We're right in the midst of a Sino

The dramatic rescue by a Philippine National Police team of three Chinese kidnap victims last Tuesday night has opened an entirely new can of worms. The hostages were freed on the basis of a "tip" by a contingent led by Colonel Glenn Dumlao.

What was alarming was that the three hostages -- as well as two of their captors who were seized by the police raiders -- were "pure" Chinese. Meaning that all of them had come from the Chinese mainland. This certainly points to the fact that we are obviously in the midst of a Triad (criminal secret society) war, and most Filipinos don't realize it.

What's revealing is the cruel treatment meted out the "prisoners" by their captors. One of the rescued men, a certain Jia Xuan Cheng, had been shot in the nape with a .22 pistol and stabbed in the foot with a screwdriver. The second, Liu Yao Wu, had had his ring finger cut off. Sin Ho, the third victim, was intact but in a pitiful condition. All had to be bundled off by the police to the Baguio General Hospital.

The two kidnappers caught by the PNP were also Fookienese (like their victims) -- namely, Chung Xiao Tsing and Leung Kuan. In short, all the five persons involved were "undocumented" aliens.

Afterwards, the cops left behind to search the two-story house discovered 11 kilograms of drugs (shabu) concealed behind a wall.

The address of the "safe house" was No. 33 John Bee Village, Bakawkan, Baguio City.

Two of the kidnappers' confederates were traced to a posh 5-star hotel in Makati, but had skipped before police agents arrived to nab them.

What's this? The Battle of the Yellow River? Owing to so many hundreds (thousands?) of Chinese being illicitly smuggled into the Philippines, we've become a battleground of Triad rivalry and vengeance.

It turns out that the victim who had suffered gunshot wounds, Jia, had been grabbed off the street near the Makati Medical Center last December 3. The other two, Sin and Liu, had been snatched from the Baguio Palace Hotel last January 6.

It's not the first incident pointing to enhanced Triad activity here. In August last year, a fellow named Jason Chua Yang was accosted by a group of four men in the Blue Mansions Subdivision off Boni Avenue (Mandaluyong).

This time, the kidnap attempt went wrong. In the scuffle, the gun of one of the would-be abductors went off by accident, killing a gang member instead. The dead man carried papers identifying him as "Nelson Chua," but this I.D. was found to be spurious.

These tales are beginning to read like a badly-scripted detective novel.

PNP Col. Michael Ray Aquino, chief operations officer of Director General Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, is overseeing the investigation into the probability that a Drug War has erupted with rival Triads clawing away at each other for control.

One thing is clear. We can't allow unrestricted illegal "immigration" to go on, since we're not only "importing" Chinese "warm bodies" from both the mainland and Taiwan, but bringing in their Triad violence as well.

The Triads as syndicates date back centuries to the rule of China's authoritarian Emperor Zhou. The victim with the missing finger is interesting. Anyone well-versed in Triad lore knows that the favorite "symbolic" weapon of the Triad gangs is the meat cleaver (even though they are armed with automatic weapons and explosives, too). The Triad enforcers, called hung kwan (Red Poles), like to leave their signature by cutting their victims up. They hack up their enemies as a sign of vengeance.

It's a frightening new ball game in which, although Filipinos may believe we're bystanders, we will end up the suckers and victims. It's good that the PNP is on the job, this time.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Alfredo Lim had a cordial meeting with Senator Teofisto "Tito" Guingona and PNP Director (General) Ping Lacson at the Ristorante La Dolce Fontana in Greenhills yesterday morning.

Senator Guingona, who had formerly been Secretary of Justice (under whom the National Bureau of Investigation operates), assured his friend, Fred, of his support, and congratulated General Lacson. He still maintained his opposition, however, to the deployment of Marines in Metro Manila.

The three also met with North Greenhills residents who were protesting a "fixed" election in their village -- which, by the way, is where the President's home, on Polk street, is located.

When I asked Lacson about quite a number of reports which have surfaced in the newspapers and on radio that he and his new DILG Secretary, Lim, would soon be "fighting" -- since both are strong personalities -- Ping laughed. He said: "They have been trying to `divide' us and pit us against each other from Day One, but I promise you, that will never happen! Fred Lim is my mentor, and we'll always be together."

Lim, for his part, beamingly posed for photographs with Lacson as they were literally "mobbed" by their many admirers in the restaurant.

