The return of Mark Jimenez will put a few noses out of joint

PARIS – Well, well. The news of the coming return of former Manila Congressman and celebrated wheeler-dealer Mark Jimenez, direct from the Pennsylvania penitentiary to the airport, then to Manila, has surely discomfited a lot of people – particularly those who had dealings with him during the Erap heyday.

Mark – formerly known as Mario Crespo when he was an Ateneo student (like Jose Pidal and Jose Velarde, among other well-known Blue Eagles with plucked feathers) – made waves when he was in the Philippines, befriending and becoming intimate "adviser" to then President Joseph Estrada, as well as friend to former PNP Chief, now Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson (whose cops, reputedly, were among his security guards), and, yes, GMA. Having served out his sentence in US prison, he’s eagerly being sent back to the Philippines by the Americans, relieved at being able to extradite him to his "homeland" (not Florida). D-Day, or MJ-Day, I’m told is November 22.

What will Mark J. do when he returns, not exactly in triumph like MacArthur? Since Manila Mayor Lito Atienza’s term limits compel him to step down as Mayor and not run for reelection, Jimenez might go for the Mayorship of the capital city. (Apparently, though convicted in America, there’s no bar to him running for office in RP, where he used to be Representative of Manila’s 5th district till the charges filed against him by the US government compelled him to vacate his seat in Congress.) Mark has got both the wherewithal and the moxie to clinch another political post now that he is "free".

If he runs for Manila Mayor, he may be pitted against his former pal, Senator Ping Lacson whose earlier tentative plan to run for Mayor of Manila may still be operative. Otherwise, Atienza hopes to give his son, former Councilor Kim Atienza a crack for his own mayoral post, whim himself trying for Congressman. Or Mark might even run for Congress again, possibly against Lito Atienza.

The mischievous scheme of the Americans to "give" Mark Jimenez back to us is like throwing a fox among the chickens. He comes back the bearer of many secrets, ready possibly to kiss and tell.

And when the chickens (and roosters) scamper to get away from him, feathers are bound to fly. What is going to hit society, high and low, is not "bird flu" but political flu.

Mark has a long memory, and perhaps a Blue Book like the late Harry S. Stonehill. Remember him?

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We met with UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura in his 6th floor office yesterday afternoon. I accompanied my wife, who I have to address as "Ambassador" when she is in Paris as Secretary-General of UNESCO Philippines (UNICOM) attending the General Assembly sessions, including the ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which is what UNESCO means.

With us in that intimate meeting in Matsuura’s private office was our Ambassador to France, Hector Villarroel, who’s Permanent Representative ex officio to UNESCO and has served with distinction chairing several committees. Villarroel is retiring on December 31 this year.

Ambassador Jose "Toto" Zaide, who’s currently Department of Foreign Affairs Chief of Protocol (and author of the bestseller on diplomatic laughs and anecdotes Bababa Ba?) is expected to assume the Ambassadorship shortly. Toto brings with him both experience and tact. He was formerly Ambassador to Moscow, then Ambassador to Vienna, and his last posting before returning to the Home Office was that of Ambassador to Berlin.

In sum, Zaide’s German is perfect. We’ll soon know how is his French, but since he was previously assigned in Brussels, Belgium, he at least speaks good "Waloon" which is French as spoken in what they call in Paris, the capital of snobisme, "La Civilization des Pommes Frit." (The Belgians love to eat fries, called "French Fries" by us, but "freedom fries" by the Americans who resent French intransigence and outright antipathy to George W. Bush on the issue of the Iraq War).

I think Zaide will be a huge success here since the dream of putting up a Philippine Center, first proposed by Ambassador Villarroel, has not yet been realized since Filipino organizations here – there are 35 in Paris alone! – can’t agree on how to raise the 800,000 euros required. Zaide, if I recall, managed to organize a sort of Philippine Center in Vienna around his Embassy chancery when he and his charming wife, Meng, were in Austria.

UNESCO’s D.G. Matsuura will be coming to Manila next May, he promised us – I believe after he goes to Colombo, Sri Lanka, where the UNESCO will be commemorating Press Freedom Day in May 2006.

We know him well since The Philippine STAR and this Publisher, along with Precious, hosted him in Manila in May 2003, when Matsuura honored the Philippines by choosing Manila as the site of the launching of the first World Press Freedom Day in 2003. He and his group from headquarters in Paris were also tendered an official Luncheon in Malacañang by President GMA.

Yesterday, Dr. Matsuura requested me to handcarry his letter inviting GMA to address, as keynote speaker, the UNESCO Education conference in Beijing this November 28 or thereabouts, which will be chaired by no less than China’s President Hu Jintao. I don’t have my notes on that (misplaced them owing to incipient senility, I confess), but I’ll write more on detail about that and our dialogue with Director-General Matsuura in tomorrow’s column.

Matsuura was reelected a few days ago by overwhelming (almost unanimous) vote by the delegates of 154 member countries – some of the 191 members were not in town – to a second four-year term as Director-General of the world body.

His re-investiture ceremony, with much acclamation, will be held Friday (tomorrow). Matsuura has successfully implemented a policy of "work in harmony" in UNESCO. Right now, though, he’s "worried" about how the United States will react to the rebuff administered to it when 151 country delegates voted to ratify the Convention on Cultural Diversity, etc., to which the US delegation was objecting – asking for more time to debate, discuss, and amend the draft of the projected Convention. The Americans, along with Israel voted "No," of course. The fear is that, in anger, the US could again resign from UNESCO, as it did almost 20 years ago – and never returned until just two years ago.

If you think, despite the palpably anti-American sentiment that permeates the UNESCO General Assembly (particularly among its Arab, Latin American and some African members), that the Americans are not, well "useful," consider that – the way we hear it – 25 percent of UNESCO’s present budget is supposed to be underwritten (as it was in the past before they decamped) by the USA.

Being a Superpower, alas, doesn’t make one popular. But, let’s face it, even among those who dislike them, the universal cry is: "Yankee come back. Bring dollars." Euros, while rated higher, are in short supply, and China’s RMB or yuan are not yet a world currency.

Dr. Matsuura, who’s a good friend by the way of the present Japanese Ambassador in Manila, the Hon. Yamazaki, is the kind of soft-spoken diplomat who may convince the Americans, through their envoy, Ambassador Louise Oliver, to stay instead of walking out in resentment. "I believe," Matsuura told us yesterday, "that President Bush will understand that the controversial Convention on Cultural Diversity, is only one of the many projects, covenants and undertakings of UNESCO, and not consider this issue as a rebuff of the United States whose participation and cooperation we all deeply appreciate."

Hope so. Cowboys from Texas, like Dubya who’s beset by many troubles, from the New Orleans debacle to the Carl Rove "leak," to problems in the House, plus a painful drop (like GMA’s) in his approval ratings, may be pissed off enough to shoot from the hip. As I’ve said, being a civilian and non-combatant in this thorny matter, the Americans had a point in objecting to the railroading through of the Covenant on Cultural Diversity. And it having been bulldozed through surely sticks in their craw.