Is peeing on your tire in public making a statement?

Now I’ve seen everything! This was my astonished reaction a few days ago when I saw a passenger bus suddenly stop on EDSA, not far from the corner of Ayala avenue in Makati, blocking the lane completely. The driver got out, walked to the front right tire of his vehicle, then began urinating on the tire – in full view of everybody.

Then, he zipped up, got leisurely back into the driver’s seat, and went on his smoke-belching way. I had my mouth so agape as my car passed this bizarre spectacle that I was too far away when I recovered from my fit of combined laughter and indignation to note down the license plate or even company name of the insolent driver’s vehicle.

The problem was that nobody from the Traffic Management Group (TMG) or a traffic aide seems to have spotted the incident. I only know that the cheeky driver should have been arrested, and his license confiscated, at least for blocking the traffic (it was the permanent rush hour), if not for . . . well, "public exposure" of his bird, or littering the street with his piss. There must be a law or regulation covering such things.

In the old days, when the horse-drawn calesa was still running around and the cochero was "king of the road", only the horse was entitled to urinate (and defecate) in public.

The EDSA incident is a sign of the times. The breakdown of law and order. Or the public indifference to law. Take your pick.

* * *

I think our politicians, and even Kuya Eddie Ramos, are being over-sensitive to the remarks made in his Tuesday "State of the Union" address by US President George W. Bush about pushing the global war on terrorism beyond Afghanistan to a dozen countries that, he said, harbor terrorist camps, including the Philippines.

After a few indignant snorts, our former President, General Tabako, said that Bush should visit the Philippines so he could see how peaceful it is here (why, we even foiled assassination plots against Bill Clinton and the Pope, he reminded Bush). FVR offered to be Bush’s "tourist guide" here – then he left for Jakarta.

My suggestion to all those frothing at the mouth, including Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos, the attractive offspring of the late Apo Ferdinand E. Marcos, is to lighten up. Imee exclaimed that the Bush statement "is frightening because it tells us that America will come in whether we like it or not."

C’mon, Ma’am. The Americans are already here – and our government invited them to come. So, all this post-facto debate only sounds like mere grand-standing and posturing. And, beside, didn’t Imee’s own dad not glory in being a pal of then US President Ronald Reagan, an ally and supporter of America – and even sent an Army battalion disguised as a "Philippine Civic Action Group" (Philcag) to support the Americans and South Vietnamese in the Vietnam War?

In fairness to Apo Macoy, when this writer voiced my very strong objections to our sending Filipino troops to join the war in Vietnam, he politely invited me to air my objections before him and the AFP General Staff in Malacañang, based on my experience in covering the Vietnam War. For almost two hours, Macoy and the generals patiently listened as I warned that the Americans were simply trying to suck us into that quagmire, which was getting bloodier by the week.

"But I’m sending only one battalion," Marcos replied.

"Mr. President," I retorted, "the Americans know us very well. They’ll assign our battalion to one of the danger zones, which will practically ‘invite’ the Vietcong to attack and inflict heavy casualties on our soldiers." I added: "If our battalion gets decimated or even wiped out, we’ll react in anger – as we usually do – and send a regiment, then afterwards an entire division.

"Before we know it, we’ll be fully committed as participants in that meat-grinder of a war."

Well, Marcos sent the battalion, anyway – a mestizo-type contingent of uh, military engineers. It was tasked not to seek combat but rebuild bridges, fix roads, etc. The administrative officer of the Philcag, which was headed by General Gaudencio E. Tobias, was a Major Fidel V. Ramos. In those days, FVR really lit his cigar.

True enough, the Saigon government and the Americans assigned our Philcag to Tay Ninh which is right smack against the Cambodian border – but, more significantly, was only a few miles away from the headquarters and nerve-center of the Vietcong, which was Nui Baden or Black Lady Mountain. (Incidentally, the Vietcong didn’t call themselves V.C. That was the name given them by their enemy, the South Vietnamese. They called themselves COSVN, or Liberation Committee of South Vietnam, or Liberation Army of South Vietnam.)

