'White House' lunch and eye surgery for Erap in the U.S.A.

The schedule of the President's "official visit" to the United States has almost been firmed up. Unless there's a sudden shift in priorities, the Chief Executive will head for the airport straight from delivering his State of the Nation (SONA) address to Congress on July 24, then fly off to San Francisco, California.

During his "overnight" in the Bay Area, Erap will meet with the executives of three or four top Silicon Valley firms like YAHOO. (Woodside, where there are more ponies than people, the Valley's enclave of almost unbelievable e-billionaire wealth is, after all, only 30 miles south of San Francisco.) We hear this portion is being arranged by tycoon Manny Pangilinan, who hates being called a "tycoon."

The "official" portion of the trip will last eight days, but there may be four or more extra days tacked on because the President has to go to Boston for eye surgery. (Don't ask me to elaborate, because this plan alone will -- I'm sure -- launch a thousand quips about his eyesight, but it's necessary surgery which requires special treatment and equipment).

There will also be a visit to New York City for some meetings.

The highlight of the journey will of course be the luncheon tendered in Erap's honor by US President Bill Clinton in the White House in Washington, DC.

There is supposed to be a one-and-one meeting between President Estrada and Mr. Clinton in the latter's Oval Office, followed by the luncheon to which a selected number of guests will be invited. President Estrada's group will comprise ONLY TEN PERSONS, so we can expect a lot of jockeying and eye-gouging, even among Cabinet members, for inclusion in that exclusive list for the July 27 affair.

Moreover, my Alikabok says, every member of the President's official delegation will be given a special "pin" to be worn at all times. This will be issued by the US government based on a list to be provided by the President and Malacañang. Nobody without that security "pin" will be permitted within spitting distance of the Blair House, the official guest house reserved by US Presidents for state visitors with the rank of president, prime minister, sultan, king or emperor, but over the years there have been a few exceptions.

Nowadays, US government invitations for visiting chiefs of state, chief executives, and high dignitaries to "stay" in Blair House specify that sojourns there are limited to two or, at most, three days. What we were told is that this "stricture" had to be added because once, not too long ago, a head of one country (they don't even hint which country, naturally) and his entourage settled in and announced they were staying, all expenses paid, for more than one week! (The "overstayers" must have ordered hamburgers and champagne galore).

There is already much embarrassing infighting in government and business circles for inclusion in that caravan to the US, even if only on "attached" or kibitzer status. (It includes, after all, a lot of photo opportunities, bragging opportunities and, not to be sneezed at, "visa" to the United States.)

Wiser and cooler heads, I kid thee not, although they would dearly love to be seen by their American relatives, business associates, etc., in the company of the President aren't planning on going -- otherwise, they'll risk being crushed in the stampede.

The President's journey is being described as an official visit (as distinguished from a full-scale "state visit"). This means that when he arrives in Andrews US Air Force Base, he will be rendered official honors. A ceremony involving full military honors and a parade will be scheduled, I'm informed, in the Pentagon.

In the Blair House, which is walking distance from the White House, Mr. Estrada will hold meetings with US Cabinet officials, members of the House and Senate, and other officials. Presumably, US Vice President Al Gore, who is the Democratic Party candidate for President, will interrupt his busy campaign for the November elections to see President Estrada in Washington, DC.

My sources say that Erap will meet Texas Governor George W. Bush, the Republican candidate, on another trip -- possibly in his home bailiwick in Houston, Texas. However, the details on that haven't been finally worked out.

There is expected to be an aid package, including military equipment and some sea patrol vessels, awaiting "signing" in the US capital. The extent of the anticipated "assistance" as well as credit and other "understandings" remains classified.

Incidentally, our Ambassador to Washington, DC, former Senate President (and former STAR columnist) Ernesto Maceda, is already in town to help firm up some details of the visit, while American Ambassador Tom Hubbard, who left a few days ago, is in Washington, DC for a similar purpose.

Those who're planning to go had better be forewarned. July and August are the peak "vacation" season in the US, as in Western Europe and many holidaymakers, both local and foreign, crowd into the US capital in late July and the month of August. So unless Filipino travellers aren't members of the pared-down "official delegation", they would do well to rush to make their hotel reservations now. (It may, in fact, be already too late). Otherwise, they'll find themselves billeted somewhere in Virginia State or Maryland in some motel or drive-in.

They can't even sleep in the park. The park near K street NW and Pennsylvania avenue is always full of vagrants and homeless people in the shining capitol of the so-called Land of Milk and Money. This is a fact of life. Since the Founding Father and First President, General George Washington, seems to have "slept" almost everywhere (as signs proclaim all over the surrounding states, including those along the New Jersey Turnpike and beyond the Beltway, "George Washington Slept Here"), the American poor -- yes, Virginia, some didn't get anything from Santa Claus -- must believe they have the "freedom to sleep" anywhere in the Land of the Free.

I mean no offense. As Jesus said in the New Testament, admonishing His apostles: "The poor you will always have with you."

Another item: July and August are the hottest months of the year, with temperatures sometimes soaring past 34 Celsius. (There's an expression, "The Dog Days of Summer".) And the humidity in DC can be awful, unless there's a cold wave down from Canada and the polar regions -- which is rare.

But in the old days, and I mean "ancient times," when I was a student in Washington, DC and New York, there used to be an expression: "If you don't like the weather -- wait a while . . ." People were fainting all over the place from heat prostration.

For at least three weeks or more, it's T-shirt country or Barong Tagalog country at your "dressiest" over there.

The only thing that could derail the planned trip, although it probably won't, is a deterioration of the Mindanao situation. However, things appear to finally be going the government's way.

