When a President prays

Almost all eyes yesterday were on the burial of screen idol Rico Yan. Not much else seemed to matter to thousands of grieving fans who caused a traffic jam on EDSA as they joined the funeral procession, while scores of thousands more, I’m sure, watched on television.

It’s fine that Rico was much-admired. He was a clean-cut young man who represented earnestness and clean and honest values in a profession notorious for cynicism, debauchery, scandalous behavior, and many forms of vice. Yet, at about the same time, 16 Filipino overseas workers were killed in an accident in Dubai (a flooding of a drydock in which they worked) – and that tragedy merited only a brief mention in the inside pages. Wednesday night, the bodies of the first nine victims arrived without fanfare, although it’s notable and admirable that President Macapagal-Arroyo met the Emirates Airlines flight on which the "remains" arrived and condoled with the families of the victims.

How many people went to the funerals of those OFWs whom we always call our country’s "heroes"?

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On ANC television news a few days ago, I watched defrocked priest Luis Jalandoni, the head of the National Democratic Front (NDF), being interviewed. Jalandoni defended the "right" of the NDF’s military wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), to continue collecting "revolutionary taxes". This was a matter, Father Jalandoni declared, that was not negotiable.

He also reminded TV listeners that for the NDF and NPA, "surrender" was never a part of the peace negotiations and had been ruled out even before any talks began.

If the Communist rebels won’t stop their extortion and blackmail (amounting to millions of pesos), which they call "revolutionary taxes", and have no intention at all of "surrendering" to the government, why on earth is our government conducting "peace talks" with them at all? They don’t promise peace. All they obviously are promising is more trouble if we don’t surrender to their wishes.

The "taxes" imposed by those ruthless NPA outlaws are what ruin business, destroy agricultural progress, and scare away "investment" (whether domestic or foreign) all over our archipelago. If owners of fishponds, farms, or plantations don’t pay up, they get murdered. If bus operators don’t pay up, their vehicles get torched by the rebels, costing them losses in millions of pesos. During election time, if politicians don’t cough up the required "fees" in NPA-dominated bailiwicks, they’re not even allowed to campaign. If they defy this prohibition, the penalty is a bullet in the head.

Since the NDF and the NPA have signified that they won’t give these vicious activities up, what’s the use of our government peace panelists returning to any prospective talks, whether in Oslo or Timbuctoo?

It’s good that the Oslo peace talks broke down. Let’s not be so stupid as to strive to revive them. The rebel leaders, or bandit chieftains as it’s more appropriate to call them, have everything to gain in the form of concessions – while they’ve already nixed giving anything in return. They’ve already gained one thing from our over-eager government: "recognition". What they want is that the government also recognize that the territory they "occupy" belongs to them, and that they’re a parallel "government" in the places where they "rule". That, shorn of all the frosting on the cake, is what they’re demanding.

We’re just wasting our time – and, worse than that, squandering our hopes. They’re not discussing "peace". What they insist on is winning. In that case, we have no choice: either we cave in, or we fight. Only after we’ve beaten them on the battlefield will those troublemakers and blackmailers be ready to plead for peace.

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In Zambales yesterday, I had a chance to talk to some officers whose brigades are actively involved in fighting the NPA in Zambales and Bataan. They told me that the guerrillas remain active in those sectors but the Army is resolutely checkmating and throwing them back.

Among the hotbeds they identified were some municipalities in Zambales, and the Samal area in Bataan. One colonel, who’s a veteran as well of the Mindanao wars (including Basilan), and another colonel (who had led the armored column which rushed to the relief of Ipil town in Zamboanga when it was attacked, pillaged and burned by 200 Abu Sayyaf and Moro Islamic Liberation Front mujahideen), said that the NPA continue using children as "human shields" whenever they retreat. The rebels, when being pursued, seize nearby kids and drag them along to prevent the Army pursuers from firing on them.

While attention is focused on Basilan, Zamboanga, and other trouble-spots on the Mindanao mainland, let’s not forget that our armed forces are embattled elsewhere – in Luzon and the Visayas. I’ll bet that some of the cadets who’ve just graduated from the Philippine Military Academy already find themselves in combat situations today. The PMA is one college whose graduates are assured of full employment – in the business of shooting, and sometimes dying.

