The Burnham ‘bombshell’ reveals only the tip of corruption among the brass

Yesterday, officials, generals, and politicians conducted a frantic search of bookshops all over Metro Manila for a copy of former Abu Sayyaf hostage Gracia Burnham’s newly-released book, In the Presence of My Enemies, recounting her ordeal, that of her slain husband’s, and the other hostages during her 377-day captivity by those terrorist-kidnappers. The hunt turned out not a copy – the book hasn’t gotten here yet.

I was informed that Defense Secretary Angelo T. Reyes, who’s now in Washington, DC, sent his aides to search high and low to get a copy of the . . . well, personal memoir of the tragedy cum exposé of collusion between the vicious Abus and some of the officers in our military. At this writing, the SND had not managed to acquire one.

Who’s this Philippine general the gentle Ms. Gracia indicated was negotiating for a 50 percent share of any ransom? The outraged denials from our military top brass only fuel widespread public conviction here – not just suspicion – that there was big money involved in the Army "bungling" in Lamitan, Basilan, which enabled the Abu kidnappers/killers to escape the "cordon of steel" with which our troops had trapped them – with 19 of their bedraggled Dos Palmas hostages in tow, including poor Martin and Gracia Burnham and the ill-starred American Guillermo Sobero (who was later beheaded) plus an added hostage seized in the Lamitan hospital, nurse Ediborah Yap. The unfortunate Ms. Yap suffered greatly in the succeeding year of cruel captivity, and died in the final "rescue" denouement.

The ASG went on to humiliate our country by a year-long kidnapping spree that resulted in the brutal killing of 18 of the 102 hostages they took along the way.

All of this because of the alleged corruption of some officers who pocketed a tidy sum for letting the Abus "escape" in a very strange manner. A very strange escape, for that matter, was that of the only three who managed to "get away" from the clutches of the Abus in Lamitan: Multimillionaire Reghis Romero II, a lady companion, and her little boy. Reghis, quizzed in House and Senate committee inquiries, denied paying any ransom. Sus, how can that be?

Gracia’s literary "bombshell" revives the charges of Lamitan parish priest, Father Cirilo Nacorda, who not only openly accused Col. Jovenal Narcise, the then commander of 103rd Army brigade, but also a brigadier general, a major from the 18th Infantry Battalion, and two captains of getting millions in bribe money so they would let the Abu Sayyaf thugs escape – with their despairing captives into the bargain.

The mysterious "breakthrough" out of the AFP cordon, which occurred on June 2, 2001, after the Abus had been trapped in Lamitan’s St. Peter's Church and the Don Jose Maria Torres Memorial Hospital remains, for all time, I submit, a Day of Infamy.

I suspect the reason so many officers are desperately scouring local bookshops and those in the United States for a copy is because they might have been mentioned in the book.

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The President yesterday, at an early-morning briefing in Malacañang, angrily threw down a sheaf of strategic papers prepared for her by her state visit planning group. Then she fumed: "What's this thing about an invitation to President Bush’s Crawford Ranch that Max Soliven wrote about? I didn’t know about it!"

WHAT? THEY DARED TO REJECT IT WITHOUT CONSULTING THE PRESIDENT? The next question is: Who were they?

The President is too kind. In any other administration, heads would roll.

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Speaker Joe de Venecia and Senator Edgardo Angara met with me for lunch at the Tower Club yesterday to discuss their plans for "Cha Cha" – i.e. charter change through Congress reconstituting itself into a Constituent Assembly.

Next week, Senator Angara, as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments, will announce the move to amend the Constitution through the above-mentioned method, and call for a resolution and vote on the matter.

Speaker Joe averred that in the House of Representatives 95 percent of the congressmen are already for it. (Only two percent of them, JDV pointed out, were for a specially elected Constitutional Convention.)

Will the Angara move be preceded by an attempt to oust Senate President Franklin Drilon, who’s opposed to "Cha Cha" almost "to the death" and is foursquare for electing a Constitutional Convention? That’s the rumor flying thick and fast in legislative circles.

