GMA’s overcrowded last-minute ‘sked’

Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Francis Garchitorena told this writer yesterday that he had only been "defending himself" in the word war with Third Division Chairman Justice Anacleto Badoy.

"I had just arrived in Davao City on Sunday last week," the Presiding Justice explained, "when suddenly Badoy called a press conference in Manila attacking me." Thus, Garchitorena noted that he was caught completely by surprise when reporters in Davao began badgering him, even in the Marco Polo hotel there, for his response to the Badoy tirade.

"I didn’t even know what to say that Sunday night," Garchitorena recalls, "because I had not heard the remarks aired by Badoy on radio and television." It was not until the following afternoon, Monday, that "I saw a replay of the Badoy allegations on ABS-CBN."

"What could I have done?" Garchitorena points out, "if I had remained silent, the impression created would be that I was guilty. So I fought back. I had to do so in self-defense."

The Presiding Justice spent all of last week in Davao, hearing Sandiganbayan cases there. The meeting Saturday noon in the office of Chief Justice HIlario Davide, Jr., he further clarified, could not take place since his plane from Davao arrived only late in the afternoon.

Garchitorena, at his request, will probably be meeting with the Supreme Court Chief Justice today – without Justice Badoy. Instead Garchitorena has asked Chief Justice Davide to allow him to bring along two other jurists from Badoy’s own Third Division, namely Sandiganbayan Justice Ricardo Ilarde and Teresita de Castro. "They will shed light on what Badoy has been doing," he asserted.

Finally, he denied having violated Chief Justice Davide’s order for him and Badoy to shut up. "While Badoy kept on firing away," Francis noted, "I kept quiet." He declared that the insinuation he had "requested" the Sandiganbayan Employees Association to issue a manifesto assailing Badoy and defending him was both "untrue and unfair." He concluded: "How could I have influenced such an employee resolution when I was in Davao all of last week?"

As for Badoy, Justice Garchitorena shrugged in frustration: "He’s the guy who’s been acting strangely all week. Does he have a Messianic complex? A martyr complex? A star complex?" Susmariosep, I can only remark. Badoy sounds like a very complex man.

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It’s confirmed that Admiral Dennis Cutler Blair, commander-in-chief of the US Pacific Command (CINCPAC), will be arriving here this afternoon from his headquarters in Honolulu for a meeting with President Macapagal-Arroyo tomorrow, prior to her departure for San Francisco on Wednesday.

Blair, who assumed his CINCPAC post on February 20, 1999, is deeply involved in the supervision of the US initiatives in Afghanistan since he is the senior military commander in the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas, directing Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force operations across over 100 million square miles.

Among the topics to be discussed with the President are the findings of the US Special Operations Assessment Team (SOAT) headed by Col. David Fridovich which visited the Armed Forces headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo, then SOUTHCOM in Mindanao, particularly the Joint Task Force Comet and other tactical units in Basilan between October 23 and 31.

In a briefing given before the 23-member expedition returned to the US on November 1, Colonel Fridovich had observed that our armed forces on the strategic level "lacks vital equipment and capability to decisively win the war against the ASG (Abu Sayyaf Group)". These include transport vehicles like C-130 aircraft and transport vessels, as well as "secured and redundant" communications." They’re right on this: The Abus have better communications equipment than our military.

Although the American team leader praised the AFP’s "very comprehensive campaign plan against the ASG" (a true diplomat, he), the colonel noted that our AFP lacks "dedicated intelligence capabilities and training in joint operations."

The report, on the operational level, said that our SOUTHCOM (Southern Command) suffers from a "lack of mobility (which) impedes the transport of personnel, which is further restricted by terrain."

The team discovered, the exit briefing said, that "support facilities are not fully functioning," singling out for comment the inadequate psychological operations and intelligence network. "There is a lack of dedicated personnel for the gathering and processing of information."

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Does this mean that our military in Mindanao is operating "blind"?

