The sinister, sneaky plot to haul down our flag from the main street of the world

Yes, it’s still ongoing. I’m referring angrily to the sleek, sneaky and very profitable (for certain masterminds) conspiracy to sell off the Philippine Center on Fifth Avenue in New York City and some other choice and irreplaceable properties in the United States, including Washington DC and San Francisco. To help "cure" our huge budget deficit? Don’t give us that crap. Some wiseguys will make a killing.

Last week, I had a "tough talk" (forgive me for borrowing the term from Tim Sebastian of BBC) with our envoy to the US, Ambassador Alberto del Rosario. In our one-on-one, I warned him that if he along with Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho, aided and abetted the scheme to dispose of our strategically-located building and lot on the most important boulevard on earth, Fifth Avenue, thronged daily by emperors, kings, chiefs of state, wizards and tycoons, political leaders and bums, school kids, peasants and tourists from every corner of the globe, it would be tantamount to tearing down our flag from that privileged site.

Hundreds of other nations, whose banners don’t fly on that admired, universally-patronized avenue, have for decades seriously envied, and, indeed, often deeply resented our good fortune.

It was by stroke of luck that, many years ago, our government acquired that sovereign plot. If we sell it, or even more stealthily "lease it" (on a 25-year, or 50-year basis – salamabit!) to eager developers, this would be a betrayal of the Filipino people. Do I exaggerate? Let me put it in the bluntest form. If, by some flimflammery, financial switcheroo, hocus pocus, pious-sounding but swindling sleight-of-hand, officials in this administration who perpetuate this scam – whether President GMA lasts up to 2004, or is extended to 2007 – will be brought to book for it in the next administration. There is a strong possibility, after due investigation, that the shameless scamsters exposed will be arrested. Many have already told me they will see to that.

So, beware, gentlemen. You’re threading on very thin ice.

The President will have to be forewarned, as well, that if she approves this "fire sale", she may never be forgiven – not merely by this one but by future generations.

* * *

It’s tragic enough that during the Cory Administration, our government hastily "sold" off one of the choicest properties we have in the entire planet: The former Philippine Airlines building on Union Square, facing the monument to Admiral George Dewey, the victor of the Battle of Manila Bay.

It was a horrible mistake or was it worse than that? The "lucky" developers who snapped it up resold that same property months later for several times what they had paid. (Smells phoney, somehow, doesn’t it?)

We lost the honor of flying the flag of our country on San Francisco’s most popular plaza and in the beating heart of its shopping district, fronted by the best hotels and the superstores like Macy’s (Stockton at O’Farrell); and Saks Fifth Avenue (on 384 Post).

Now what? Camacho, Del Rosario, and Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas are contemplating the "bargain sale" of our only remaining, but almost as vital property in San Francisco, just around the corner from our lost Union Square advantage: The Philippine Consulate building on Sutter Street, diagonal to the famed Hyatt Union Square! Does lightning strike twice?

What’s the importance of Sutter Street? Well-known art galleries may line both sides of Sutter, but what’s really important is that the present consulate is accessible to the millions of Filipinos who live and work in S.F. and the Bay Area – e.g., San Jose, and nearby communities in California. (And our flag is still to be seen there, flapping in the breeze, by millions of tourists who flock to the area en route to Union Square and the shopping place like Gumps on Post, Brooks Brothers on Post, Shreve & Co at Grant, Wilkes Bashford, and Disney’s.

Don’t auction off our Sutter Street building! It may be somewhat run-down from neglect, but it’s still the last remaining structure of pride for our Pinoys and Pinays who inhabit what is also known, by coincidence, "Baghdad-by-the-Bay".

* * *

Another building which the GMA Government combine threatens to sell is the historic New York diplomatic building on 66th Street, where our envoy to the United Nations currently resides.

It is a beautiful residence, within walking distance (if our diplomats are energetic) of the UN itself. If we jettison this gem, our government will never find a better one elsewhere in N.Y. Certainly not our stupid Department of Foreign Affairs which, for decades, has made a racket of "renting" embassy and consular buildings all over the world, instead of buying them. So leave it alone!

Also threatened by the prospect of being placed on the auction block is our historic Philippine Embassy chancery at 1617 Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, DC. The Embassy has since moved to a newer building several blocks away, and, owing to the lack of concern of the past two Ambassadors, the old Chancery – so familiar to past Presidents, visiting Philippine diplomats, and solons, and in which so many memorable decisions had been made – has stood empty and unused for the past eight years. Let’s use it! Not, for God’s sake, sell it.

That structure is the patrimony of the Filipino nation – and we’ll never again find such a property within spitting distance of old Foggy Bottom, Capitol Hill, and the White House.

