Crush crime and the Kuratong Baleleng, GMA: You’re being challenged - BY THE WAY by Max V. Soliven

The report that some elements of the Kuratong Baleleng gang and other criminal groups are now mobilizing in Manila to launch a string of robbery attacks and kidnappings may be plain "gossip," but a newspaper says the tip came from a ranking law enforcement officer.

The President and PNP chief Deputy Director General Leandro R. Mendoza ought to take the threat seriously. The criminal syndicates which were put "on the run" by the stern and ruthless tactics of former PNP chief Director General Panfilo "Ping" Lacson are now bent on testing the mettle of the new administration and General Mendoza’s leadership in the PNP. If they’re successful in their first few capers, they’ll turn the heat on.

My advice – unsolicited, of course – is for President GMA and the PNP to preempt the thugs, hoodlums and "hit" brigades. Don’t give them a chance to strike first.

Take the Kuratong Baleleng, who virtually controls Ozamiz City (an area of 16,407 hectares) and keep its population of 104,275 under a literal reign of fear. The KB went on a rampage right here in Metro Manila in 1998, staging banner-headline-grabbing armed robberies such as the sensational Miladay jewellery heist in the Makati Greenbelt area.

The Kuratong Baleleng’s reach outside of Ozamiz extends to Sominot, Zamboanga del Sur, and the mob engages in rice, corn, sugar smuggling – and worst of all – drug-running throughout the Zamboanga peninsula and northern Mindanao, including the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro.

The KB’s leaders used to boast of their "connections" all the way to the top during the Estrada regime. The organization was so well entrenched that they threatened to take over the entire political establishment by the ballot, not just by the bullet.

I’m curious, on another subject, about the political plans and fortunes of two brothers "very, very influential" in Ozamiz City. One is Renato Parojinog, who ran for Congress in the 1998 polls but was defeated by Rep. Hilario Ramiro. Is it true he has a large "private army"?

Then there’s Brother Reynaldo Parojinog, Sr., president of the Association of Barangay Councils, Misamis Occidental. Would you believe? Reynaldo is also chairman of the Misamis Occidental Movement for Peace and Order. Before Erap fell, he intended to run for mayor of Ozamiz as the LAMP candidate in the coming May elections. It’s fascinating that, as late as last December, nobody had surfaced willing to run against him.

How about now that Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is President? Will the new People Power Coalition (PPC) find somebody brave enough to contest the mayorship with this guy?

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Before he left for Hong Kong last Wednesday, former President Fidel V. Ramos called me up three times (we were continually being "cut off" by bad cellphone connections). FVR’s intent was not just to wish me Happy Valentine but to vehemently deny that he was trying to upstage President GMA and give the impression he was "running the government."

Cousin Eddie underscored that the four times he had been photographed prominently featuring in La Gloria’s activities he had specifically been "invited", and had even been reluctant to join the press conference in Tamayo’s Restaurant. Before he enplaned for Hong Kong, Kuya Eddie faxed me a handwritten marginal note scrawled around a copy of my column about him dominating GMA’s appointments and governance, chiding me: "As you have written, you have – as usual – said just part of the story which is mostly wrong. To get this story right and others before it, I cordially invite you and Boo Chanco to join me at the RPDEV Museum and Library in Ayala Alabang (back of my residence) from 11 a.m. onwards on 19 February 01 (Monday)."

FVR offered me an Ilocano lunch of pan de sal with keso or some other filling, but quipped we would have to eat quickly because that same afternoon he was flying up to Baguio for the big Philippine Military Academy bash.

What was Apo Eddie doing in Hong Kong? He went there to preside as guest of honor and speaker at the Far Eastern Economic Review’s "Review 2000" Awards, where, he said, he hoped to plug for renewed overseas interest and foreign investment in the new Philippines under President GMA. He stressed that his trip was being undertaken at no cost to the Philippine government. Oh, well, you can’t make a tiger change his stripes (or was that a mixed metaphor?). FVR still hews to his fantasy role as the RP’s Top Salesman.

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With a crowd of masa placard-carrying "pro-Erap" demonstrators gumming up traffic along Taft Avenue and Padre Faura, just outside the Supreme Court premises, the nation’s High Tribunal yesterday (in proceedings which ran up to 4 p.m.) heard the arguments of the contending parties in two cases filed by ousted President Estrada. The petitions questioned the Constitutionality of President GMA’s assumption of the Presidency on January 20.

Appearing at the hearings were former Senator Rene Saguisag and former UP College of Law Dean Pacifico Agabin, who represented the deposed President Estrada, while Justice Secretary Hernando "Nani" Perez appeared for President Arroyo. Ombudsman Aniano Desierto was also on hand to defend his office’s investigation of the cases filed against Estrada which the latter wants suspended pending resolution of the two cases he filed with the High Court.

The parties concerned were given a non-extendable period of five days from yesterday to submit their respective memoranda, which means that after February 20 both cases will be deemed submitted for decision. The way it looks, the Supreme Court will be resolving the cases not later than mid-March. Whatever ruling will emerge, what’s important is that they are expeditiously resolved.