The Vietcong were clever, though. Aside from a few mortar attacks, even during the February 1968 "Tet" (New year) Offensive, and a couple of ambushes, they never assaulted the Philcag camp, or attacked our Filipino troops in force. Their master-planner, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, a former history teacher, by the way, perhaps didn’t want to draw another combatant nation (the Australians and Korean "Tigers" were already deeply involved) into the war. And so, our Philcag men (including Captains Joe Magno, Gidaya, Joe Almonte, etc.) came home happily unscathed and covered with glory to become generals and take over the running of our military establishment. Up to a few years ago, the ex-Philcag Mafia controlled our armed forces, and are now serenely members of the Last Watering Hole.

And no wonder writer James Hamilton-Paterson (the Whitbread Award-winning author of Gerontius) gave his 1998 biography of Marcos and A Century of Colonialism in the Philippines the jaunty title of America’s Boy.

Like they always say: It’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

* * *

The Department of Foreign Affairs announced the other day that it had to temporarily stop issuing new Philippine passports because, out of miscalculation, it had run out of blank passport booklets.

It’s no wonder. So many blank passports have been stolen over the years, by the box – mind you – that every Tom, Dick, Terrorist or Yakuza must be toting a fake Filipino passport on a genuine and official-looking booklet, complete with watermarks.

I was reminded of this when I came across a New York Times article by Raymond Bonner and Seth Mydans (the latter used to cover the Philippines up to EDSA I) datelined Singapore, January 25.

The story, headlined " ‘Sleeper Cells’ in Singapore Show al-Qaeda’s Long Reach", had the following opening paragraph: "Shortly after the United States began bombing Afghanistan on Oct. 7, a 30-year old Indonesian traveling on a false Filipino passport slipped into this tightly-controlled city-state carrying a plan to strike back at America."

His mission, it turned out, was to activate a "sleeper cell" of Islamic militants, loosely organized for eight years, to initiate a plan "to blow up the embassies of the United States, Israel, Australia and Britain . . ." The plot was foiled when Singaporean authorities arrested 13 members of the group.

"During questioning, officials say, they described a well-organized network stretching across Southeast Asia and perhaps into Australia," the article continued. "The early glimpses uncovered by authorities in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore suggest that the network rivaled in reach and sophistication the one formed by Osama bin Laden’s lieutenants in Europe."

"Just last week," the piece pointed out, "the Philippines seized a cache of rifles, explosives and bomb-making equipment believed to have been part of the plot. Investigators are continuing to examine the Singapore group’s links to Islamic militants in Malaysia, who investigators say served as the regional organizers for al-Qaeda."

So there.

In the case of the Singapore "cell", the NYT revealed that, "leading outwardly normal lives that gave no cause for suspicion", they succeeded in concealing its existence. However, "investigators say at least eight were trained by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. They avoided contact with well-known Islamic organizations and were not even known to be active members of local mosques. They communicated with code words, according to a statement by the government of Singapore."

The operation was set in motion "when two foreigners, the Indonesian and a Kuwaiti travelling on a false Canadian passport, arrived with orders, ‘The switch was thrown,’ said one Western diplomat."

The article points out that when our Philippine authorities arrested "Mike", the Indonesian, he was identified as Fathur Rahman al-Ghozi and it was discovered that he had three Philippine passports aside from an Indonesian one.

The first hints about the "cell" came to light after September 11 when a local source told Singapore’s Internal Security Dept. about a Singaporean of Pakistani descent who had ties to al-Qaeda. The suspect, Muhammad Aslam Yar Ali Khan, was placed under surveillance, but he suddenly left Singapore for Pakistan on October 4. "He was later seized by Northern Alliance forces in Afghanistan, leading investigators to focus on his associates in Singapore."

It reads like an espionage novel: "The arrests began on December 9, and a few days later, a videotape was found in an abandoned house in Kabul, Afghanistan, on which a narrator described where in Singapore bombs could be hidden to attack Americans. Investigators here (in Singapore) searched the homes of those detained and found an identical videotape."

