Those rowdy pro-Erap demonstrations were hatched to scare gov’t

A large and unruly crowd of Erap supporters has been blocking McKinley Road (in front of Club Filipino and the Buchanan entrance to the North Greenhills subdivision), Eisenhower street, and, on the Ortigas avenue side, the Madison street gate of the same subdivision. Waving streamers and Puwersa ng Masa banners, using bullhorns, and uttering loud shouts, some brandishing clubs, the masa-looking groups are apparently trying to duplicate, with their own opposite version, the "People Power" of EDSA Dos.

The trouble is that they may be numerous, indeed, but sufficient in numbers only to clog the access roads and barricade the gates leading into the "village" where their idol, former President Estrada, holds fort in his Polk street residence. Their vow, of course, is to form a human shield to prevent the ex-President from being "arrested." At this writing (although the situation may change after dark, given some spark or provocation) they have succeeded only in becoming annoying.

The police who were rushed to the scene seemed helpless to "control" the mob (like EDSA Dos, the almost pathetic spectacle smacked of mob rule). But perhaps their policy of "maximum tolerance" was calibrated to avoid a violent confrontation, for the moment. The trouble is that, if the demonstrators are not challenged, the troublemakers in their crowd might get emboldened to become more abusive.

There are those who will object to anyone describing those pro-Erap crowd antics as a "mob scene" similar (if not in magnitude) to the glorious EDSA II Revolution. But again, others may inquire, why should the EDSA protesters and demonstrators be called heroic, while the – admittedly far fewer – pro-Estrada counterparts be termed obnoxious? Ugliness, like beauty, I guess, is in the eye of the beholder.

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The demonstrators and "Erap guardians" escalated their actions and tactics yesterday, but the truth is that they have been there for more than a week standing vigil. The place has, over the past few days, begun stinking like a toilet, although yesterday a more "organized" approach was implemented, with a few "portalets" or portable chemical toilets even being brought in. The usual hakot system was applied, with food and water being distributed, and militants being brought in by jeepneys and other conveyances.

What’s the purpose of this mob exercise? No one has to be a genius to realize the game plan of the Erap backers. One source intimated to this writer a few days ago, on Estrada’s birthday, that more demonstrations and even riots were being planned to intimidate the scary-cats in the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration and the court itself, possibly, so they won’t crack down as hard on Mr. Estrada as portents of his impending "arrest" without bail manifest themselves. One goal is to send the message that, if Estrada is sent to prison, more mass actions and violent demonstrations will erupt – so, the argument goes, why not permit him to be more comfortably placed under "house arrest"?

At this point, the government will have to show that it won’t be cowed even by more widespread convulsions. Dura lex sed lex, the law is hard but it’s the law.

The trouble is that the dispensation of President GMA, and the Chief Executive herself, has not, thus far, demonstrated enough firmness to impress anybody – even those of us who wish her and the new regime every success. There has been too much urong-sulong.

For instance, when the President snubbed the ill-conceived "solidarity" conference set in the Westin Philippine Plaza Hotel with the leaders of the National Democratic Front (NDF) and the Communists, many cheered. To their surprise and consternation, the Chief Executive gave a reception in Malacañang only a couple of days later for the same NDF, New People’s Army, and Communist Party leaders, led by ex-Father Luis Jalandoni, etc. Now which is which? Is this administration going forward – or, like the old Chinese peasant dance, backwards and forwards? You could get dizzy following the Palace "peace" pilgrim’s progress.

While President Arroyo was wining and dining the Communist top honchos and their spouses in Malacañang, their NPA rebel cadres were attacking all over, murdering mayors and candidates for mayor and other posts in the ongoing election campaign. While the NDF-NPA-CPP delegates speak of "peace" (and demand the release of 200 "comrades" languishing in jail), their armed cohorts are on a full-scale, murderous offensive. While our government negotiators are poised to go more than the extra-mile to Oslo, Norway, to accommodate Joma Sison, Jalandoni, and their gang (so as to save the rebels the exorbitant cost of "travel expenses" to the Philippines), their rebel cadres are on a killing rampage right here at home.

NPA hit-men gunned down a Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino mayoralty candidate in La Paz, Agusan del Sur, last Wednesday. The victim was Oscar Gomez Torralba, father of the incumbent Mayor Rufino Torralba. (He was the eighteenth local candidate killed during the campaign season since March 30 by the NPA).

A candidate for mayor in Albay, Camarines Sur, in Bicol, was shot dead Friday last week. This was Dr. Filemon Muñoz, who was riddled by three gunmen using automatic weapons while he was campaigning in Barangay Bariw, Camalig, in broad daylight, at 9:30 in the morning. He was the candidate of the government’s People Power Coalition (PPC), and the third candidate slain thus far in the Bicol region.

