Too much ado, and nothing done

Unless it extends its session, the Senate will go on "recess" tomorrow (Sept. 7) and not resume its meetings until Sept. 24. The Senate record of accomplishment: Zero. The upper chamber has only made glaring headlines, conducted kilometric hearings on accusations hurled against Senator Panfilo Lacson, and on allegations made by a priest that certain military officers had been "bribed" by the Abu Sayyaf, and there was collusion between certain armed forces sectors and the Moro rebels.

What have these activities done for the country? Many will shout that the exposés have saved us from becoming a "narco-state." That may well be the case: but, in the meantime, our state of poverty is deepening, industries are laying off workers, no steps have been taken to increase food production, stop "money laundering", and actually combat and subdue crimes like, yep, drug trafficking, kidnapping, carnapping, robbery, rape and assorted mayhem. We’ve all been glued to our television sets (those who have TV sets), drooling over the teledrama – one is reminded of the Emperor Nero "fiddling" while Rome burned. Is that all we look for? On with the show?

File those criminal cases against Lacson, if the evidence is sufficient, and have done with it. All that question-and-answer parrying and verbal swordplay are becoming the stuff of boredom. Even my heroine Mary "Rosebud" Ong began debating with Senator Rodolfo Biazon yesterday; gee whiz, from calm-voiced star witnesses to mini-Medusa whose blistering look could turn strong men to stone! What a disquieting development.

Rosebud should not allow "fame" to go to her head. The greatest temptation occurred when she was told that our film moguls were planning to do a movie on her and her crusade. She immediately started cooing that if it was the sexy parts they wanted, she would prefer steamy Rosanna Roces to portray her, but if it was the secret agent stuff they wanted, Vilma Santos might be best for the part. Why not Kristine Hermosa or Ara Mina? Susmariosep, Mary. Don’t let the movie bug bite you. Too much "celebrity" and quips like that debase your credibility as a witness. Just be yourself. Otherwise, you’ll transmogrify from a crusading Joan of Arc into a publicity hound.

Ms. Ong strikes me as a methodical girl who put everything in her "diary" (as reminders of each incident), kept all the receipts, built up her case. Had she planned it all from the start? The thought intrudes.

I talked with Col. Victor Corpus, a friend from the old days, at a party hosted for me in Valla Verde by my cousins – former Ilocos Sur Governor Luis "Chavit" Singson (the Jack the Giant Killer who chopped the Erap Empire down) and businessman Romy Reyes. Imagine two Ilocanos from Vigan paying for a big dinner in honor of another Saluyot – miracles still do happen! Chatting with Vic reminded me of old times, when he was a disillusioned New People’s Army commander ready to come down from the hills and surrender himself – lean, tough, but gentle in speech.

The Intelligence Chief told friends at the party that he was determined "to send that guy to jail" (meaning, I presume, Ping Lacson). Chavit Singson, of course, concurred. He has been declaring from the start that Lacson, as Director General of the Philippine National Police, had been one of the men who had mounted unsuccessful "ambush" on him on San Marcelino street, to silence him before he made his planned jueteng revelations.

* * *

National Defense Secretary Angelo T. Reyes need not have wasted his breath and saliva fighting off the attacks and insinuations of Senator Biazon (a former AFP Chief of Staff himself) in an obvious effort to shield President Arroyo from being pinpointed as the one who authorized ISAFP Director Corpus to go after Senator Lacson, hammer and thong.

Reyes kept on stubbornly insisting that Corpus’ release of "top secret" material to the media was not a violation of national security, and tried to keep the President’s name out of it, claiming that Corpus had acted categorically because he had been given wide operational "latitude."

Last Tuesday evening, at a dinner hosted by one of my partners, Jose Manuel "Babes" Romualdez, at the Pacific Plaza Towers in the Fort’s Global City, the President cheerfully acknowledged that she had given Colonel Corpus his marching orders. She told me that she had not instructed Corpus to go after Lacson in particular. She had, as was her duty as Commander-in-Chief (said she), directed Corpus to go after drug trafficking and other crimes that threatened the State.