They’re underpaid, of course.

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Yesterday, the President took time off from her hectic schedule to undertake a pilgrimage to the Mt. Pinatubo Hidden Temple Shrine on Palan Hill, in San Marcelino town, Zambales.

At the shrine, which was put up after the terrible 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption, the President prayed for guidance, for our people, for unity, and that "spiritual values" be paramount in our nation. She also thanked "Our Lord of Love and Redemption", whose 13-foot high statue dominates the open-air shrine for the opportunity to visit the shrine on the occasion of her birthday.

When a President prays, we’re confident, she speaks right into the ear of God. For she represents the hopes and fears, the aspirations and needs of our people.

GMA, who arrived by helicopter from the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Angeles, Pampanga, also prayed to "Our Praying Blessed Mother of Mt. Pinatubo", who accompanies her Son at that hilltop dambana, which stands just above the lahar-covered riverbed nearby.

The shrine has been described as "the altar of the nation." Now that the Chief Executive has offered her prayers at that altar, we trust that she has been "energized" to solve the problems of today and the challenges that lie ahead.

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The European Union is rushing a delegation to Palestine and Israel for the purpose of trying to get the Israelis to withdraw their forces from Ramallah, Bethlehem, Nablus and the West Bank territories the IDF now occupies, and stop them from attacking the Gaza strip, or areas within Lebanon where they’ve identified Hezbollah targets. In short, what the Europeans want is to broker a "ceasefire" between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Sure, as I’ve said in this corner for weeks, the belligerent Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is both a "hawk" and – let’s face it – a jerk. But that having been said, can the Israelis be bullied by "world opinion" into withdrawing their armed forces from rampaging in retaliation and rage all over the West Bank and Gaza – and anywhere else they believe the "suicide bombers" and Palestinian gunmen are coming? The Israelis, even though many will say it’s through their own fault and hubris, feel they have their backs to the wall. They’ve no other option except to hit out, even if their military offensive won’t deter (they also realize that) the suicide-bombers.

As for the Europeans, I don’t believe anything they say or any threats they may make will cut any ice with the Israelis at this desperate stage. The Jews believe the Europeans dislike them anyway, and, besides, major Western countries have large Muslim immigrant populations capable of mounting big anti-Jewish rallies and even "hits" on synagogues as well.

Dan Rather of CBS, a veteran analyst of world affairs, was quite accurate in his assessment, made from Jerusalem the other day, that what the Israelis worry about is not European opinion, or Arab opinion, or anybody else’s opinion, but of what Americans are thinking. By the same token, the US can’t get away from it: the Americans are classified as Israel’s only friends.

Perhaps the reason Washington, DC, for its part, is waffling over the question of forcing Israel to withdraw its IDF and agree to a "ceasefire" is because, deep down, the global "anti-terrorist" George W. Bush knows that – when the chips are down – only the Israelis will side with him in the Middle East. It’s not a happy situation for Dubya Bush and his crew, but that’s how – to use that hackneyed expression – the cookie crumbles.

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ERRATUM . . . I don’t know how such things happen. Our opinion page editor must be fascinated with vampires, because my concluding paragraph yesterday was mangled. I had expressed surprise that former hardline Israeli Prime Minister "Bibi" Netanyahu was now offering himself as a mere moderate alternative to the present P.M. Sharon. What I wrote after that was: "This is a choice between Frankenstein’s legendary monster and the Werewolf of London to play Horatius at the Bridge – while Godzilla batters at the Gate." To my astonishment, the editor had added one more monster. Here’s how my column came out, as published: "This is a choice between Dracula’s legendary monster Frankenstein and the Werewolf of London . . . Sanamagan, how did Dracula get into the picture? Dr. Frankenstein, the obsessed scientist who fashioned his "monster" out of body parts mustn’t be confused with Dracula, the vampire. Even those who don’t read books, but only watch the movies or re-runs of the late, late show, know that.