Let's stop the smuggling 'kings' who are ruining our rice and sugarfarmers

The insolent rice and sugar smuggling syndicates have been bringing in rice and sugar from Viet Nam and Thailand by the gross ton and have got to be crushed without mercy. If they aren't stopped, they will ruin our rice farmers and our already struggling sugar industry.

"Task Force Aduana" under General Jose Calimlim racked up a big score a few weeks ago when its agents (spearheaded by elements of the Intelligence Service Armed Forces of the Philippines, or ISAFP) swooped down on Ozamiz port in Mindanao and seized five ships, loaded to the gills with 20,000 sacks of rice and 20,000 bags of sugar. It was a "lucky strike" (to risk a pun) because only rain and heavy weather had kept those vessels from being quickly unloaded and skipping out -- thus, the shipments were intercepted.

Mind you, those were not small bottoms, but ships as large as 25,000 tons, which had sailed into Ozamiz in full view, as breezily as you please. This indicates that a well-organized gang, run by two notorious brothers on the Kuratong Baleleng model, has been operating out of Ozamiz. (This is the same port where the ferry boat, MV Our Lady Mediatrix, was devastated when bombs exploded in two buses aboard the ferry).

One can only imagine how many contraband shipments of sugar and rice had slipped through previously. The President was incensed when he learned that the two brothers, Renato and Reynaldo, had been dropping his name to facilitate the release of their illicit cargoes. Has "Task Force Aduana" effectively halted the racket? The gang has shifted its operations to other outports and coves, while Ozamiz City's port remains "hot" and under surveillance. Viet Nam, Thailand, and our other neighbors have been "dumping" their surpluses here.

Smuggling has become such a way of life that goods have a way of being sneaked out even from Duty Free bodegas or "bonded" warehouses. There's even a term for the mafiosi-type characters who perform such slick operations; they're called ninjas, after the Japanese criminal warriors (the opposite of the samurai) who were renowned for their martial arts and ability to "invisibly" come and go at will.

As usual, the smuggling kings in Luzon are also bragging of their "closeness" to President Estrada. I think it's time the Chief Executive did something about this -- such as expelling the suspects and name-droppers from his presence and barring them from the Palace. Every photo opportunity with the President, alas, gives these crooks "face value."

There's a woman smuggler nicknamed "Baby," for instance, who always claimed to be "in" with a Presidential family, although she has recently been vehemently repudiated. This scarlet lady is now facing a string of charges, but she rode high and mighty for an outrageously lucrative period.

Would you believe, not only electronic commodities and finished goods as well as "dressed chickens" and other types of food, garments (from dirt-cheap Chinese factories) and other sweat-shop items have been flooding into our country. But the contraband-runners have also been smuggling in tons of salt from India.

Salt?

Remember, when the great Mohandas K. Gandhi, otherwise known as the Mahatma, launched his "passive resistance" campaign to win independence from the British Raj, his first injunction to Indians was that they should refuse to pay the "salt tax." Well, they're not paying the "salt tax" here either.

Incidentally, when "Task Force Aduana" units stormed into Puro Pingit in Magsingal, Ilocos Sur (sadly, they even used helicopter gunships), the Calimlim raiders confiscated over 600 large and small motorbikes. They discovered that the smuggling operation there was being financed by two Indians based in Vigan.

When I was a little boy, bearded itinerant Indian traders used to visit our homes to unwrap argosies of goodies, from silks to combs and cheap costume jewellery which they carried about in huge sacks hung from their broad shoulders. Naughty kids were both fascinated and affrighted by these turbanned giants, mostly Sikhs, and parents and maiden aunts would warn them that, if they didn't behave, the Indian "bogeyman" would get them.

Nowadays, aside from motorbike-riding 5/6 loan-sharks, local Indians have branched out into big legitimate enterprises such as manufacturing and wholesale retailing. But there are still, as in every ethnic group, the mischievous ones such as the financiers of smuggling and, sometimes, shabu.

The argument being invoked to justify a plan to mobilize 35,000 volunteer militia men into Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Units (CAFGUs) is that an irregular CAFGU asset would cost much less in salary and maintenance than a regular soldier or police constable. This is wrongheaded thinking. A hastily recruited and half-trained but armed CAFGU member is not under military discipline and could easily go astray -- utilizing his government-issued weapon to bully and terrorize his own neighbors and nearby communities. As I've said, this is a cure that could prove worse than the disease.

The last thing we need is for 35,000 armed hoodlums to be thrown into the cauldron of conflict in our provinces, particularly in strife-torn Mindanao. That P1 billion proposed to be earmarked for extra CAFGUs would be better spent upgrading the training and armaments of our regular Armed Forces and PNP.

I think our generals and ex-generals (including those in Malacañang and the Senate) are toying with the CAFGU idea owing to their sad memories of the 1973-1975 "Moro Wars" in which thousands of our young 19- to 20-year old army and PC recruits were hurled, like cannon fodder, into the fight against Bangsa Moro rebels whose expertise in ambuscade, guerilla fighting, "land mines", bombs, and assorted weaponry, surpassed those of the raw, young officers and men we sent into the maw of the seesaw battle there.

