Everybody should get into the act

Stung to the quick by criticisms that San Juan, his bailiwick, was becoming a very unsafe place, Mayor JV Ejercito (who everybody knows is Erap’s son) lit a fire under the San Juan police to identify, track down, and arrest the robbery gang which had been preying on restaurants and small eateries in his town – as well as in neighboring communities.

Yesterday was JV’s time to crow. He announced on radio that the "good news" is that the San Juan cops, under PNP Col. Rodrigo P. de Gracia, their chief of police, had "solved" the robberies of the Port Area Grill (July 31) and the Mann Hann Chinese restaurant (June 4).

He and the police later put the arrested suspects on display (along with the weapons captured from the rascals) – namely, Reynante Salvacion, 23, of Makati; Dexter Sarren, 29, of Caloocan; Jay Canlas of Manila; Emerito Lague, 34, of Makati; and Gino Mahinay, 32, of Cainta, Rizal.

This just goes to show that if there’s a will, there’s a way.

It also demonstrates that President GMA’s habit of parading arrested robbers, rebels, and assorted criminals is also catching. What the heck. Perhaps, although we may deplore the Chief Executive’s non-stop "photo opportunism", some good may yet come of it. Mayors and other local officials are being provoked to follow the leader – or, conversely, compete. JV’s counter-display of captured criminals may be viewed by some as an attempt to prove that the "opposition" is also engaged in a war against crime. That’s the wrong way of looking at it. Everybody’s involved in the battle against criminality; and I’m glad, for one, that a spirit of competition has been provoked. Everybody must get into the act. The stakes are your safety and mine – and those of our neighbors.

Senator Rodolfo Biazon may have a point in carping that the President’s putting arrested suspects on exhibit, already wearing tangerine "detainee’s" garb, is unjust – and, as he alleges, "preempts" the justice system. But the fact is that our people are sick and tired of a justice system that moves too slowly, or, for that matter, often moves not at all.

As for that so-called violation of "human rights", such howls of dismay find little sympathy in a land where citizens and their beleaguered families cringe in fear of the hoodlums, robbers, kidnappers, killers, carjackers, and rapists in our midst. When the public begins to feel that "human rightists" are more tenderly concerned with the rights of their tormentors and the criminals and rebels who make life almost unbearable in our society than with the rights of the victims, they’ll declare: "The hell with human rights!" This is what is already being said.

It’s a sad development, but when the Bad Guys seem to be winning over the Good Guys, all forebearance, civility, and patience fly out the window. When the issue is life or death, and we're embroiled in a fight for survival, citizens will always prefer the mailed fist to a "rule of law" that appears to protect the lawless rather than the law-abiding.

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The President is right to instruct the Department of Justice, through DOJ Secretary Nani Perez, to go after three Regional Trial Court (RTC) judges for issuing temporary restraining orders (TROs), favoring suspected smugglers of rice and illegal drugs. Her predecessor, ex-President Joseph Estrada, had vowed to go after "hoodlums in robes", but this didn’t happen during his admittedly abbreviated administration.

Of particular interest is the instance in which 35,000 sacks of rice were apprehended being unloaded in Tabaco, Albay, in September last year. The President underscored yesterday that before the Bureau of Customs could seize the rice shipment, Judge Arnulfo Cabredo of the Tabaco RTC – swiftly granting the petition of the consignees, Antonio Chua and Carlos Cariño – issued a TRO, "restraining" the Customs people from detaining the smuggled shipment. Thus, GMA noted, the offending vessel, MV Christian (whatta name!), managed to escape without proper clearances from the port.

In sum, the Chief Executive is determined not merely to prosecute smugglers but their "friendly" judges, too. She has to enlist the assistance of the Supreme Court and the Court Administrator, as well, as I’m sure her legal advisers have reminded her. But equally important – perhaps, even more important – is that GMA, as the appointing power, must be more careful in choosing those she will designate during her administration not just to the judiciary but to prosecutors’ offices all over the land.

In this, she must look into the credentials, experience, integrity and reputation of each candidate for appointment, not be swayed by the clout or influence of their political padrinos. For any "mistakes" she might make during her term will haunt not merely the record of her administration but bedevil the administration of justice in our country for many years to come.

When she wages "total war", as she declared in her State of the Nation Address last July 22, on kidnappers, smugglers, robbers, and criminal syndicates, this must include waging war on the corrupt judges who help criminals evade punishment or cynically obstruct the operation of the law.

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Speaking of rampant rice smuggling which permits nearby countries to dump their untaxed surpluses in our country, thus destroying the livelihood of our rice farmers, what’s been done about the recent case of the MV Rodeo, the vessel which was "caught" last July 11 unloading 17,000 sacks of foreign rice, valued at P17 million, in the Lumbocan Government Wharf in the port of Masao, Butuan City?

The ship, when its contraband shipment was apprehended, managed to break its moorings and simply sailed away – in short, tumakas.