This was a fact already established a few years ago by the surprise raid by Moro rebel units, in superior force, of the major town Ipil in Zamboanga. The attackers devastated the entire municipality, the few troops and PNP there running desperately away for their lives, and kept Ipil captive for hours while they ransacked and burned down banks and business enterprises. Why did not our military and police spot such a huge raiding party, composed of hundreds of Muslim rebels, converging on Ipil?

The same situation, sad to say, seems to obtain in Basilan even today with the Abus dodging in and out of the bush, staging attacks on Lamitan and Isabela, while dragging their hostages (including an American missionary couple) all over the place.

What happened to all those intelligence funds? That, admittedly, is a silly question in the light of what has been occurring for years. We didn’t need the Americans to reiterate our "intelligence" shortcomings.

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Unfortunately, as General Diomedio P. Villanueva, our AFP chief of staff, underscored in his report to the President, the US "SOAT" group "did not promise any equipment" to support our operations. He added, however, that the armed forces had submitted to the Americans a list of equipment badly needed. A shopping list? A "wish" list?

That is what President GMA must discuss with Admiral Blair, and, even more emphatically, with US President George W. Bush when she meets with him in the White House.

Blair has been a frequent visitor to the Philippines, in any event, and we won’t be telling him anything new. He graduated, in fact, in the same batch as that of National Security Chairman Roilo "Roy" Golez from the US Naval Academy at Annapolis. Either they were classmates or were a year or two apart. So, they presumably can belt out "Anchors Aweigh" in complete harmony.

Let’s see whether our partnership with America goes beyond singing, now that the Abus and Osama bin Laden’s Al-quaeda cells here have gained prominence in the worldwide terrorist network.

The American leadership however is difficult to comprehend, on the other hand. Now that the Afghan rebels of the Northern Alliance have taken the strategic city of Mazar-e-Sharif and are advancing south only 40 miles from the capital of Kabul, Mr. Bush is making strange noises about not wanting the Northern Alliance (composed largely of Tajiks, Uzbeks, and other tribal minorities) to capture Kabul – at least not yet.

Why? Because the Americans don’t want to offend the majority tribe of Pushtuns (Pathans) and their chief sponsor, Pakistan’s President Pervez Mushrraf? Make up your mind, George. Wage war, not politics.

The snows are already thick in the mountainous and rugged terrrain between Mazar-e-Sharif – which has a useful airfield – and Kabul. The Northern Alliance and other rebels, whatever their faults, must be helped to capture Kabul. This would be a real victory.

The problem is that if the offensive falters now, with the Americans dragging their feet, the Afghan rebel army won’t be able to punch their way through before hard winter sets in.

I can understand some of the considerations contributing to American hesitation. One of them is that they fear replacing the Taliban thugs with another set of thugs. General Abdul Rashid Dostum, one of the leading Northern Alliance chieftains, is a man who racked up a record for brutality in the past decade, and in fact fought on all sides in the 20-year Soviet campaign and the subsequent Civil War.

According to his own men, this Uzbek warrior once punished a soldier by having him tied to the tracks of a tank, then dragged around until the poor fellow succumbed to this merciless form of torture.

Dostum fought on the side of the Russians in the 1980s during the Soviet invasion and occupation, mind you, until he joined the Mujahideen government of Burhanuddin Rabbani. In January 1994, after falling out with Rabbani, General Dostum shelled Kabul.

In the ensuing "war" among Mujahideen factions, no less than 50,000 inhabitants of Kabul were killed, most of them civilians, before the Taliban took Kabul and assumed supremacy in Afghanistan.

