In the homeland of the bizarre, another inexplicable incident

I won’t try to explain, since I’m completely mystified by it – the fantastic and tragic incident at the control tower of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

How could a former Air Transportation Office (ATO) chief and a former Navy special warfare officer stage a two-man raid on the nerve center of our airport and thus hope (as they claimed before being gunned down) to "expose" government corruption?

Ridiculous, one would say out of hand. And it was. Both pathetic and ridiculous. It’s claimed that before police SWAT commandos blasted their way through the air control room’s barred steel door, the ex-ATO Chief, Captain (Colonel?) Panfilo Villaruel was screaming over radio station dzBB, where he was being interviewed apparently by phone patch, that he wanted to surrender. Too late. The SWAT sharpshooters spilled into the room and shot down both Villaruel and his companion, Navy Lt. (senior grade) Richard Gatchillar.

No one who has ever been in any hairy situation or in combat will agree with the bleeding hearts who’re loudly sounding off today that Villaruel and Gatchillar need not have been shot dead and "could" have been taken alive. Nonsense. The two carried .45 caliber and 9 mm guns, a hand grenade and other explosives, by testimony of the air control personnel they had evicted from the tower. When your adversary is armed, it’s either you or him. That’s the alternative. "After-battle" commentators can bleat all they want: In the crucial seconds it’s a life-and- death decision which must be made.

I’m sorry for the two and their bereaved families – but when men who aren’t certified nuts carry weapons into a vital security area, seize an air control tower whose signals could, if maliciously misdirected, cost the lives of thousands of air passengers in flight, their pilots and flight crews, what choice is there? The intruders had to be put out of commission immediately. Hesitation could be fatal.

Finally, when you’re armed and dangerous, and hold an essential installation hostage, one cannot simply shout his "surrender" to a radio station just as your attackers are breaking in. The stand-off had already lasted three hours. Time enough to have given up hours ago.

Why did they do such an insane and – in the end – futile thing? The dead can’t speak. Nor can they be tested for sanity or mental instability.

Were the two officers part of a "coup" attempt or mutiny which never materialized because the other "alleged" conspirators lost their nerve and failed to show up? Or did they act alone?

We may never know the answer. What we know is that, once again, our government – and we ourselves – have been mortally embarrassed around the planet.

The al-Ghozi "escape" was not the first embarrassment (even though weeks later the terrorist was found and liquidated). The Villaruel-Gatchillar caper won’t be the last. We never learn. Security is a joke in this happy-go-lucky nation.

They let Villaruel in without question, it appears, because he used to be their boss, as former chief of the ATO – under the government of ex-President Fidel V. Ramos. Since FVR keeps on commenting on the ills of government, perhaps he can enlighten us now on what made his ex-appointee Villaruel click.

What motivates an otherwise sedate man (indeed Villaruel was, as a retired official turned to business, a member of Philippines, Inc., did you know?) pick up a gun and do something incomprehensibly bold and out-of-whack?

Don’t ask me. Wiser minds will have to ferret out the truth. There, of course, will be a million theories, especially in the kapihans and sidewalk cafes.

It’s insanity, too, for some court employees to go on "mass leave" to kuno demonstrate their support for besieged Chief Justice Hilario Davide, or other court employees elsewhere to stage a sitdown strike, or for pro- and anti-Davide groups to plan nationwide "mass actions" or demonstrations tomorrow. Who’ll these hysterical people help? Not Davide. Not the anti-Davide movement. They’ll only hurt themselves, damage the nation, disturb everyday life, gum up the traffic, and catch colds or pneumonia if it rains.

And all for what? Democracy? Freedom? Our rights and liberties? One "People Power" was okay. Invoking People Power endlessly becomes both hilarious and ineffective. What overthrew Erap, for instance, was the mass defection of his officials – and, more to the jugular, his generals and policemen. Those EDSA Shrine orators and fist-wavers, civil and uncivil society militants, and prayer groups contributed to the general but misleading picture of a nation in revolt (and looked great on television), but they didn’t turn the trick.

Part of the "solution" was for the Supreme Court Justices, led by Davide himself, to have turned out en masse (or en banc, publicly) to give "legitimacy" to the ascent of La Gloria to the throne, while casting a dejected Estrada into the calaboose.

More demonstrations and people "mass actions" tomorrow? We must get a hold of ourselves. Allowing the mob to rule the streets, no matter how sweet the cause, can become a deadly habit. Anarchy, if uncurbed, looms just around the corner. Then we’ll have "The Terror", when anyone can accuse anyone before a raging mob with those who roar the loudest winning the argument.

Let the law take its course. Let parliament’s, our Congress’s, members do their thing. We the people elected our legislators into office to represent us – we can’t ignore them, because we "empowered" them. If we elected clowns or inquisition berdugos, then it’s our fault. This fault can only be corrected in the next elections, not by a mob gone berserk in the streets.

