A world conference on counter-terrorism in Cebu

Cebu is in the midst of hectic preparations for the ASEAN Summit in December, where the leaders of ASEAN would be here for their annual meeting. But if the hotels and resorts in Mactan are filled to capacity this weekend, even after a full-packed Lenten Week, it is because of the three-day (April 20-22) world’s First Counter-Terrorism Experts’ Conference (CTEC) which has been going on at Mactan Island’s Shangri-La Resort and Spa since yesterday.

When he got into Cebu last Tuesday, my good friend, former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Benjamin "Benjie" Defensor rang me up (we used to see each other when he was Mactan Airbase commander). His new job is being an ambassador for counter-terrorism and for this affair, he is the chairman of the Asia-Pacific Counter-Terrorism Task Force. Tonight, we will be showing an interview with him in my talkshow, Straight from the Sky, at 8 p.m., on SkyCable’s Channel 15 with a replay on Sunday to show our support for this global forum.

Of course, my first question to Gen. Defensor was, "This is a big international conference on counter-terrorism… so why is this being held right here in the Philippines and specifically Cebu?" Gen. Defensor intimated to me that Cebu is close to his heart as it is in the heart of the country, where Christianity’s first cross was planted… and it is at the crossroads of our nation’s past and present conflicts… like the communist insurgency in the North and the Muslim separatist movement in the South. Cebu is in the middle of the country, and that’s exactly what CTEC delegates expect to come up with… some kind of a middle-ground solution to our global problem of terrorism.

While there has been a lot of fanfare for the ASEAN Summit, the CTEC conference suddenly came to Cebu out of nowhere. Gen. Defensor explained that this is due to the rare privilege that we got when the Philippines chaired this year the United Nations (UN) Security Council under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA). Philippine STAR publisher Manong Max Soliven wrote about this on Holy Thursday, that one of the main objectives of CTEC uses a STAR acronym, which stands for Securing Trade in the APEC Region. It is to identify key dilemmas and difficulties in fighting terrorism from global, regional and national perspectives.

But that this world conference was held in Cebu at all makes it already a great success! After all, it is the very first time that experts on counter-terrorism from all over the world have met. They also hope to come up with the Cebu Concord (much like the Doha Round in the WTO talks) as a template to map areas of convergence in the global fight against terrorism.

While the Philippines is privileged to have this conference held here, we bring to this conference our rich experience in fighting terrorism… when terrorism wasn’t even in vogue. Let’s go back to our history. How many of you out there realize that the Americans got their first taste of Muslim terror at the hands of the Moro juramentados in Mindanao?

When he was assigned in Mindanao, Gen. John Pershing (he also commanded the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I and the Mexican border campaign against Pancho Villa) complained to Colt, the famous gun manufacturer, that the then current caliber .38 round couldn’t stop a Moro juramentado as the bullets would merely pass through the fanatic. Colt then came up with the famous 1911 caliber .45 pistol, which was used extensively in Mindanao and became known as a "man stopper." The juramentados of yesteryears were the precursor of today’s "suicide bombers," a problem that counter-terrorism experts are still trying to find ways to stop.

How many of you remember or learned from our history books that a day after the invasion of Red Beach in Tacloban, Leyte, a new wave of terror hatched in a Japanese airfield in Pampanga was unleashed against the American invasion forces… it was dubbed the Kamikaze or the Divine Wind, where perfectly flyable Japanese Mitsubishi Zeros or Zekes would drop from the sky and crash into US aircraft carrier decks or cruisers and destroyers with fearsome ferocity? While these terror tactics were done against the Americans, the fact that these happened in our country gives you an idea of what Filipinos know about terrorism.

We can also contribute to recent history on terror when we had that infamous World Trade Center bomber, Ramzi Yousef, taking a PAL Boeing 747 (Flight no. 434) from Manila to Cebu on Dec. 11, 1994 where he planted a bomb on Row 26 then got off the plane in Cebu. When the PAL plane proceeded to Tokyo with some 292 passengers on board, his bomb exploded over Okinawa, killing a lone Japanese passenger. Authorities traced this to Yousef, who was the original planner of crashing airliners into tall buildings.

With Gen. Defensor on top of this worldwide confab, let’s hope and pray that the experts on counter-terrorism will be able to find long-term solutions that will make this world a safer place to live in.

* * *

It seems that SPO1 Marcial Ocampo is on the spot, despite his vehement denials of allegedly killing Bantay Dagat program director and Cebu City market administrator Elpidio "Jojo" de la Victoria last April 12 in front of his residence in San Roque, Talisay City. What is quite uncanny in this case is that the witnesses who came forward to help the Talisay police search for the killer, came up with an artist’s sketch of the gunman that was almost a perfect sketch of Ocampo’s face.

Of course, Ocampo denies all the allegations hurled against him, presenting an alibi that he was in Danao City when the crime was committed. Of course, he is considered innocent until his guilt is proven. For sure, he’s trying to save his neck… and more importantly, he is trying to hide the mastermind of this brutal murder, who until now remains unidentified.

If there’s any consolation at all, at least Jojo did not die in vain. Yesterday, there was a forum on Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) at the University of Cebu. MSY is the largest average quantity of fish that can be harvested from fish stocks/resources within a period of time. We never heard of this before until Jojo and the Visayan Sea Squadron told us about it.

* * *

For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.