The new finding "shows a very direct link between the Gamaa Islamiyah group detained here and al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan," the Home Affairs Minister, Wong Kan Seng, said in a statement this week.

An organizational chart prepared by the Singaporean investigators reveals that the group is led by Abdus Samad, a pseudonym for Abu Bakar Baasyir, "a hard-line Islamic teacher in Indonesia who said in a statement this week that he admired Mr. bin Laden and was not a terrorist."

Al-Ghozi, the guy arrested here, it develops, had studied at Baasyir’s religious school in Indonesia for eight years. The oldest of four children, al-Ghozi left home when he was 12 to attend that Islamic school or madrassa where Baasyir teaches. After graduating, his mother Rukama says, he left Indonesia, telling his family that he was going to study in Pakistan.

If you’ll recall, that’s the same story the "arrested" American Taliban now on trial in the US and those two "British" citizens also arrested as Taliban and possible al-Qaeda in Afghanistan (now languishing in Camp X-Ray in the US Guantanamo Base in Cuba) told their families.

Let’s take a closer look at the many madrassas or Islamic schools operating in Mindanao – what some are teaching may not just be the Holy Qu’ran.

* * *

Those who are pontificating about the "illegality" of US troops being here ought to do their homework. They keep on talking about the prohibitions and "time limits" set by the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the violation of the Constitution posed by a US military presence.

The Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), whose constitutionality was long ago upheld by the Supreme Court in a decision issued on October 16, 2000 (penned by Justice Arturo Buena), defines the treatment of US troops and personnel visiting the Philippines. It provides the guidelines to govern the entry and stay of US military personnel, and further defines the rights of the Philippine government and the US in the matter of criminal jurisdiction, movement of vessels and aircraft, importation and exportation of equipment, materials and supplies.

The VFA, which consists of a Preamble and nine articles with 27 items and 22 sub-items provides for the duration and termination of the agreement itself, but the VFA is silent on the duration of the visits and stay of US troops in Philippine territory.

This obscurity, when you examine it more scrupulously, gives the perception that the duration of the stay in our country of US troops could even be "open-ended." Now, how could our alert Senators have overlooked that when they ratified the agreement?

In fact, they weren’t asleep on the subject. The exchange of remarks during the public hearings in the Senate, particularly when Sen. "Nene" Pimentel interrogated then Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr., is very interesting. Pimentel, in the course of the interrogation, asked Siazon: "In other words, this kind of activities are not designed to last only within one year, for example the various visits, but can cover eternity until the treaty is abrogated?"

To this, Jun Siazon replied: "Well, Your Honor, this is an exercise for the protection of our national security, and until conditions are such that there is no longer a possible threat to our national security, then you will have to continue exercising, Your Honor, because we cannot take a chance on it."

Pimentel exclaimed: "So this will be temporarily permanent, or permanent temporarily?"

Siazon’s answer was: "Permanent temporarily, Your Honor."

If this is so, the Americans can be allowed to operate, jointly with our Armed Forces, on a "permanent temporarily" basis in Mindanao and wherever else agreed upon in our territory. Di ba?

Aside from the fractured English of that dialogue in the Senate, when the VFA was being discussed, this is very revealing.

* * *

The truth is that many in the ranking echelons of our officer corps, including a number of generals, are unhappy that the Americans have entered the game. If the Balikatan "exercise", even if the Americans are supposed to be in the role of mere "trainors", should succeed in flushing out and crushing the Abu Sayyaf (hopefully, rescuing their two American hostages and one Filipino captive as well), credit in the public mind will go to the Americans.

In short, our generals and their officers tried for years, but failed. There’s no fudging that. As for our exhausted and exasperated people, particularly the harassed citizens of Mindanao, who cares about who gets the credit – or the blame? Just get the Abus, then argue about the details later. One thing is sure: We’ll not talk the Abus to death.

Last year, President GMA warned the Abus: "Isang bala ka lang!" (This defies translation, but means something like: "All we need to finish you is one bullet!"

Many bullets later, the Abus are still there, sneering at all of us. Go, get ‘em. Tapos.