What are those GMA administration fast-break artists up to? Do they want to peddle the family heirlooms, then decamp with the cash – leaving the next, incoming Administration (just a year away) with nothing except ashes and memories? This would not merely smack of skull- duggery – it would show a shocking lack of delicadeza. To recapitulate: We must never sell the Philippine Center on Fifth Avenue (or "lease" it to greedy corporations already waiting in the wings), even if they cunningly promised to continue flying the Philippine flag – sanamagan, what a sordid deception! We must never dispose of the 66th Street residence.

We must never give up our old Philippine Embassy chancery on Massachusetts avenue, in Washington, DC. Within the Beltway, there are a few addresses which are finer. Our government’s "crime" thus far is that we haven’t been utilizing it. Let’s not compound that with a greater crime, the one of peddling it for a pittance – which "others" pocket the commission, without benefiting Juan de la Cruz.

We must keep "active" for the sake of our Filipino overseas residents and workers the Sutter Street building. (Don’t, by the way, touch our property in Roppongi, in Tokyo, either. It belongs to our people by way of War Reparations!)

These are the buildings which are non-negotiable.

Most of us, I believe, don’t care a fiddle or a fig about the properties in Chicago, Houston, or Seattle (Washington State). They have no historic value, and are not convenient for consular or diplomatic usage. But a good, not give-away-price, must be exacted for them.

I worry most of all about the Philippine Center, because it seems that a deal has already been hatched behind our collective backs by the "conspirators".

Ambassador del Rosario trotted out, when he met with this writer, interesting but, to my mind, unconvincing arguments for disposing of our building on New York’s Fifth Avenue.

He claimed it had been losing millions for years, its "tenants", mainly the DFA and other government agencies, had not been paying enough rent for years, many of their bills owed the building management had been unpaid. In addition, the City of New York was charging an overdue "tax" bill of more than $17.8 million, with the new New York Mayor Bloomberg threatening to sue Ambassador del Rosario for it. My reply to that song and dance is that we may appear to be buried under a mountain of debts and due taxes, but it is the duty of our sovereign government to stand fast – and fight it out in the American courts. We must not lose that Center. Even a pauper among nations is entitled to have one priceless jewel in its rags – and this is our flagpole on Fifth Avenue.

Of course, we’re bankrupt. But bankruptcy of spirit would be far worse than financial embarrassment – it would expose and intensify the rot in our national soul. If the sneak-artists and dealmakers get away with that disgusting Fifth Avenue caper, so glossily-camouflaged as a move to fend off New York City taxes or foreclosure (they cannot tax or seize what belongs to a sovereign foreign country) and "help" bridge our so-called P215-billion budget deficit – then, heaven help us.

If they attempt the deal, this is my counter-reply: Then, heaven help them!

* * *

Senator Ramon "Jun" Magsaysay and other solons, like Senator Manuel Villar, are right to object to the announced intent to sell those vital government properties in the US.

The Philippine Ambassadors’ Association, led by Ambassador Alfonso T. Yuchengco, its Chairman, and Ambassador Benjamin B. Domingo, its President, has already denounced the announced sale.

In a letter addressed to President Macapagal-Arroyo last April 7, "the Philippine Ambassadors and Consuls General who have served in the United States including the Philippine Embassy in Washington, DC, the Office of the Permanent Representative to the United Nations, the Philippine Consulate General in New York, the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco, California," and other retired Filipino diplomats, told the Chief Executive they "wish to register their objection to the disposal of said buildings which have served in good stead the Philippine Government and the three to four million Overseas Filipinos in the United States through the years".

The Philippine Ambassadors’ Association, which has its headquarters, incidentally, on the 2nd floor of the Foreign Affairs Building itself on Roxas Boulevard, categorically asserted: "If this plan is carried out, the damage of the good name of the Philippine Foreign Service is irreparable."

The envoys even referred to the newly-approved Absentee Voting Law. The group warned that the newly enfranchised overseas Filipino voters might troop to cast their ballots "in New York, Washington and San Francisco to find that their polling places had already been sold to private interests".

"By the way," the letter noted, "under international law, the Philippine Government cannot conduct political and sovereign acts within the premises which do not belong to them unless in the meantime we can rent space from somewhere else and register the same with the Department of State."

"Embassies and Consulate General premises," the Ambassadors observed, "are the show windows of the Philippine Government abroad . . . They need to be refurbished, but not sold."

Can any message be clearer? Take heed, Madam President! Be forewarned: Ambassador del Rosario, Finance Secretary Lito Camacho, and "Privatization Council" member, DTI Secretary Mar Roxas!

Don’t do it.