Don't discount, although it may be postponed or revised if the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) "miraculously" manages to forge an honest-to-goodness "peace agreement" (not likely, I think) with the government, an all-out military offensive to take Camp Abubakar, the main headquarters and heretofore "protected enclave" of the rebel MILF.

In the meantime, though, the armed forces and the Philippine National Police would do well not to "telegraph" their moves. We have, alas, the propensity to boast or warn "the enemy" that we'll do this or we'll do that, as if noise will scare the Moro insurgents into dropping their arms, wetting their pants, and "surrendering" in droves. This is wishful thinking.

It's true that the marauding Vikings of olden days used to bang on their breastplates and their shields, rattle their spears, and brandish their swords and battle-axes, uttering bloodthirsty war cries to terrify their trembling foes, trembling "victims" really, before descending on a village, fort, or monastery. But they really earned their fearsome reputation by then advancing and cutting everybody down. Christian communities would pray to God to be delivered "from the fury of the Norsemen."

In Mindanao, on the other hand, they're used to empty sound and fury. The only thing they respect is the mailed fist. Moro leaders and political warlords (every one of those mayors and governors, you bet, has a private army) use it themselves on their own Muslim constituents. Is this philosophy cruel? It's the only one, sad to say, that works. Muslims and Christians there, alike, are inured to threats, treachery, and broken promises.

In this light, I'm surprised that former President Corazon C. Aquino, His Turbulence Jaime Cardinal Sin, and even business leaders like Jaime Augusto Zobel are loudly demanding that President Estrada and the government forces declare "a 40-day ceasefire." Whaat? Now that the government has the upper hand -- a ceasefire? (Time for the rebels to regroup, re-arm, consolidate their defenses, launch a surprise counter-attack, recruit, and rest from the pounding and pummeling they have recently been getting?)

May I suggest that those eminences, ex-President Aquino, Cardinal Sin and his supporting Bishops and clerics, and indeed a delegation of Makati businessmen go to Mindanao's frontline areas, unprotected, to try "sweet reason" with the Muslim rebels and enforce a ceasefire themselves. That would be meaningful.

They can even sprinkle Holy Water on the Abu Sayyaf sadists who cruelly tortured then killed the Catholic priest, Fr. Rhoel Gallardo (perhaps killing him was a mercy, so carved up and mangled was he), and left behind the mutilated corpses of three lady teachers in Lamitan, Basilan (last May 3). It's said by eyewitnesses that everytime a child from among the 27 hostages seized by the bandits from two schools last March 20 was dragged out to be raped, Father Gallardo -- already torn up from daily torture -- bravely protested. In retaliation, the Abu Sayyaf animals would pull out several of his fingernails.

The MILF, although pictured as "better" than the Abu Sayyaf renegades, didn't spare civilians and, more pitilessly, captured or wounded soldiers either.

When all is said and done, it must be remembered that when Mrs. Aquino was President and the revered Joan of Arc of liberation, she was the one who brought "home" Nur Misuari -- who had already been forgotten in his tattered exile in Libya and Saudi Arabia. And lo and behold, the Moro rebellion was mysteriously resurrected.

There have ceasefires, and ceasefires, and ceasefires. The result: More dead civilians, policemen and soldiers. When will this grinding war of attrition ever come to an end? Everytime "peace" is proclaimed, more victims are added to the grim roster.

As for Don Jaime Augusto and his Makati business brethren, granted their aims are noble, the call for a "ceasefire" reflects extreme naiveté. They've never had to endure on that perilous frontier, with nights of terror -- and even noonday panic -- from the comings and goings of ferocious Tausug, Maranao, Maguindanao, Yakan, and other Moro bandit or "rebel" bands as well as the comings and goings of soldiers from the Army, Marines, CAFGU units, and the PNP, counter-attacking or reacting to ambush.

When my sister's children were small (they are grownup today with families of their own, and one is a Jesuit priest) in their exposed farm home in Basilan, she and her late husband Marno had to teach them, even the baby, "the silence game." How else can you tell children that any crying or noise from concealment would spell "death" for them and the entire family? Each time a roving band of raiders was detected passing through the creekside in their place in Galayan, Maluso (Basilan), Mercy would frantically tell the kids: "Silence Game! Silence Game!" And they would dutifully stifle any rustling movement or whisper.

This situation is true EVEN NOW, even more so now.

Muslim and Christian civilians are forced to subsist under even more debilitating conditions of terror, and, often enough, witness scenes of horror and inhumanity. As long as there are guns and bladed weapons, rocket launchers, grenades and other explosives, in the hands of ruthless men, even "boys" who don't hesitate to use them (more terrifying, in the hands of the rude and uneducated, or fanatics of one stripe or another), Mindanao will never have peace. A ceasefire? Soon enough, the firing will resume again -- inevitably.

"The blood of martyrs" -- was it Tertullian who said it? -- is supposed to be "the seed of Christianity." There is plenty of blood fertilizing the fecund soil of Mindanao, shed by Christians and Muslims -- and "pagans" -- alike. What has been sown over the generations are the seeds of suspicion, vendetta, prejudice and murder instead.

Only a strong, earnest, and honest government can disarm the bullies, hoodlums and self-styled mujahideen, and fierce militias as well (the streamlined modern Ylagas) and enforce the rule of law. However, neither prayers, sprinklings of Holy Water, novenas nor pious passages from the Bible or the Koran can -- even among people who cling to a belief in miracles -- bring peace and development to Mindanao.

There must first be law and justice. Then the Zobels and the businessmen, risking their capital and hopefully not their lives, can move in to make fields bloom and the towers of industry soar.

There is no other way. Like all talk, peace talks are cheap. "Peace" is a word uttered as easily as "God" or "Allah." Making peace -- that's what is difficult.