Fortunately for the nation, we have a credible and much-respected tribunal headed by a Chief Justice (Hilario Davide, Jr.) who commands the respect of the public. This is in contrast to the Supreme Court during the Marcos heyday, which – though it had such distinguished members as Claudio Teehankee, Cecilia Muñoz-Palma, and Calixto Zaldivar in the 1970s – was infested by classmates of the dictator, and – from 1974 to February 1986 – was headed by Chief Justices who subordinated the High Court to the wishes of Malacañang.

At yesterday’s hearing, there was a development that many did not expect, but which enhanced the credibility and prestige of the Supreme Court. Heeding the petition of Estrada counsel Saguisag, Chief Justice Davide and Justice Artemio Panganiban promptly inhibited themselves from the case.

Actually, the grounds – cited by Saguisag in his "Petition to Recuse Honorable Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr. and Associate Justice Artemio V. Panganiban" which he filed last Wednesday – didn’t appear valid or compelling reasons. But the two Justices voluntarily inhibited themselves, anyway.

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Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon D. Alvarez told me yesterday that he was fast getting "unpopular" with his officers and staffers in the DOTC because he reports for work every morning at 7:30 a.m. and doesn’t leave the office until 11:30 p.m.

"The first couple of days," he grinned, "I didn’t find anybody. I learned that many DOTC personnel were in the habit of reporting for work only at 10 a.m. Now they’re coming on time."

Bebot Alvarez, a former congressman from the first district of Davao del Norte (headquartered in Tagum), understands the dynamics of development from the pragmatic, pedestrian eye-view level. When he was in Congress, his aim was to bring electricity, irrigation and running water to every barrio in his bailiwick. Now, he is tackling his new job at the DOTC with the same fervor, it appears. He’s studying how to "rationalize" traffic, for instance, along EDSA, the avenue most congested with junk buses, colorum vehicles, and pollutive traffic.

One "thought" he’s toying around with would be to call for new franchises to be issued to bus firms operating in Metro Manila. For example, the field could be narrowed (he mused) to just four bus companies whose vehicles would be color-coded, and definite stops and pick-up points assigned per bus on each route, so there would be no reckless overtaking, with buses fighting for passengers with other buses, and a definite grid of bus stops. In the meantime, the Metrostar and Light Rail Transit networks would be encouraged to field more trains so as to speed more passengers to their destinations and decongest vehicular traffic. In this way, Alvarez hoped, traffic would become so orderly that there would no longer be any need for an Odd-Even set-up and all private vehicles could be permitted on the streets seven days a week. This would, if realized, be a welcome development for all harassed Metro Manilans.

Bebot says, although he doesn’t want to offend him, he’s not a "nominee" of Cebu’s influential ex-Governor Lito Osmeña. "I don’t even know him," he sighed, referring to insinuations that he was put in the important DOTC post by Lito. He said he has been a supporter and friend of President Arroyo and her husband Mike for years, which is why, perhaps, they entrusted DOTC to him.

Alvarez strikes me as an earnest and modest gentleman. Let’s hope he succeeds.

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Since 1984, there have been eight DOTC Secretaries and two acting secretaries. Over the last 15 years, on the other hand, the DOTC has failed to draw up a National Transportation Policy for air, water and land transportation. What we have are references to so-called development plans for transportation integrated kuno in a "master plan" for economic development issued, not by the DOTC, but by another agency, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA). Such a "policy" is not NEDA’s task; it should properly be set by the DOTC itself.

All we’ve seen over the years is an alphabet soup of department orders, memorandum circulars and other injunctions issued by the DOTC to address transport problems on an ad hoc basis. What we need is a National Transportation Policy that enunciates the responsibilities of common carriers to commuters, to the environment, to public safety and to their employees, highlighting broad criteria and containing guidelines for entry into the public transportation industry. What must not be forgotten, as often it is neglected, are the financial and technical qualifications which qualify prospective operators as fit to run public carriers.

Such a policy will further serve as a "road map" for investors to follow, as well as those already in the business. What obtains today are chaos and anarchy. We have, for instance, too many 10- to 15-year old "junk" buses imported from Japan and South Korea which ought to be sent back to the scrap heap. These decrepit vehicles not only pollute the environment (witness the ugly, dark brown cloud that constantly overhangs Metro Manila) but endanger public safety.

Alvarez, an 1983 law graduate of the Ateneo de Manila University and former president of the Fraternal Order of Utopia, also belongs to a civic organization called – would you believe? – Karancho. But he’s not the kind of karancho that used to surround Erap. In Congress, he was vice chairman of the committee on transportation and communications and, on the practical side, was senior asst. general manager (COO) of the Manila International Airport Authority in 1995-97 and asst. general manager for operations from 1994-1998. Let’s hope he brings this expertise to improving our international airport.

As it stands, we’ve got one of the most primitive international airports in Asia, Singapore’s with Changi, Hong Kong’s Chep Lap Kok, Thailand’s Don Muang, and Malaysia’s Sepang beating us by the proverbial mile.

And yet we’re trying to attract investors, much less tourists? One whiff of the smelly estero that mars the NAIA approaches, or one glimpse of the squattersvilles which surround it, not to mention the traffic gridlock, and foreign visitors will turn tail and run back to their "safe" airplanes.

"Get me out of this helluva mess!" That’s what they cry.