Shock after shock / An agonized India cries out for help - BY THE WAY by Max V. Soliven

NEW DELHI, India – It’s impossible to talk shop or politics when the banner headline of The Hindustan Times (New Delhi’s biggest daily) weeps: "Toll Mounts to 20,000." Imagine that. Twenty thousand dead in a killer earthquake that struck Friday morning, even as Indians all over this vast nation of almost one billion people began marching to celebrate their 51st Republic Day.

The celebration turned into horror and national mourning as the temblor – 7.9 on the Richter scale! – devastated Kutch, Saurashtra and North Gujarat destroying 10 districts and burying thousands in the rubble of toppled buildings.

The earlier estimate of 1,500 dead has now ballooned into a grim reality of 20,000 killed – and they’re still counting. Worse, although less destructive than the first terrible quake, aftershocks have been sowing additional pain and panic – 15 tremors last Sunday alone (for a total of 77 aftershocks since the first one on Friday) – on a scale of 5.9 and 4.7 on the Richter scale.

Yesterday, The Times of India, another major daily (established in 1838) grieved in its own banner: "Relief Pours in But No End to Nightmare." As of Monday, 6,165 mangled bodies had already been recovered by rescue and search teams, often scrabbling into the ruins with their bare hands. The stench of death, observers on the scene report, is everywhere. Hope is fading that there are any survivors left buried in the debris.

There are heartbreaking scenes everywhere. In Anjar, 400 schoolchildren and their teachers marching to join the Republic Day parade had been buried in the debris of a narrow lane as buildings on both sides collapsed on them.

Those dramatic reports on BBC, CNN and other cable and international news networks reaching Manila cannot possibly describe the anguish over here. Outside my eighth-floor hotel window in the Taj Palace Hotel, the sun shines bright over this capital of 12 million inhabitants. Fleets of pigeons soar gaily across the greensward and some of the birds flirt at our picture window. But there’s no sunshine, only gloom and anxiety in every heart.

All I can say is that our petty political squabbles, intrigues, and conspiracies at home (even the so-called "cataclysmic" prospect of Mark Jimenez being ready to squeal on his erstwhile pal, deposed President Joseph Estrada) seem to pale into insignificance in the face of this grim tragedy. It’s a reminder to us, timely at that, that man proposes but God disposes. When nature strikes (as we were reminded in our own deadly earthquakes of the past and the Mt. Pinatubo eruption) there’s nothing, not even a nuclear blast, which can rival the fury of Fate.

What can we do? I guess, pray – and try to send India what little we can afford by way of help and consolation. And pray, too, in gratitude for the blessing of being able, despite our follies and indiscretions, to carry on with our free democratic way of life, depending on our people’s efforts and God’s mercy. There’s nothing like the presence of tragedy and death to nudge us into a realization that there are more important things in life than ambition and conceit. Okay. (Sheepishly) End of sermon.

* * *

I see, judging from that front page photograph of President Macapagal-Arroyo swinging her golf club at the Tagaytay Highlands that "golf" is back as the Game of Presidents. (Erap, although he played basketball before his bum knee and other habits brought him down, played other games). Who’s coaching La Gloria in golf? Perhaps, among others, FVR, who’s in the coaching business nowadays in more than sport. But what the heck. With two past Presidents at her shoulder, GMA doesn’t lack for advice, both sage and otherwise.

I also see that the bishops, who savaged Erap in the past, now – with some pity mixed in with pragmatism perhaps – are now urging that he be "exiled." I asked some editors and publishers the other day (more than 600 are attending our International Press Institute World Congress here) whether their "home countries" would be willing to accept Erap as an exile in their capitals. Several remarked that they were always ready to welcome anybody with millions of dollars to "invest." So, there you are. There’s life (if the jury decides not to hang an ex-President) after downfall.

But wait. Is Erap still going to dispute the "constitutionality" of President GMA’s takeover? In a "government of laws and not of men" as we brag we are, de facto very often prevails and shoehorns de jure into playing along. This is not cynicism, I humbly submit, but Realpolitik. In the meantime, of course, our legal beagles will have their fun (and their fees). This is what happens in a democratic republic.

* * *

This far away from the scene of the action (I didn’t say the scene of the crime), I don’t know whether somebody has already been anointed with the Department of Agriculture portfolio. A couple of names have been mentioned, and possibly, by the time this sees print, one of them might already have been appointed.

If not, while I earlier vowed not to offer "unsolicited" advice, may I break that promise in this instance and offer a suggestion? For that matter, even if President Macapagal-Arroyo has already announced another choice, the gentleman I mention might be harnessed in some other way, like Food Production and Marketing Czar, just as successive Chief Executives created Traffic Czars (who failed to solve and even gummed up the traffic problem). The name I’m advancing is that of Luis "Sito" Lorenzo, Jr. Mind you, I haven’t talked to him for weeks and he may even resent my having thrown his monicker into sweepstakes, but I can think of nobody better qualified to help us boost agriculture and food self-sufficiency, particularly in these hard times.

A graduate of Ateneo’s Business Management Honors Program (yes, Virginia, some Ateneans do graduate) and the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania as well as scion of one of the country’s wealthiest clans (his father is the late "Moro" Lorenzo), Sito runs several large-scale corporations engaged in agriculture both at home and abroad. One family corporation turns out what we can call one of the best-known fruit and food brands (Del Monte) – a major exporter of canned and fresh pineapples, with more than 3,000 workers tending nearly 20,000 hectares of plantations in Mindanao. (The Singapore government, which is very picky in its choice of associates, even has a major stake in one of his international companies.)

It speaks well of Lorenzo that, aside from his successful agri-business enterprises, he possesses a social conscience. Despite the current financial crunch, his firms – Lapanday Holdings Corp. and Macondray Holdings Corp. – donated between P30 and P50 million (he never deigned to reveal how much) to the Ateneo de Manila University for the purpose of sports development and athletics. He subscribed (Moro, his dad, was the legendary superstar of the "Blue Eagles"), he remarked, to the old dictum of mens sana in corpore sano (a sound mind in a sound body) as one of the cornerstones of building up our youth as the leaders of tomorrow.

There’s my pitch. Take it or leave it. It’s of interest that President Estrada twice offered Lorenzo the Secretaryship of Trade and Industry (after Sec. Manuel "Mar" Roxas had resigned, but we note that Mar, returning in glory, has recovered it). Twice, Sito politely declined the DTI post. He whispered to me at the time, almost embarrassed, that he couldn’t possibly have accepted that Cabinet position, since he was one of the friends who had advised Mar to abandon it.