The strange ‘medical’ holiday of Moro rebel Nur Misuari

Neophyte Senator Jambi Madrigal’s "crying lady" episode in the Senate was all over television last Monday. It was quite a sight to witness Jambi sobbing her heart out in a very un-senatorial way. The drama had all the elements of soap opera, with fellow lady Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago – a tougher and more tart-tongued exponent of the gender – patting Jambi comfortingly on the back and soothingly saying, "There, there dearie, it’s not worth your tears."

Tears are, of course, woman’s most powerful weapon, and Senator Madrigal’s distress was valid in the wake of the insult to her parents and family. But somehow in the slug-it-out arena of politics a senator is expected to be made of sterner stuff. To begin with, Jambi had brought fellow Senator Johnny Ponce Enrile’s angry rejoinder on her own head by taking a swipe at JPE. Senator Madrigal had reminded the Chamber that JPE had faked an ambush on his own car and an assassination attempt on himself to give Apo Ferndinand E. Marcos an excuse to impose Martial Law in September 1972.

Anyone who’s familiar with JPE’s legendary temper – he’s pikon – was not surprised at his sharp reply. In cutting terms, Enrile retorted in effect: "Who are you to talk?" The furious Enrile had pointed out that Jambi’s parents Tony and Amanda Madrigal, had enjoyed good relations with Marcos and Imelda. Indeed, he underscored that her family had gone partying with the Marcoses. He pointed out that her auntie Chito Madrigal had even married then Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Manoling Collantes (who had been one of Kokoy Romualdez’s inner circle).

I guess if you dish it out, one must be prepared to also take it on the chin. And while the Madrigals did not profit from any relationship with the dictator, they did waltz with the dictator as did most everybody else of consequence in the heyday of the Marcos hegemony.

Sadly, Jambi was not entitled to cast the first stone. Senator Madrigal is a very intelligent and accomplished lady having been educated abroad, extremely well-read and fluent in foreign languages especially French. Alas, nothing in her polite schooling prepared her for the gladiatorial arena which is the Senate.

Last Monday’s lachrymose incident should be the first painful step in her political education.

* * *

The more I think about it, the reprimand delivered to state prosecutor Peter Ong was unfair. A few days ago, the front pages carried the report that prosecutor Ong had been taken away from handling the rebellion case against former Moro National Liberation Front Chieftain Nur Misuari and assigned to other cases. He was even scolded by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez for having asked for the inhibition of Makati City Regional Trial Court Judge Sixto Marella (Branch 138) for allegedly being too lenient on Misuari.

Prosecutor Ong was only doing his job in protesting the approval by Judge Marella of a motion for medical treatment filed by the renegade former ARMM Governor Misuari for medical treatment along with his co-accused Ustadz Abuharis Usman. When Misuari’s lawyer Arthur Lim filed a petition to permit Misuari to undergo medical treatment in a "hospital of his choice" here or abroad, Prosecutor Ong had strongly urged Marella to deny the motion for "lack of merit." Indeed, Ong had indignantly declared in his four-page motion: "If accused Nur Misuari and Ustadz Usman are sick, why did they have the temerity to hold a press conference on January 10, 2006 when in fact their January 9, 2006 motion only sought for their temporary liberty?"

Ong’s valid argument was that if Misuari claims sickness, his treatment cannot be in a hospital of his choice since being a detained prisoner, his rights are limited only to those enumerated in the rules of court. "Neither can an accused Nur Misuari", Ong had fumed, "by advancing all sorts of flimsy sicknesses like loss of the vigor of youth, feeling of isolation, emotional trauma, mental suffering, emotional anxiety and mental stress, demand and expect hospitalization – worst, even abroad."

