It’s no joke: When the German newsmag Der Spiegel screws you, you’re screwed - BY THE WAY by Max V. Soliven

It never rains but it pours. Now, the powerful German newsweekly, Der Spiegel (The Mirror), based in Hamburg, has quoted German secret service sources as saying President Estrada pocketed 40 percent of a $20 million "ransom" paid to the Abu Sayyaf for the release of the foreign hostages seized by the bandits from Sipadan island and on other occasions. The newsmagazine further alleged that chief negotiator Robert Aventajado took another 10 percent or about $2 million.

Those are serious accusations which have sunk our reputation and that of our leadership even more disastrously in Western Europe and (through the wire services) the rest of the world. Imagine the enormity of the crime being imputed to Mr. Estrada – the grabbing of $8 million (juetengate pales) from an embarrassing hostage situation which transfixed the morbid attention of the planet for almost six months!

Were the President not undergoing impeachment trial in the Senate for bribery, betrayal of public trust, etc., Malacañang might easily have laughed off the German allegations. But they are now, sadly, being regarded as cumulative "proof" of his purported chicanery and misdeeds.

Admittedly, Der Spiegel may have its own axe to grind. One of its most prominent correspondents, Andreas Lorenz, with the rank of bureau chief, was snatched by the scruffy Abus, and its editor had to personally fly here to the Philippines to deliver a reputed $1 million in ransom for the guy. Even if Lorenz had done a damn-fool thing by having blundered not once but twice into Abu Sayyaf hands, the fact that the Germans had to turn over the cash in a bag in the home of a ranking Sulu official must have rankled. The magazine averred that the German secret service had tapped phone conversations between Aventajado and the Abu kidnappers via satellite. This is a possibility, naturally, in this cyber-world where privacy of communication no longer exists. If such conversations took place, relying on cellphone or satellite phone "connections" (remember Commander Robot alias Ghalib Andang had a satellite phone seized from the French TV journalist Maryse Burgot) would have been extremely foolish.

Aventajado, of course, has angrily denied the tale and is threatening to sue Der Spiegel. Well, it’s up to him if the story is false and malicious. But, even if the tale happened to be a complete fabrication, it unfortunately has the ring of truth. Indeed, the President was warned when he permitted the hostage crisis to drag on for almost half a year that he would be suspected of getting a personal bonanza from the vast sums in ransom rumored to having been paid by the Germans, the Malaysians, and finally the Libyans. After all, Aventajado – who used among his negotiators, Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan (a former boss of "Robot" Andang) – kept on denying that any ransom was exchanging hands until the lid could no longer be put on those under-the-table deals.

For months this writer railed in frustration and despair against the delay in taking strong and direct action against the Abus. The government would have come out more honorable and decisive if our military and PNP Special Action Forces (as PNP chief Director-General Panfilo Lacson insisted, only to be censured) had attacked the Abus within a week or two of their April 23 kidnapping of the original 21 hostages. Sure, we might have "lost" some of the captives and some of our troops in that strike, but we could have crushed the bandits and salvaged our reputation long before the first whiff of any sordid ransom caper.

Instead, on the lame excuse of trying to "save" the hostages, the President and his government hesitated. Today, we can’t even save our honor. As a poet once said: "Honor lost – everything lost."

* * *

Yesterday, quite a number of people asked me what sort of magazine Der Spiegel is. I can only say that the newsweekly, which was founded by its redoubtable Publisher and Chairman Rudolf Augstein, is one of the Big 3 as the most reputable and influential in the German-speaking world. Der Spiegel’s only formidable rival (which recently surpassed it in circulation and glitz) is Focus, another glossy newsweekly which shot to the top of the charts by putting in more verve and color.

My former classmate in the international studies course of Dr. Henry Kissinger, the well-known author Gunther Gaus (not to be confused with Nobel Prizewinner Gunther Grass) used to be editor-in-chief of the Spiegel until he opted to join the staff of Kanzler (Chancellor) Willy Brandt and entered politics in Berlin. I’ve visited the headquarters of both Der Spiegel and Focus, and can attest to the fact that both are well-staffed and very seriously-regarded publications (not lurid tabloids, although Spiegel has racked up a reputation for exposés).

The third most influential publication is another weekly, Die Stern (The Star), but it is modelled more along the lines of LIFE magazine and the defunct LOOK magazine in the United States. Almost two months ago, Stern published the pro-Abu Sayyaf and anti-Estrada "diaries" of the German couple and their son who had also been captives of the Abus and exhibited a "Stockholm Syndrome" type of affection for their Moro rebel captors. (Stern lost a lot of ground, but not circulation, a decade and a half ago when it published the spurious "Hitler Diaries", which were later proven to be counterfeit creations of a master-forger with a vast store of Nazi knowledge and imagination. The Germans, of course, were not alone in their folly. NEWSWEEK magazine – thanks to my former bureau chief, Editor Maynard Parker, who died of cancer last year – similarly fell prey to the Hitler-forger’s grand deception and also published the false diaries with much fanfare.)

