GMA calls for ‘unity,’ but what is she doing to Zamboanga City?

Thousands of Zamboangueños, I’m told from "Down Under", no, not Australia but Mindanao, will turn out to attend the hearings today of the House Committee on National Defense to be held in the gym of the Western Mindanao State University.

In short, when the committee chaired by Parañaque Rep. Roilo "Roy" Golez (coincidentally, GMA’s former National Security Adviser) convenes its hearings at 1 p.m., residents from the city’s different sectors will shoehorn themselves into the gymnasium, and spill over into the surrounding campus and streets to demonstrate that they don’t want the Southern Command Headquarters to be transferred from Zamboanga City to Pulacan in Zamboanga del Sur – virtually to Pagadian City.

Mayor Celso Lobregat, when I checked with him by phone, informed me he was installing loudspeakers outside the building so the demonstrators could listen to what is transpiring inside the gymnasium. All businesses as well as the banking community will close shop this afternoon – without a pay cut to their employees – in order to allow them to take part in this "peaceful protest."

What are they decrying? The order issued in mid-May by President and Commander-in-Chief Macapagal-Arroyo that the SouthCom headquarters, which has been in Zamboanga City for 29 years, be moved to some unknown and illogical place called Pulacan, in the boonies of Zamboanga del Sur. Was this done on a whim? Or was it meant to be another move in a string of "punishments" by which a resentful La Gloria is showing her displeasure over the fact that Zambo was the only Mindanao city in which she was rendered a stinging defeat – with the majority of voters going for FPJ?

In a speech last Monday, GMA declared that "it’s very important to have one Philippines, one united country."

How can we believe moving the SouthCom out of Zamboanga City, which has all the facilities, including Andrews Air Force Base, the Navy anchorage, and all the surrounding military support units, to a place in which our Southern Command officers will be unprotected by a strong military presence, can unify our country – much less render it safer?

An important caveat is the one delivered recently by General Delfin Castro (ret.), the longest-serving SouthCom commander who retired in 1986. He asserted that the Communist Party’s New People’s Army (NPA), the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the Abu Sayyaf – and yes, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (even though we’re holding peace talks with the MILF) – would enthusiastically welcome the idea of the SouthCom being plunked down in a vulnerable area like Pulacan near Pagadian City. General Castro pointed out that SouthCom is just a tactical command headquarters, and will be isolated in Pulacan, without enough surrounding military units to defend it.

In that exposed area, it would be tempting the CPP-NPA, MNLF or rogue MILF units, to attack and overrun the SouthCom HQ. How would we enjoy their taking Lt. General Alberto "Boysie" Braganza hostage – and threatening to behead him? Or other officers of the SouthCom high command?

Remember what happened to Ipil some years ago? Of course the rebel forces have the capability of doing that again.

What I noticed is that General Braganza is not raising too much of a howl. Perhaps this is because he’s too close to the President, having served once as her Senior Military Aide, and doesn’t wish to embarrass her. Perhaps he’s still hoping for be named the next Armed Forces Chief of Staff when the incumbent Chief, General Efren L. Abu retires on his next birthday, June 24 – only a bit more than three weeks from now.

But Braganza – who did a crackerjack job directing those military offensives in Sulu against renegade forces – is himself retirable next September 10 this year. Besides, not coming from the elite Philippine Military Academy, but from the ranks of the ROTC, like this writer, Boysie, although very deserving, never had a chance. Oh well. If he’s asked by the defense committee to speak, I trust in his warrior spirit. Speak out, Boysie, and bravely tell them the President’s idea is cock-eyed. (In more polite language, of course).

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Congressman Golez (US Naval Academy and PMA ’70) is a former military man himself, and surely knows the score. One of his Annapolis classmates was former CINCPAC Commander, Admiral Tom Fargo who retired from commanding the US Pacific forces only a few months ago. But will he be too partial to GMA, his "former’ boss in the Cabinet?

It looks like a full panel is arriving for the National Defense and Security hearing: Vice-Chair, Rep. Belma Cabilao (Zamboanga Sibugay); Congressman Eric Basilo "Erbie" Fabian (Lone district, Zamboanga City); Amado "Spines" Espino (2nd, district, Pangasinan); Isidoro "Jun" Real (1st dist., Zamboanga del Sur); Francis Joseph "Chiz" Escudero (1st dist., Sorsogon); Ernesto "Ernie" Gidaya, (Party-list, Veterans’ Federation of the Philippines), who fought in PEFTOK and was our Ambassador to South Korea; Prospero "Butch" Pichay, Jr. (1st dist., Surigao del Sur); Teofisto "TG" Guingona, III (2nd dist., Bukidnon) and Mujiv Hataman (Party-list, Anak Mindanao).