Dostum is far from an admirable character, if truth be told. He is a brigand and warlord whose men, mainly Uzbeks, are notable not just for their ferocity in combat, but also for looting and raping. There is a distinct lack of wild rejoicing at Dostum’s "recapture" of Mazar-e-Sharif. When one of his deputies, in May 1997, General Malik Pahlawan, switched sides and joined the Taliban, Dostum defeated the Taliban forces in pitched battles which saw 3,000 of the Taliban attackers slain, and 3,600 taken prisoner. Some 2,000 of these "prisoners" were later tortured or starved to death, or executed. Dostum is truly no "angel." He fattened his own purse by ruthlessly taxing all traffic in his fieldom. He even established an airline, Balkh Air, to smuggle contraband goods in from Dubai. I guess Balkh Air is now back in business.

Dostum was compelled to flee to Turkey in 1998, when the Taliban captured Mazar-e-Sharif and went after him. He returned to Afghanistan from Turkey, which remains his chief backer, only earlier this year.

Do the other Northern Alliance leaders trust him? Not on your life. Dostum has broken "pacts" with them several times before. On the other hand, his generalship in the field is impressive.

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Even the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, who led the Northern Alliance with charisma and iron-will until he was assassinated last September 8 by a two-man suicide team (dispatched by bin Laden), was no angel. The two assassins had secured a rare "interview" with Massoud posing as Belgian TV reporters. The "cameraman" then set off the bomb which was concealed in his camera, blowing himself along with Massoud to kingdom come.

In any event, Massoud – called the "Lion of Panshir" – was a master tactician, but he and his men had earlier gained a notoriety for the "rape of Kabul." Gee whiz. Are there no heroes in Afghanistan, or is it merely because the "outside world" (including us) is composed of sissies and weaklings? Don’t tell me that cruelty, ferocity, treachery and double-dealing are what pass for heroism among the Afghans.

I can already see that the "peace", whatever shape it takes, will be more difficult than the "war." No wonder Bush hesitates. But he mustn’t. British Defense Secretary Geoffrey Hoon is right. Take Kabul first. With such a development (which doesn’t seem very likely in the next week), bin Laden – Hoon points out – will have fewer places in which to hide. The Taliban, though, are still far from down and out. Don’t break out the champagne yet.

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THE ROVING EYE . . . I hasten to correct a mistake which I made in yesterday’s column which was written at warp speed. As was pointed out, businessman Randy Limjoco is the main "inside man" of the French armaments firm of Thales (Thomson CSF), and is in the forefront of the huge radar deal being promoted by Thales but is still under wraps. The "agent" who represents the Night Vision Goggles (NVG) and Night Vision Scopes (NVS) subsidiary of Thales in the coming November 20 armed forces "bidding" is Rene Buenaventura. Sorry for the mix-up, mea culpa. The front man or resident "consultant" here for Thales is, of course, a Frenchman named Roger Ferrari (rhymes with the car). The buzz is that Thales has the inside track to get several juicy contracts. Has this advantage been reinforced by Thales having wined and dined "visiting" National Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes in Paris last weekend? Nothing is more persuasive than the power of "hospitality." . . . I wonder how the President will be able to cope with her punishing "last-minute" program before she leaves for the US and Mexico next Wednesday. To begin with, she’s in Jakarta meeting with Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri. (Ironically, it’s Megawati, a daughter of the late Strongman Sukarno, who has been asking GMA to stop our Moros from smuggling arms to Indonesian fundamentalists and Islamic fanatics. This confirms that we are one of the major "cell-sites" of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda bunch). Then GMA will rush home for her meeting with Blair which will be sandwiched in between her talks with the Vietnamese Prime Minister who is arriving tomorrow. A state banquet has been scheduled in Malacañang for the Vietnamese leader. Whew. What a schedule. . . But GMA has stamina. She has acquired poise. She manages to put a damper, in public anyway, on her legendary temper. Her whizzing about, however, reminds me of that old movie, "If it’s Wednesday, it must be Belgium." This Wednesday it will be San Francisco. Let’s see how big a safari the Chief Executive will be leading. Or did the movie title say, If it’s Thursday? Sometimes, memory plays tricks on you.