There’s another big circulation newspaper, but it’s a daily tabloid full of sexy photos, named Bild Zeitung, belonging to the publishing empire of the late Axel Springer, which also puts out Die Welt (The World) and Hamburger Abendblatt (which has nothing to do with McDonald’s).

The power and clout of Der Spiegel was first demonstrated in the late 1950s when the formidable Minister of Defense, Franz Josef Strauss (the Christian-Socialist leader of Bavaria and later its chief minister), angrily accused Publisher Augstein, whom he considered his bête noir, of treason for "stealing" and leaking out state secrets. Augstein was visiting Spain when Strauss made this accusation and the Spanish authorities under Generalissimo Francisco Franco (still alive with the Falangistas still in power) readily complied by arresting Augstein and extraditing him to Germany.

Augstein and Der Spiegel fought back, and the confrontation led to Herr Strauss resigning from the Cabinet. That, in capsule, demonstrates the magazine’s reach.

My guesstimate is that Der Spiegel has a weekly circulation of about two million copies, while Focus has about 3.2 million. You don’t even have to guess. Both magazines carry a ton of slick and expensive advertising.

Indeed, another magazine, much earlier, this time in Paris, ran a similar accusation – i.e., that both Estrada and Aventajado had pocketed part of the ransom paid (at the time reputed to be a lesser $10 million). This was the magazine of the daily newspaper, Le Figaro. The allegation was less detailed than the present one, however, and one of the sources was the French TV cameraman from Channel 2 who had been "rescued" (but claimed they "rescued" themselves) when the Army finally launched its offensive last September against the Abu Sayyaf.

That was only recently, but how times have changed since then! Mindanao and the Moro rebellion problem have been driven off the frontpage headlines and virtually consigned to the Classified Ads section.

Where’s the lucky Commander Robot, the kidnapper-in-chief? Free as a bird somewhere, forgotten if not forgiven, merrily counting his loot. Or, if the Germans are right, counting half his loot?

* * *

If there’s anything to be gained from the impeachment scandal, it’s the fact that in the future (or even regarding the bruised-and-beaten present one) Presidents will be more careful about displaying their wealth and pelf – and displaying their "other families" and dependents.

President Erap’s sin was not just that he had too many you-know-what, who exhibited too much, too soon, but that in hubris he thought that the millions of Filipinos who voted him a landslide victory had given him a blank cheque to do as he pleased, without a thought to public perception and indignation. If you ask me, what hurts Mr. Estrada more than juetengate and mere "bribery" allegations is the parade of lavish mansions and lifestyles. Where did all the money to procure and maintain such things come from? If the House prosecutors can nail him to the wall on such issues, then he’s a goner.

Didn’t what happened to Ferdinand Marcos constitute a warning? Perhaps it didn’t, because Apo Macoy was chased out of town (or hijacked by the Americans, take your pick) and died in exile. But we never recovered his hidden and even unhidden wealth, nor that of his clan and pangkat. In fact, the Marcoses and their erstwhile cronies are back as sassy and well-heeled as ever.

On the other hand, what catches the public’s eye and incurs widespread condemnation is the flaunting of unexplained goodies plus visible influence-peddling. Res ipso loquitur remains the dictum in law which demands that a public official and public servant must be seen to be living within his or her income. When you claim that you’re merely receiving "gifts" from friends, it’s evident there must be an exchange-gift. As the Americans love to say: There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

* * *

What’s happening in the United States is sad, not funny. The Florida Supreme Court which, ironically, is regarded as pro-Gore (what? are US courts becoming like our own?) ruled in the morning that a hand-recount could be undertaken in disputed Florida districts. The camp of Texas Governor George W. Bush groaned in anguish and roared in indignation at the "injustice." Hardly had the recounting begun than the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC froze the Florida Supreme Court’s order and scheduled its own hearings today in the federal capital. That Al Gore camp dissolved in tears and rage while the Bush camp exulted. It’s almost like a basketball game, with the contending teams’ fortunes changing with every "goal." The trouble is that the goals are being scored AFTER the game was already supposed to be over. No wonder whoever wins – and I still believe it’s Bush – the other side will be "sore losers", because the game was so close and the postgame bitterness has escalated.

My daughter Sara rang me up from Houston, Texas, yesterday, where she and her husband have been visiting with their relatives. She said there’s no Christmas joy in Texas – at least not until and unless their "good ole boy" George is definitely anointed and proclaimed President. There’s alternate gloom and jubilation as the court battles continue to rage. Texans have been going down to Tallahasee, Florida, by the busload to furiously demonstrate in front of the Florida Supreme Court building. So, in this Metro-Manila of dampen-your-Christmas-spirit demonstrations and "Resign rallies", hindi tayo nag-iisa.