A nation of junketeers?

The next time the President travels – and I hope the next time is some months from now (there’s a mountain of problems to be solved at home) – she would do well to leave her stable of Senators and House of Representatives alalays behind.

Why does a Chief Executive on a "working visit" have to bring along so many people? You’d think we were a rich country, not a struggling "developing country" (translation, primitive Third World).

According to reports filed by the media persons in the group, the two houses of the legislature are well-represented. I’d say they were over-represented. Do American presidents tag along such an entourage of Senators and congressmen? Does George W. Bush? Did Bill Clinton? Does Britain’s Tony Blair drag members of Commons or the House of Lords along with him on his "anti-terrorists" peregrinations?

Again, based on journalists’ reports, President GMA’s party includes Senate President Franklin Drilon, Majority Leader Sen. Loren Legarda, Minority leader Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, and their respective spouses. Speaker Joe de Venecia is expected to catch up in Washington, DC today – but he, at least, has a reason for showing up. After the United States leg of visit, he’ll be escorting President Macapagal-Arroyo to Mexico where she will be addressing their fellow Social Democrats (or was it Christian Democrats)?

Indeed, in my humble opinion (that’s our usual Pinoy eccentric expression), the side-trip to Mexico was absolutely unnecessary. It’s nice to make friends with everybody, but there is a whole set of crises at home waiting to be addressed, from law and order, kidnapping, to the insurgency and other terrorist concerns. True, our ties to Mexico are historical and sentimental, but that was a visit that could have been deferred for better times.

It’s not that when you buy a VUSA (Visit USA) discounted ticket, a side-trip to nextdoor Mexico shouldn’t be missed. What is our President, after all, supposed to be doing? Presiding over our Republic, and leading us in our time of need, not making side-strips to the Land of Enchilladas and Burritos to deliver a speech. Let’s leave the orating to the Rotary guest speakers.

The President seems to have the impression, alas, that it’s her duty to be the country’s "salesman" (how do you express that in gender terms)? Who does she think she is: Fidel V. Ramos? Madam President, don’t let the travel bug bite you. Our problems are domestic – and urgent. We have to confront them, not dream of manna from heaven, or dole-outs and assistance from foreign friends like the US and Japan, for example.

After her admittedly important meeting with Mr. Bush in the White House, I wish the President would come home.

* * *

Those cellphone texters are at it again. During the past two days, the usual text agitators have been circulating silly messages slandering the Supreme Court by claiming that eight members of the High Tribunal could "free Erap" by declaring the Plunder Law unconstitutional. A group styling itself "Plunder Watch" says it will announce at a press conference today that tomorrow it is organizing a rally in front of the Supreme Court building on Padre Faura st., Manila. If such a rally goes ahead, it will obviously be timed to browbeat the Court since the Tribunal will be deliberating, in en banc session, the petition of former President Joseph Estrada against the Plunder Law.

What is disquieting is that tomorrow’s "Plunder Watch" rally may turn out to be a confrontation with a rally also being announced by the pro-Estrada group. This clash may be stirred into violence by troublemakers on either side.

That’s the dark legacy left us by the fact that People Power II, or EDSA DOS, was sanctified for the second time as a means of overthrowing a President. Ever since then, every congregation of people or pressure group with a grievance or an agenda tries to mobilize a demonstration or protest rally, striving to label it "people power." On the contrary, I say once more: it’s mob rule.

Given the series of noisy demonstrations which have been mounted in front of the Supreme Court by various groups ranging from labor to civil society, perhaps it was a mistake for the High Court to have set aside a memorandum circular issued by retired Chief Justice Andres Narvasa banning mass actions by whatever group within a radius or distance of 100 meters from the Court’s premises along Padre Faura. This memo was issued long before Narvasa became one of Estrada’s lawyers following his retirement. I didn’t agree with Narvasa on a number of other issues, but this prohibition was right. It does not negate the right of free expression to ban unruly mass actions from being held just across from a court of justice, specially the Supreme Court.

Instead of maligning Court Justices by hinting that they’ve been "persuaded" or "bought", why shouldn’t the mob – on either side – wait for the decision to be handed down? Then they can react and protest to their hearts’ content. The self-righteous ought to leave the Justices alone to cast their votes without attempting to intimidate them. What the so-called moral crusaders are doing is immoral: They seem to believe that theirs is the Divine mandate and Divine revelation to make sure, by hook or by crook, that the Supreme Court does what they consider the "right" thing.

That’s not democracy. That’s abuse.

* * *

The latest exposé of Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson can’t be swept under the rug. It must be observed that whether what he said in his privilege speech last Tuesday is true or false still remains to be proven. On the other hand, Lacson, who is a former Director-General of the Philippine National Police, has uttered specific accusations that cannot go unanswered.

For instance, Lacson alleged that some ranking police officials collect between P1 million and P4 million a month from jueteng protection money. That’s a harsh and serious indictment.

It would, of course, have been more convincing if it had been made without the senator having, by the forum in which he hurled it, cloaked himself in parliamentary immunity. Just as the allegations against him by ISAFP (Intelligence) Chief Col. Victor Corpuz fizzled out because hard evidence still hasn’t been presented in court, Lacson’s attack on his former fellow police generals must be established by proof, not mere tsismis.

On the other hand, Lacson has never been one to mince words. When he was police chief, he angered many fellow cops by exposing the fact that 300 stolen cars and other vehicles were being used by them and their families. He ordered the vehicles seized from the crooked policemen and returned. Lacson did not follow this up by clapping the offending cops in irons and making them pay for their crime – for that was a crime.

Let‘s face it: Lacson may be accused of a multitude of "crimes", but there’s no fudging the fact that when he was PNP Director-General, kidnapping and crime went down. In addition, the extorting kotong-kotong traffic policemen disappeared from the streets. Are these hoodlums with badges "back in business" again?

These things don’t make Lacson a candidate for canonization to sainthood – he’s being cannonaded instead. But facts are facts.

* * *

The Taliban may be encircled and fighting for their lives, but this doesn’t guarantee "peace" for Afghanistan where war has raged for 23 years. It simply means that we’re back to the situation five years ago, where various warlords ruled the roost in specific provinces.

Former President Burhannuddin Rabbani, who had ruled ineffectively and had been chased out by the Taliban, is back in Kabul occupying the government offices there. Rabbani claims he doesn’t intend to seize power anew and will help the establishment of a broad-based government, but possibly those mild statements are meant to appease the Americans and the coalition Allies – for the moment – until Rabbani consolidates his own power. This doesn’t seem likely, on the other hand, since the other powerful members of the Northern Alliance have their own ambitions.

The Uzbek chieftain, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, has regained his fiefdom of Marz-e-Sharif. The veteran Mujahideen commander Ismail Khan once more controls the city of Herat and its environs. Soon, I fear, Afghanistan will be back to its old business, too – that of supplying 75 percent of the world’s supply of opium. Even while claiming to have stopped poppy cultivation, the Taliban earned $15 million to $27 million annually from taxes levied on opium production. (This did not include profits made from trading drugs themselves.) The Taliban’s revenue per year from opium ranged from $40 million to $50 million.

With a new "Board of Directors" in place, do you think this practice will stop? Are you kidding?