Proof that intriguers are trying to undermine the Lim-Lacson tandem was provided last Sunday when a ranking Manila official (who had been a Lim protégé and had served under Lim when he was Manila mayor for two terms) visited President Estrada. The Chief Executive mischievously (since he knew this Manila big shot and Lim had no love lost for each other) asked the fellow what he thought of his new "DILG Secretary."

The official sneered and told Erap that the two tough personalities could never work together. "You already had a strong Action Man in the person of Lacson," the official snorted. "Why did you need somebody like Lim?" He maintained that Lim's appointment had "no added value."

This sally, Alikabok tells me, completely amused the President. Lim commented afterwards that he and Lacson respect each other so much, he knows they will cooperate "in full confidence" with each other.

Yesterday, his fourth day in office, Lim showed he was not a NATO (No Action, Talk Only) official. In a memorandum he signed and personally handed to General Lacson (dated January 11, 2000), Lim directed the immediate implementation of a six-month "suspension" ordered by Malacañang to be meted out to a provincial governor.

The directive suspended Kalinga Governor Dominador T. Belac, pursuant to a decision rendered on December 16, 1999, by the Office of the President.

This sends a message, loud and clear, to elective officials that under Lim the DILG will not tolerate malfeasance by elective "local" officials. This is a timely warning: Owing to what they believe is the "power" granted to them by the Local Government Code of 1991, too many elective local officials have been strutting around like despots in their jurisdictions, which they consider their fiefdoms.

Last night, when I checked with General Lacson, he informed me that the "suspension" order had already been served Kalinga Governor Belac by Police Chief Supt. Renato Paredes, PNP director of the CAR (Cordillera Autonomous Region). He said that the governor had offered no resistance and had peacefully quit his office.

Now, if you ask me, that's aksyon agad.

I wish the President would stop listening to so many voices clamoring for his ear, and reversing statements he made earlier. It's beginning to look as if he hasn't gotten rid of his urong-sulong propensity.

Although he had expressed approval of Bataan Rep. Enrique "Tet" Garcia's proposal (under House Bill No. 8710) for the creation of a National Oil Exchange Company as a leverage to cushion the spiraling prices of oil, gasoline, and other petroleum products, the President surprisingly turned around the other day. Acting kuno on the recommendation of Energy Secretary Mario Tiaoqui, Erap rejected the Garcia proposal.

Now, everybody knows that Mario Tiaoqui is near and dear to the President. Tiaoqui was not only Erap's high school classmate in the Ateneo, but the cause of his expulsion. When an American schoolmate much bigger than tiny Tiaoqui was bullying the young man, Erap came to his defense -- and slugged it out with the American, a guy named Hilton. As a result, both were kicked out of the Ateneo.

That having been said, it's important that the President not be swayed by Auld Acquaintance, Auld Lang Syne, and the Old School colors, but by what's best for the Filipino people. Mario, who's an all-right guy in most ways, used to be an oil company executive -- he was top kick in Petron -- and therefore has a built-in pro-Big Oil mentality.

If the President has now rejected the Garcia proposal and won't certify it as "urgent" to Congress for enactment into law, what weapon do we have against the overbearing arrogance of the Big Oil monopolists -- Petron, Caltex, and Shell? We've nothing to bargain with, and they're now free to walk all over us.

Can we protest? The bottom line for the oil cartel is the profit motive. Who cares about poor Juan de la Cruz, Aling Kurdapia, and the Mahirap of Erap? If oil and gasoline prices go up, the costs of electric power, transportation, food and other essentials inevitably go up, and we'll all be, as a nation, headed for the Poor House.

Doesn't the President realize this? He has no option. We, the people, have no option. We have to get off our behinds -- and fight. Fight tooth and nail, claw for claw, to repulse the dictatorship of the oil moguls.

Tet Garcia's bill would have given us the tools with which to fight, giving us a renewed foothold on the battlefield, by enabling us to search the whole wide world for cheaper, more reasonably-priced oil -- and gasoline. Why don't we, for instance, IMPORT diesel oil, bunker oil, and gasoline instead -- and not insist on "refining" it here (which the oil companies claim "sends up" the price because the process is so expensive)?

Mr. President, please rethink your priorities. Don't give up. The legacy you must leave your people is that of a courageous leader, standing up manfully to resist the ogres who dominate the ruthless corporate board rooms of this planet.