So many of our "boys", thanks to their being unschooled and inexperienced in military tactics and reaction to a determined enemy who struck from behind, were killed in the Moro insurgency in those days that Camp Aguinaldo and Camp Crame were appalled. Retired General Charlie Tañega of the Philippine Air Force used to recount how he would fly planeloads of "reinforcements" to Mindanao, then turn around with his aircraft packed with the bodies of the men slain in combat, either in boxes or body-bags. It was, he related, demoralizing for the youthful draftees to spot those boxes containing the dead as the plane rolled to a stop for them to deplane. And, sure enough, too many of the reinforcing troops had to be flown back to Luzon in the same "deceased" condition not very much later.

This is no longer the case, our military leaders say. The units they have on the Mindanao front are not raw recruits or unskilled officers, but are mostly experienced and combat-smart professionals. They warn, however, that the Muslim insurgents -- including the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Abu Sayyaf -- are being resupplied monthly and being armed with modern weaponry by their sponsors in the Arab and Asian Muslim world, including the Malaysians, Libyans, Afghans, Pakistanis, and even that terrorist billionaire Osama bin Laden. Our air force, navy and coast guard ought to be upgraded in order to enable them to intercept and interdict such shipments.

But, most of all, the "peace talks" now being conducted off and on with the MILF should not go beyond the June 30th deadline, our strategists warn. If the MILF doesn't come to heel, they point out, a belated "offensive" might prove more costly to the AFP and PNP since the "enemy" would be better armed and prepared.

It surely must have been discouraging to them to hear the announcement by National Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado that "peace talks" with the Moro rebels could be extended beyond June, if necessary. Such defeatist talk should be avoided by Orly or any other official. The President, the DND Secretary, and the armed forces set a deadline: June 30th. They had better stick to it. Any sign of weakness, indecision and waffling would be interpreted by the Islamic fundamentalists and mujahideen as a sign of the evaporation of our national resolve.

This must not happen.

The "terrorist" threat -- even as that grenade attack on the Department of Energy headquarters in Taguig seemed a flea-bite, though mounted by the Communist Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB) as an apparent propaganda ploy -- shouldn't be discounted.

Malacañang isn't admitting it, but a few days ago a much larger "bomb" a few feet long was discovered and defused in the old San Miguel compound right next to the Palace grounds.

We're lucky that the "bombings" here are being conducted by amateurs in contrast to the sophisticated and powerful bombs being utilized in the Middle East, Africa, Spain and South America by experts. We mustn't wait until our local troublemakers acquire more skill and expertise, or manage to "import" technicians to improve their destructive capabilities. We've got to refine our own anti-bomb procedures, and, more importantly, our early-warning "intelligence" network.

Spain, for example, which had enjoyed peace for many years was recently rocked by a resurgence of Basque terrorism undertaken by the resistance group ETA (derived, some scholars say, from the Euskera word Ekin, meaning "to persist" or "to act").

The two bomb attacks recently mounted by ETA didn't result in a great number of fatalities, the first hapless victim was a colonel in Madrid, and the subsequent two victims consisted of a prominent and outspoken Basque figure who was critical of the ETA terrorists and his bodyguard. However, the lesson driven home is that a small band of terrorists, no more than a few hundred, could throw entire communities into confusion and provoke widespread anger.

Strangely enough, July 31, 1959, which coincides with the Saint's Day of St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order (St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier, S.J., were famous Basques), was chosen as the official founding date of ETA!

The ETA terrorists' most terrible feat occurred in 1973, after ETA operatives were informed that one of the men they most hated, Spain's then Prime Minister, Admiral Carrero Blanco went to Mass daily at the Jesuit Church of San Francisco de Borja on Calle Serrano at exactly the same time in his black Dodge, accompanied by only one or two police officers.

"Operation Ogre" was mounted by the ETA commandos who began to follow Carrero Blanco's movements, and the "timing" of the changes in his guard.

The commandos packed 165 pounds of dynamite underneath the surface of the road where the Admiral usually parked his car. Sure enough, on December 20, 1973, at 9:30 a.m., Carrero Blanco arrived in his Dodge and parked in the usual place. The ETA "bombers" detonated their hidden dynamite at that moment and hurled the ill-fated Prime Minister's car into the air. The smashed vehicle ended up on the top of a nearby building. Poor Carrero Blanco, of course, was literally blown up.

The Spaniards, even while furiously condemning this cold-blooded act, have a gallows sense of humor. They cracked that the unfortunate Admiral had become Spain's first astronaut. The Basque underground was even more cruel in its boast: "Una bache mas, un cabron menos" (one more pothole, one less asshole).

The conclusion we must derive from this cautionary tale is that a few murderous barbarians can, indeed, wreak maximum havoc. That's in the nature of terrorism. The unexpected and imaginative assault on Carrero Blanco continues to haunt the daily movements of Spanish officials and generals still.

As for us, if we don't live and learn -- we'll stay ignorant and risk dying.