Strength to counter the bully

The Department of Foreign Affairs has strongly protested the illegal incursion into Philippine waters of a ship belonging to the People’s Liberation Army-Navy.

The ship lingered in the Sulu Sea recently in clear violation of our country’s territory and jurisdiction.

It seems China has become a bully to nations that are weak, like the Philippines.

Therefore, we need more Navy and Coast Guard ships to patrol our waters and safeguard our territory.

We should also strengthen our air defense by having more Air Force jets to back up Navy and Coast Guard ships that encounter intruders into our territory.

But that is a pipe dream, as our country can’t afford to buy modern armaments due to abject poverty.

We have to rely on our neighbors and the United States to defend our territory from intruders, as we don’t have the weapons to back our military’s strong willingness to fight.

Malakas ang loob, mahina ang tuhod (literally, stout-hearted, but weak-kneed), as an old Filipino saying goes.

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Saudi Arabia showed its fangs again by executing 81 men for various crimes, the kingdom’s biggest mass execution in a single day.

The offenses ranged from terrorism to having “deviant (religious) beliefs.”

Saudi Arabia is intolerant of other religions except Islam’s Wahhabi Sunni sect, the state religion.

Among those executed were Muslims who belonged to the rival Shiite sect.

The difference between the Wahhabi Sunni from Shiite is like comparing Catholics to Protestants.

So, Filipino contract workers in Saudi, be warned: Unless you are willing to die as martyrs of your Christian faith, avoid – as much as possible – attending secret Sunday services in the kingdom!

Your church will understand your predicament: practice your religion or get beheaded in Saudi Arabia for violating its laws.

Martyrdom was practiced by the early Christians; but it is a rarely done thing today.

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Saudi Arabia bans alcoholic drinks in any part of the kingdom in obedience to an Islamic prohibition of alcohol.

Those caught drinking alcohol are severely punished. The hypocritical muttawa or religious police see to that.

However, when Saudis – notably members of royalty – set foot in other countries, they shun their religion and imbibe alcohol like fish drink water. They attract attention because most of them are rowdy when drunk.

At a bar in the Bonifacio Global City in the commercial district of Fort Bonifacio, I saw some Saudis drinking whiskey at a table next to mine.

I was told about them by a waitress who also served my table. Their being boisterous attracted the attention of other guests.

In the late 1970s, Makati Mayor Nemesio Yabut and his bodyguards beat up two Saudi diplomats who, due to having had too much to drink, touched the butt of a woman who happened to be a guest of the feisty mayor at The Peninsula Hotel.

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In the 1990s, a Saudi filed a slew of libel cases against this columnist, who wrote that he was forcing his estranged Filipino wife to embrace Islam and be subjected to the Sharia Law despite her objections.

His estranged wife told me she remembered that one of the guests at their house in Makati was an Arab named Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden, she said, was a constant visitor to the country. This was years before planes rammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.

I was able to stop the Saudi national from further harassing me with libel suits after I submitted to the Bureau of Immigration an intelligence report from the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) about his being connected to some Islamic terrorist groups in the country.

(If you ask why there was no coordination between the immigration bureau and the NICA about the presence of this Saudi national, I don’t have the answer.)

Luckily for me, that wealthy Saudi – who had connections with people in high places in the government of president Fidel V. Ramos – has since been banned from the country.

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If she has any sense of propriety left, Aimee Torrefranca-Neri should resign as one of the newly-appointed commissioners of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to spare her the humiliation of being rejected by the Commission on Appointments (CA).

The CA is a bicameral body that approves or rejects presidential appointments.

Senate Minority Leader Frank Drilon wants her head because of allegations she accepted bribe money from a drug convict, Herbert Colanggo.

Drilon is a member of the powerful CA.

Before Neri was appointed as a Comelec commissioner, she was undersecretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

According to Ferdinand Topacio, Colanggo’s lawyer, Neri accepted P10 million purportedly to “fix his robbery case before the Supreme Court” when she was assistant of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Neri returned P7 million to Colanggo after the latter’s conviction was affirmed by the high tribunal, Topacio said.

Even if Topacio, who’s a grandstand player, lacks credibility, Neri’s reputation has still been sullied.

Drilon said that the CA takes seriously the accusation against Neri.

The senator said that whoever recommended Neri to the Comelec and is backing her up, he can’t influence the CA. Drilon wouldn’t identify Neri’s backer.

The senator said that Neri has been “jumping” from one position to another in various agencies: DOJ assistant secretary, deputy commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration and then DSWD undersecretary.

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Joke! Joke! Joke!

I’m not in the habit of bragging about the very expensive places I go to, but I just came from a gasoline station.