Don’t you think Ong was right? In any event the Judge granted Misuari his petition which freed him from imprisonment in the PNP Special Action Force Training School Compound in Laguna. Ong in turn was slapped down. Our friend, DOJ Secretary Gonzalez was not even subtle in indicating that Ong had failed to toe the government line. As he asserted in a press conference justifying poor Ong’s unceremonious removal from the case: "He filed a motion for the inhibition of the judge for merely allowing the furlough without informing me. He should clear with me because policy is involved. The (government’s) policy is to apply the law but, at the same time, consider the factors that might dislodge the peace process. We have to look at all directions." While Gonzalez said the government is still bent on pursuing the rebellion case against Misuari, it has to "tread carefully" because the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) recognizes Misuari as the representative of the Muslim people in the Philippines.

Gonzalez even went so far as to assert that Misuari still has a role to play in the ongoing peace process with Muslim insurgents. Sanamagan. Are we still being jerked around by the OIC while rebellion is still in full spate in our troubled country? Are we not a sovereign nation defending itself from those who seek to overthrow our democratic government? If so, we are going about it in a very strange way.

* * *

It may shock you to know that Misuari not only got the "hospital of his choice", but the hospital he chose is the premier hospital in the land, Saint Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City. Even more fascinating is that Misuari secured, by government fiat, that hospital’s best suite, the luxurious Ambassador Suite! He has spent more than two months undergoing special treatment for unspecified illnesses in that suite, with even the adjoining room being occupied by the security men supposed to keep him under guard. Former President Erap must be envious of the tender loving care being extended to the renegade Misuari whose rebellion resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives. One attack he led against the government on November 19, 2001 in Jolo, Sulu, caused the death of 40 soldiers.

And now he’s a VIP being treated in an air conditioned hospital suite at Filipino taxpayers’ expense. In short, you and I are footing the bill to make Misuari happy.

To be sure, Misuari "checked out" of the Ambassador Suite four days ago but was moved to a high class condominium within the Saint Luke’s Compound where presumably he continues to lead life of Reily at government expense! Salamabit.

* * *

I believe that the clever Misuari has flim-flammed our gullible government once again. The deal, I suspect is that he has been promising to keep down the rebellion in Sulu in exchange for special treatment. DOJ Secretary Gonzalez’s language sort of gives the game away.

For instance, Misuari had warned that if he did not intervene, the Moros would attack the Americans engaged a few weeks ago in Operation Balikatan on the March 6 anniversary of the "Massacre in Jolo" conducted by then American Mindanao Governor John J. Pershing. (If you’ll recall, "Blackjack" Pershing was the one who asked Browning to develop the .45-caliber pistol as the only kind of gun capable of stopping a Moro juramentado or amok in his tracks before he killed more people in the kind of suicide attack the Muslim fanatics used to make on Christians and American soldiers. Pershing later went on to become commander of the American Expeditionary Force to Europe, which is his claim to fame in history.)

Imagine that! The Moros were going to attack the small American Balikatan detachment in reprisal for an incident that took place a hundred years ago! Anyway, that’s what Misuari allegedly claimed. Speaker Joe de Venecia told me a few days ago that he had checked the idea out with some Muslim congressmen and other officials in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and they had assured him that no such plan had been in the offing. In any event, the Americans took no chances and moved their personnel out of Sulu two days before the purported March 6 deadline. So, there’s no way of confirming whether the "revenge" attack would have occurred.

How long are we going to keep on treating Misuari with kid gloves? No wonder our Moro insurgents, who’re now jerking our government around with their so-called "peace process" have no fear of or respect for the government. At least we can say that when Mr. Joseph Estrada was President, he did not have any hesitation about fighting Islamic rebels from the Abu Sayyaf, MNLF, to the MILF bullet for bullet. He sent our forces to crush the insurgents and capture their sacred headquarters, Camp Abubakar. Sad to say, until and unless the GMA government wises up, we’ll hand Mindanao over to them on a silver platter.

Make no mistake about it. For all the honeyed talk, the war goes on. Basilan province, as you know, opted to join the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with the notable exception of its capital city, Isabela. Last March 3, the Christian Mayor of that town, Mayor Luis Biel III was assassinated. Guess by whom?