The Davide controversy has gone out of control – but it’s not too late to put a damper on it. I believe Davide will weather the storm, but let’s face it: Attempting to impeach a Chief Justice is not the end of the world. It’s part of the constitutional and legal process.

Remember: In the newspaper we subscribe to the cock-eyed idea that "Truth Will Prevail". Not always immediately, but in due time.

Now a word about the stupid campaign launched by some idiots and self-anointed "crusaders" to boycott San Miguel products because they claim, Susmariosep, that Danding Cojuangco "instructed" his Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) congressmen to spearhead the impeachment move versus Chief Justice Davide.

Let me quote the sensible words of an old friend, who was a year ahead of us in the university – long retired Central Bank spokesman Miguel "Mike" Avanceña, who wrote me the other day to warn that "in the furor, fervor and heat, of expressing our feelings and convictions, let us not strike blindly. I refer to the boycott of San Miguel Corp. products, proudly Filipino."

"By boycotting San Miguel products," Mike points out, "we strike back at ourselves, the Filipino family, and the Filipino workers who produce all those quality products, proudly Filipino. If the target is SMC Chairman Eduardo M. Cojuangco, Jr., let us not forget that he and his team put San Miguel Corp. back on its feet, and much more. SMC is now a real successful and much-respected global business giant firm, proudly Filipino. SMC is feeding Filipino families with quality products, foodstuffs and beverages, at reasonable prices. Besides, the last boycott of SMC products failed dismally because the Filipinos are proud of their own products and the Filipino family needs San Miguel Corp. to help it survive.

"Will WOW Philippines come to naught by our own hands? God bless the Philippines and the Filipino people!"

Mike’s letter was hand-written, and, in truth, came as a bit of a surprise to me since he is the reticent kind, and is in no way connected with SMC or any of its executives, least of all Danding. But what Avanceña says makes good sense. I’m sure his sentiments echo what is in the hearts of millions of Filipinos who can’t understand the politics of revenge and boycott against the country’s most successful and most internationally respected corporation. Proudly Filipino, indeed.

Surely, some vicious destabilizers who’re out to wreck our economy and discombobulate our society are helping stir up this scurrilous and self-destructive boycott miscue.

* * *

There are many who were unhappy that the Philippines lost the bid to bring Disneyland here and establish Walt Disney’s theme park in this country. Hong Kong won the bid, and will open that remarkably well-funded theme park not too long from now, near its international airport.

But why should we complain about "losing" Disneyland California-style? Our entire country, alas, is a Disneyland, full of fantastic, bizarre and amazing rides and sideshows. We have quacks who quack more whackily than Donald Duck, and "Back to the Future" rides that end up "Back to the pre-Spanish past" where tribal feuds were rampant, and the great Conquistador and explorer Ferdinand Magellan never got to finish his circumnavigation of the globe because he recklessly got himself involved in local politics – and was slain by an irate Chieftain Lapu-Lapu. Where in the world do they honor a hero by naming a fish after him? (Perhaps this is logical, since everytime we enjoy a delicious "Lapu-lapu" fish dish, we perchance think of the patriot who felled Magellan.) Otherwise, the outside world never hears of Lapu-Lapu, fish or chieftain. In history books, they say that "natives" slew Magellan.

Owing to our penchant for gunsmoke, we’ve long been tarred as Tombstone Asia or Dodge City East. Let’s not forget that we, as well, are the Disneyland of Asia, without, it must be said, the Sleeping Beauty Castle. All our sleeping beauties are in our Congress and in our Cabinet. When they’re not abroad jet-setting from one parliamentary conference, world congress, or junket to another.

Did Davide overspend? Who knows? He was cleared by COA, but – for all his probity, (I confess to have been the one who nominated him to Estrada, whatever Erap may declare today) – I’m a bit uncomfortable about his having put his son in charge of handling the funds. So what if previous Chief Justices did the same thing? I’ve always thought that practice of putting their own kids in "confidential" positions – whatever High Court officials may claim – smacks of ill-disguised nepotism.

If the Supreme Court decides tomorrow, though, that the second move to impeach Davide is "unconstitutional", then that ought to be that. But – hello – some 120 congressmen have signified their intention to defy the Court and maintain they have the right to force the issue.

Disney movies always have a happy ending. In our domestic Disneyland, who knows, Ate Glo, playing Snow White, may be able to prod the Seven Dwarfs in her Cabinet to go implore their friends in the Lower House to spare Davide. Otherwise, it‘s Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, off to the Senate impeachment hearings, we’ll go.

What’s transpiring is both funny and tragic. But we’ll survive. In the long of time, we shall success.