the Yanks into the act is to utter those two bad words, "Osama bin Laden" and "Ramzi Yousef." These were the two terrorists supporting the Abu Sayyaf, no matter how loudly Senator Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel insists it was the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

It was Yousef, now in a Colorado prison, who tried to blow up the World Trade Center in New York and trained the Abu Sayyaf in bomb-making. And it was Osama bin Laden who continues to finance the Abu Sayyaf gang and Islamic fundamentalist rebellions and mujahideen excursions all over the world. He was responsible, the Americans declare, for the bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, simultaneously on August 7, 1998, which killed 220 Americans, Kenyans and Tanzanians, and seriously injured over 5,000 men, women and children.

In fact, Director Louis Freeh of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) personally came over to Manila last September, with his top officers, to confer with President Estrada and offer him the FBI's help and cooperation in Asia-wide counter-terrorists and anti-drug activities.

I don't know how the Patikul (Sulu) hostage drama will end. It's unfortunate that chief negotiator Robert Aventajado has been saddled with too many kibitzers -- but that's life. It's just like the tragedy of Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, everybody meddled in Vietnam. Then everybody left, leaving the Vietnamese -- particularly the abandoned South Vietnamese -- to sort the bloody mess out with each other. Now, Communist Vietnam is one of the good "friends" of its former enemies. And the People's Republic of China -- Communist China, if you please -- without having to apologize for Tienanmen or the tribulations of the Falung Gong, has just won Permanent Normal Trading Relations status by a comfortable 327 versus 197 vote in the US House of Representatives.

"Peace" is always costly. And there's never a shortcut to it, without passing through the crucible of blood and gore.