But Edong merely put on his Mona Lisa smile. I tweaked him about what I’d warned him about some years ago when he had planned to run for the Presidency. I had quipped at the time: "Ed, how can you think about running for President of the country when you can’t even recover the Senate Presidency?" Edong’s grin yesterday noon intimated that this time around, he might try to do just that. Abangan.

Ever the charmer and dispenser of bottled sunshine, Joe, for his part, reeled off his triumphant statistics. He averred that the Governors’ League, representing the governors from 80 provinces headed by Davao del Norte Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario and Gov. Luis Villafuerte of Camarines Sur, Bicol, had shouted "yes!" The League of City Mayors, representing 100 cities, "is also behind our move!" Joe de V. enthused.

"The 42,000 barangays, led by Martin Lim of Cebu, are backing the idea up!"

Philconsa, also, headed by Chairman Conrado Estrella and ex-Prime Minister Cesar Virata, "is behind us!" Then, "The Fil-Chinese Chamber of Commerce headed by Robin Siy and Francis Chua, its EVP, are in our corner!"

JDV then exulted that the "Management Association of the Philippines with 750 members headed by Ed Fereira is backing charter change all the way!" Why, even the Mindanao-Muslim leaders’ summit spearheaded by Basilan Rep. Abdulgani Salapudin and Justice Secretary Simeon Datumanong are "for it!". The Christian Bishops of the Philippines, led by Brother Eddie Villanueva (whappeya, our former STAR columnist) "is also weighing in for charter change," JDV fervently exclaimed, pointing out that the organization represents 20,000 churches. Sanamagan, the hues of Joe’s new Rainbow Coalition, seem to be burning bright – if things are as he describes it. I might have had lunch – di ba? – with the next Prime Minister!

Anyway, as they say, we’ll "burn that bridge when we come to it".

Joe remarked when he breezed into our private room in the Club’s Taipan restaurant that he had flown by helicopter back from Bangued, Abra, in order to make our luncheon on time. He lauded the efforts of Abra Rep. Luis "Chito" Barsamin and Governor Vic Valeria for the completion of the 920-meter long Soot Bridge there – which JDV colorfully described as the "longest bridge in the Philippines". Is that true? Or just hyperbole? Good for Abra, whatever its stretch!

One thing I can say: It’s always a delight to speak with unflappable Joe de V., even if you’re not sure, at times, what country he’s talking about.

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THE ROVING EYE . . . I was invited to the White House state luncheon. But, sorry, I’m not going to Washington, DC. Not in my itinerary. I’m going to Mexico, then New York City to visit my daughter Rachelle who underwent surgery in New Jersey last Tuesday (successfully, my son-in-law Bob assured us by telephone yesterday). Then I’ll be in Los Angeles. After returning to Manila, possibly I’ll head for Hanoi (Vietnam) unless a SARS-alert is re-imposed there . . . Where’s the feckless Desert Sheik Sikatuna "Triple R" Roberto R. Romulo, the grise eminence behind the Washington, DC capers? Is he back from Kuwait? No hope of his getting any contracts from Bechtel. "Kokoy Romulo" must be painfully out of touch. Remember how some of the former Filipino workers connected with Engineering Equipment Incorporated (EEI) headed by former Trade and Industry Secretary Roy Navarro – who led the Makati Business Club’s mission to Kuwait (on which Triple R piggy-backed) – embarrassed Bechtel. They sued Bechtel, and our National Labor Relations Council or the NLRC slapped a $6-million "judgment" against the giant American firm which has the lion’s share of the Iraq reconstruction contracts. Bechtel won’t ever again deal with "government to government" when it comes to the Philippines. Poor Roberto of the Desert, his pilgrimage was in vain. As for the other big player in postwar Iraq, Halliburton, Brown and Root, linked to US Vice President Dick Cheney, don’t we recall what happened? Halliburton hired 250 Filipino workers, such as carpenters and building workers, to rush to Camp Delta, the concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay where the US military is holding those captured in Afghanistan under suspicion of belonging to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. What did those workers do? As soon as they got to Guantanamo to build more prison structures, they started organizing a labor union and demanding much bigger pay, instead of that specified in their contracts. The result: The Americans kicked them out, and dispatched them back post-haste to the Philippines. Sometimes we’re our own worst enemies.