The PPC – President GMA’s party – has, in addition, lost Lope de Asis, its bet for mayor in Agusan del Sur, to an NPA assassination squad; then Mayor Teodoro Hernaez, a Lakas-NUCD aspirant in Santa Lucia town, Ilocos Sur, who was killed along with his two bodyguards; next, Bong Balalacao, who was campaigning for a provincial board seat (on the Aksyon Demokratikong-PPC ticket), and, finally, Felix Frayna, the Lakas-NUCD bet for mayor in Sta. Magdalena town, Sorsogon. Before the week is over, at this rate, there will be more fatalities and casualties.

And we think the NPA-NDF-CPP "men of goodwill" are longing for peace? Instead, they’re using their "peacemakers" without pause, which is what Americans used to call six-shooters and Colt revolvers during the violent days of the Wild and Wooly West.

The pity of it is that the NPA killers aren’t merely concerned with ideology or "reform" (as they piously bleat). They’ve been wiping out candidates who refused to pay their "access" or "permit to campaign" fees, the extortion money the NPA’s insist on collecting from candidates who wish to move freely in their "controlled areas." These fees reportedly range from P200,000 to P500,000 for gubernatorial candidates, to P200,000 for congressional aspirants, and a lower fee of P50,000 for local officials.

Pay-or-Die is the heroic NPA motto. Whatever happened to the much-touted Marxist-Socialist "dream of justice"?

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Looking at the pro-Estrada minions waving their flags and streamers yesterday, and uttering war cries of support for their leader Erap, one observer referred to them as the Altanghap plus 100 group. When I asked him to explain this exotic acronym, which sounded as Islamic as the Abu Sayyaf, he laughed. It meant, he explained, "libreng almusal (free breakfast), tanghalian (lunch), at hapunan (dinner) plus P100 per day."

I’m not really sure about that P100. What can you buy with P100 nowadays? In fact, the buzz around town is that vote-buying is now on the scale of P500 per voter. Must be owing to the deterioration of the peso versus the dollar rate.

Speaking of poor arithmetic, have you been to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) lately? A few days ago, I went there to see off my wife. There were no porteros, baggage-handlers or skycaps in sight. Every passenger had to hump his or her own luggage. When I inquired about the absence of baggage porters, a NAIA official shrugged that 400 porters had "lost their jobs" when President Arroyo abolished the one-dollar (or P40) fee passengers used to pay for each luggage cart. This act of magnanimity, much appreciated by weary tra-vellers and commuters, was highly-applauded. However, the waiving of the push-cart fee deprived the NAIA of about P100 million a year in income. It turned out that the porters were also paid out of this fund. So they lost their jobs.

Perhaps the vacuum created by the disappearance of porters at the international airport’s terminals has already been remedied. The administration and the NAIA management, on the other hand, would do well to look into this problem – if it hasn’t been solved yet. In the meantime, if you’re going on a trip, don’t weigh yourself down with heavy suitcases. Travel light, even if you may end up dehin goli. (Sus, that’s an old-fashioned term which dates this writer.) If you can survive without toting around heavy valises and hard-cases, be prepared for some muscular exertion. You’ll have to wrestle them yourself, through the X-ray machine and up to the check-in counter.

The "vanishing" porters are typical of our government’s chronic lack of foresight and planning. Decisions are made without any thought of their consequences – and without a contingency plan being readied to cope with each new situation.

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The family of former Chairman David Castro of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) has denied to the newspapers that the former PCGG top official was arrested by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). His son says he was instead in a New York hospital. We’ll know the score soon enough when the reports come in from the United States.

Erick San Juan, in the meantime, said yesterday he was one of those who tipped off the Philippine and US governments – the latter through the US Embassy – of the modus operandi of the alleged illegitimate "son" of the late President Marcos, Edilberto Marcos, "whose real name is Alberto Puzon." San Juan added that Puzon was an ex-policeman, a former MISG operative under then Lt. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson.

As for former PCGG Chairman Castro, Erick recalled that during his stint in the PCGG, Castro had reported that his house had been burnt down due to a grenade-launcher attack. Is it true that important documents relating to the "Marcos wealth", which he was keeping in his residence, were destroyed in the fire? That’s what San Juan is asking.

San Juan, by the way, has been urging that the government re-investigate the mysterious fire which hit the security printing building and mint of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) the other year. He suspects that the tons of BSP-stored security paper which were ostensibly burned and destroyed in that conflagration didn’t go up in flames but were used in the fabrication of counterfeit US Federal Reserve notes and other counterfeit bonds and currency bills by swindling syndicates.

In a country like ours where crimes are committed without any culprits being found and convicted, nothing surprises me any more. Paranoia is an everyday experience, just as is disappointment.