I suspect that Malacañang is beginning to realize its boo-boo, and has tried to diffuse the anger in Zamboanga City by getting AFP Chief of Staff Abu to issue a press release (29 May) in which Abu kuno was ordering the Joint Staff of Headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo "to conduct an in-depth study of the implications and resource requirements of the transfer of the SOUTHERN COMMAND Headquarters from Zamboanga to Pagadian City.

The press release said that Deputy Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Edilberto P. Adan had been tasked, in effect, to undertake this study. Oh c’mon. Either the President is sticking to what she originally announced, like a bombshell, last March that she wanted SouthCom moved to Pagadian, "the regional capital of Region IX", or she declares clearly that the "transfer" decision has been scrapped.

With due respect to the people in Pagadian, who’re just as deserving of the government’s attention and support as Zambo, it still doesn’t make sense to transfer SouthCom over there. There are no daily commercial flights to Pagadian, while Zamboanga City has four daily flights between that city and Manila. The Pagadian wharf is small and the seas is shallow there, making it difficult for our Navy vessels to dock there, while the Navy has a well-used official wharf in Zambo. Pagadian City has limited access by air or by sea to any of the major ports in Mindanao, as General Castro has already noted, making it difficult for the major commanders of our Navy, Air Force, Marines and the 1st Army Division, to report for conferences in Manila and other Mindanao capitals. Indeed, the 1st Division is based in Zamboanga City. What unit will "protect" SouthCom in Pagadian?

And what about ranking officials, including our own Cabinet members (the President, of course, has her own aircraft), foreign Ambassadors, or visiting foreign dignitaries, who would wish to meet with or coordinate with the SouthCom. How would they get to Pagadian?

And, finally, how much would it cost the government, specifically the already meager armed forces budget, to underwrite the transfer? We would have to construct a new Philippine Air Force base there, a new Naval station, building, infrastructure, etc. By gosh, what a waste of money which might be spent, instead, for what we really need for defense and our war on terrorism.

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Let’s face it. In the past 29 years, the SouthCom has operated very well in Zamboanga City. Under Commodore Gil Fernandez, it used to be known as the Southwestern Command (SOWESCOM), until Rear Admiral Romulo M. Espaldon became its first commander when the name was amended to SouthCom. I remember the good old days in Indonesia when Romy Espaldon was our military attaché in Jakarta (he spoke fluent Bahasa Indonesia). I used to borrow his car from time to time. You couldn’t miss it. The car was a dazzling white.

Why transfer it now?

The question is" What’s GMA trying to do to Zamboanga? She has already directed that, with a few exceptions, all government "regional center" offices be transferred to Pagadian City. This will naturally displace thousands of government employees and entail millions of pesos to effect the transfer, possibly scores of millions. A transfer of Southcom to Pagadian would already cost P4 billion.

Earlier, she promised the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) that it could re-occupy the 84-hectare Cabatangan property right in the heart of the city. From this Cabatangan complex, if you’ll recall Nur Misuari’s "breakaway" MNLF group staged a surprising, violent rebellion, on November 27, 2002, in which they took hostage the residents of surrounding barangays, and paraded them, tied up and terrified, through the city. The rascals finally gave up after being surrounded by troops and PNP units, on condition they would be trucked by our military under safe-conduct to the sea where they could "get away" on a boat. Having to face the prospect of armed Muslims having their headquarters once more right inside their city is alarming to the Zamboangueños, who’ve had to endure a two-day reign of terror before.

Why should the ARMM have a headquarters in Zamboanga City when that city is not even part of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao?

Better for GMA to concentrate on fighting jueteng than open up a "second front" in Mindanao, with a sort of Christian "rebellion" on her hands.

By the way, is it true about a new Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey about her approval rating? Is it -29 or -30 percent? Let’s wait for confirmation of that today.

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THE ROVING EYE . . . First a Mea Culpa and Erratum: In yesterday’s column I stupidly misplaced a decimal point. Before it becomes a Mistaken Statistic, let me say it was wrong to say there is only one policeman for every 75,221 Filipinos. Correction: There is a policeman for every 752 Filipinos. We’re still dismally short of policemen, our supposed guardians of the law. Sometimes, alas, we find we have to guard ourselves against our policemen. .. I had a long talk with Senator Manuel Villar at our Tuesday Club. Manny, who’s chairing the jueteng inquiry in the Senate says he doesn’t want to over-do the "excitement" over jueteng, but hopes to hold hearings at least twice a week… Indonesia’s parliament last Wednesday issued a resolution urging the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to boycott ASEAN meetings next year if the military dictators of Myanmar (Burma) assume the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, under the rotating Chairmanship practice. The Indonesians have had the guts to challenge the despotic rule of the generals in Yangon, who refuse to release Aung San Suu Kyi and continue to despicably suppress their people. What about us. In diplomacy, we’re becoming known as one of the world’s gutless wonders. We try to please… everybody. What we need in this country is more backbone and less jawbone.