Intervention

There is a consensus emergent in the international community accepting the morality of forceful intervention for humanitarian cause. Some might call it the “Anan Doctrine” after the former UN Secretary-General who presided over the dispatch of international forces to Rwanda after the horrendous genocide happened and Bosnia after Serbia conducted “ethnic cleansing.”

Today, a humanitarian disaster is happening in Libya. The Gadhafi regime is conducting war against its own people. Mercenaries have been dispatched to shoot at crowds. Heavy weaponry has been used against unarmed demonstrators. There are reports Gadhafi ordered the execution of his own air force pilots who refused to fire at civilians.

All the latest reports indicate a violent showdown is imminent. In liberated Benghazi, a new government is being formed and an armed force is said to be ready to march on Tripoli. For his part, Gadhafi appears to have carried out his threat to dispense arms to militias still supportive of his rule.

Gadhafi and his sons have dug in at one part of Tripoli. Forces opposed to his rule have overrun other parts of the city. Everywhere else, public order has basically evaporated. Armed gangs are busy looting plants and grabbing property.

The UN Security Council met in emergency sessions through the weekend, highlighted by the defection of the Libyan ambassador, a childhood friend of Gadhafi. In the end, a resolution calling for economic sanctions, a ban on the sale of arms to Gadhafi and the filing of cases at the International Court for crimes against humanity. The resolution passed unanimously.

The US has stepped further ahead, ordering a freeze on all assets owned by Gadhafi, his sons and his closest allies. The Europeans will likely follow that lead. President Obama, criticized for acting too little and too late in the case of America’s ally Hosni Mubarak, has declared that Gadhafi has lost all legitimacy to rule and should step down.

All the diplomatic initiatives so far have fallen short of calling for direct military intervention in Tripoli to halt the bloody suppression orchestrated by Gadhafi and his sons. If it comes to that, Britain and France will likely have to carry the cudgels for the democracies. The two nations are reported to be in close consultations over developments in Tripoli.

Over the weekend, Britain flew military aircraft into the Libyan desert to rescue Britons. The US closed down its embassy and evacuated all its nationals in the beleaguered Libyan capital. When all the foreign nationals have been evacuated, the decks are basically clear for more direct international intervention in Libya to limit the bloodshed in progress.

A final resolution in Libya should happen this week. It is unlikely we shall have pulled out all the Filipino workers by the time that happens. We have a small embassy in Tripoli with a total of four vehicles and no consulate in Benghazi. Our acting foreign secretary is at the Tunisian capital to help coordinate efforts — although we do not really have the logistics the British and the US have deployed in Libya to rescue their nationals. China, by the weekend, managed to pull out 12,000 of its nationals.

Our inability to secure our nationals may be the reason our government has carefully avoided joining the global chorus condemning the Gadhafi regime. The only diplomatic note coming out of Manila is a letter to the Libyan leader sent by former speaker Jose de Venecia on behalf of the international conference of centrist parties he chairs. The letter calls on Gadhafi to be more circumspect in the actions he takes through this crisis.

Registration

LTO chief Virginia Torres just could not get off the news.

Torres headed the Tarlac LTO before her shooting buddy got himself elected president. On the basis of that shooting range friendship, the controversial functionary got promoted way beyond her rank — and, some would say, way beyond her competence.

Last week, the Highway Patrol Group (HPG), busy cracking down on LTO syndicates helping the carjacking gangs, implicated Torres in at least one highly questionable case involving the registration of a hot car. The Mitsubishi Pajero was registered by the Tarlac LTO, then under Torres, using the basic documentation for a Honda motorcycle.

Torres shed tears copiously on television, claiming the report was a demolition job against her. DILG Secretary Jessie Robredo, however, stood by the HPG report. He said the irregularities in the case of the Pajero were so glaring, Torres could not have missed them if she were up to her job as Tarlac LTO chief.

To begin with, the said Pajero was sold and re-sold three times. Each time, the vehicle was registered with the Tarlac LTO and the documents signed by Torres herself. In addition, the vehicle was issued a vanity plate — something that could only be done by the main LTO office and not at Torres’ level at that time.

Torres excuses the obvious lapse by saying she was in receipt of an HPG certification that the vehicle was not stolen. Robredo counters that this is an invalid excuse for registering an SUV using a motorcycle’s certificate of registration. The DILG Secretary sternly reminds the LTO chief that his Department, the DOJ and the PNP-HPG, in presenting the facts of the case filed against her, is not doing so for the sake of a “demolition job.”

By standing his ground, Robredo courts the President’s ire even more. Recall that President Aquino II did not submit Robredo’s name to the Commission on Appointments and is said to have a really soft spot for his shooting range friend.

Torres should simply tell us how that Pajero got a certificate of registration under her watch. While at it, she might want to address our other curiosities — such as the exact status of the registration papers of the Lexus the President now uses.