According to Rep. Leovigildo B. Banaag (1st Dist., Agusan del Norte, which includes Butuan City-Las Nieves)789, the captain of the vessel was a certain Major Patron Inocencio Salmero, and the Chief Mate a certain Fortunato Elemento. Surely, these individuals must have been traced and interrogated by now by the authorities – or have they gotten away scot-free?

And what about SAM Shipping Lines, a company based in Cebu City, which reportedly owns the wayward freighter? Has any official or owner of that firm been investigated?

In a privilege speech delivered as early as last July 24, Congressman Banaag noted that the MV Rodeo had docked in Masao at 7 p.m. July 11, a Thursday and begun discharging its cargo of rice – then, managed to sail off at about 2:30 p.m. the following day, Friday, July 12, without the Philippine Port Authority (PPA), Bureau of Customs, the Philippine Coast Guard, the Philippine National Police and our other legal guardians managing to prevent this broad-daylight escape!

What Banaag further complained about was that, of the "smuggled" 17,000 sacks of rice, "only 595 sacks of rice were recovered." Whaat? According to the congressman, this portion of the shipment was confiscated thanks to Butuan City Mayor Leonides Theresa B. Plaza, who had directed the local PNP Task Force Pacer to seize the 595 sacks and take them "for safekeeping" in the city hall compound. What happened, then, to the rest of the bigger shipment? I think the Presidential Task Force Against Rice and Sugar Smuggling, and the National Bureau of Investigation who is supposed to have conducted an inquiry into the incident, ought to report their conclusions to the public.

There’s more than meets the eye to that incident in Butuan City.

* * *

Press Secretary Ignacio "Toting" Bunye didn’t do his boss, President Macapagal-Arroyo, any good by emphasizing to the media, in his press briefing, that GMA had told visiting US Secretary of State that the United States had to "pay back" or "reciprocate" her administration for its all-out support to the US-led global campaign against terrorism.

Sus, Toting. You made GMA sound like a mercenary, or some greedy beggar with her begging bowl out, crying, "Gimme, gimme!"

As a result, most of the newspaper and other media reports cast the President in a materialistic light. As one daily bannered: "Gloria to US: You owe us." Another also banner headlined: "Gloria duns Powell for price of support." Its subhead: "Says it’s payback time for the political risks she took."

Sanamagan. We’ve had Gloria Lavandera, Ate Glo, Gloria Mataray, but now the picture being dispensed is that of Gloria Matakao. Of course, there’s a quid pro quo for everything in this world, but the way my sources briefed me, the meeting between the President and Powell was not only upbeat and cheerful, but full of good humor. There was no snarling GMA at that Malacañang confab, demanding cash or aid, or peevishly bawling Powell out over how badly America was treating Philippine tuna, while giving preferential treatment to Andean tuna, from countries like Ecuador and Colombia. If there was horse-trading or "scolding", it was in a jocular, light-hearted. The way I heard, Powell left feeling pretty good, and under the impression that Filipinos were among America’s "best friends" in Asia – if not America’s best friends, bar none.

If there’s anything GMA achieved by her phone-pal relationship with US President George W. Bush, following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, was the resurrection of the warmth that used to characterize Fil-American relations until the Philippine Senate, with 12 senators voting "nay", rightly kicked the US out of its bases here in 1991. The Americans reacted to this rejection in a very stupid, arrogant and resentful fashion – freezing the Philippines out of its circle of friends, drastically slashing aid and military assistance, halting the recruitment of Filipinos for the US Navy (where, before, Filipino naval recruits had numbered in the tens of thousands). Even the admission of Filipino cadets to the US Military Academy was curtailed – although currently we now have two cadets in West Point.

The radicals and Leftists, of course, are shouting that we’re witnessing a fresh wave of American "imperialism" and a return of "colonialism", thanks to GMA – but heck, they’ll always sing that refrain.

Coming back to Toting Bunye’s spin on the Gloria-Colin meeting, sorry Toting – but you blew it.

In his bestselling 1995 autobiography, My American Journey, the former four-star General Powell had underscored the importance of dealing with the media, particularly in time of war, such as the Gulf War. On page 529, he recalled: "By the time (Dick) Cheney, Norm (referring to Operation Desert Storm commander, Gen. "Stormin’ Norman" Schwarzkopf and I went on television, we understood the dynamics. We were talking not only to the press assembled in front of us; we were talking to four other audiences – the American people, foreign nations, the enemy, and our troops. I would never, for example, say anything for domestic consumption and ignore its impact on Iraq or vice-versa."

Even more emphasis was put on choosing a military spokesperson to meet the press during the Gulf War. "In the twenty-four-hour coverage of the TV world, we could no longer put just anyone, no matter how well informed in front of the cameras . . . (s) we auditioned military spokespersons."

The one they finally chose was Lt. Gen. Tom Kelly.

How was Toting Bunye chosen? If he’s not up to speed now, I hope he’s a fast learner. He was a good mayor of Muntinlupa (even if – the joke goes – more than half of his constituents were in Bilibid prison). But he’s in the big time now. Everything he says reflects on the President. This "bringing home the bacon" stuff just doesn’t improve her image – which still needs improving.