That’s as direct as you can get. In short: It was President GMA who gave Corpus the "green light."

She asked me that now that I had met with Vic, would I be kinder to him in this column. When I replied I would, the President broke into a beatific smile and sighed, "That’s good news.

But I’ll still have to underscore: Lacson should have his day in court. Let our justice system, flawed though it may be, convict or acquit "All right, Sir" Lacson, as is provided for in the 1987 Constitution ratified overwhelmingly by the nation.

I can understand why so many people – upright citizens all of them – feel that Corpus is justified to utilize media, the Senate hearings, and other extra-legal methods (alas, in the process also tarring judges, justices, and media men by not identifying the "bad eggs" except in a sweeping indictment). Vic Corpus represents the frustrations of civic-minded (not civil, please) citizens and idealists who have been putting their heads against a stone wall, fruitlessly trying to unmask and jail evildoers and fight crime. Drug lords, like the one caught manufacturing tons of shabu in Lubao, Pampanga (the cheek of it, in President GMA’s own hometown!), have been subverted into profitable collaboration with the drug syndicates. Too many politicians, military men, businessmen, bankers, and other so-called pillars of society have been sucked into the racket, not kicking or screaming, but enticed into it by the Pied Piper tune of sudden and enormous wealth.

The courts? They can’t be trusted, the reformers wail. As a result, Col. Corpus has become the shining knight, battling ogres with every weapon at his command, even if he employs the most unorthodox methods and leaves a trail of damaged reputations in his wake.

Does the end justify the means? That’s an age-old question for which an answer, satisfactory to all, has never been found. As for me, it does not. Wrong cannot be invoked to right another wrong – even a graver wrong such as deadly narcotics. For when we begin taking drastic shortcuts, where shall we stop? Where will we draw the line? This is a desperate ploy that could become habitual.

* * *

Col. Jovenal Domingo Narcise, the Army officer who has been in the eye of the typhoon generated by Lamitan Parish Priest Cirilo "Loi" Nacorda, has talked to me to explain his side and strongly deny that he ever took a bribe or pull out troops from the cordon encircling the Abu Sayyaf rebels and their hostages in that big "escape" of June 2.

Declared Narcise: "I did not pull out any troops securing the front and back of the church-hospital compound. My order was to maintain pressure on the ASG (Abu Sayyaf Group) in the compound and at the same time secure the compound with the available resources we had until such time the AFP CTF (Counter-Terrorist Force) had arrived."

"I did not receive any ransom money or negotiate for the release of the hostages in Lamitan. I am a professional soldier and had been consistent with my unit’s mission to crush the ASG ever since my assignment with Task Force Zamboanga and to the Joint Task Force Comet/103rd Infantry Brigade. It is unethical and immoral on my part to be receiving such money after having the following casualties – 13 KIAs (killed in action) and 41 WIAs (wounded in action) – and smearing my unblemished career and reputation with blood money."

Col. Narcise, who comes from Laoag, Ilocos Norte, and belongs to PMA Class 1975, candidly asserts: "I have accepted the responsibility for the failure of my troops to rescue all the hostages and crush the ASGs holding them in Lamitan and I was relieved for command responsibility and I accepted the orders given. However, this is not the end of my military career and deep in my heart and mind, I still have the strong desire to return to Basilan just to be part of the military effort to finish the problem in that province. I was offered an ‘air-con/sitting-on-my-ass job’ at the General Headquarters but I declined such an offer and requested to be assigned with the elite troops of the Special Operations Command of the Philippine Army, whose ‘elite of the elite’ men are presently operating in Basilan."

In sum, the colonel is eager to return to the fray.

Narcise clarifies that the total number of personnel under his command at the time in Poblacion Lamitan was about 140 (contrary to media reports that the compound had been surrounded by 1,000 or 5,000 troops). He pointed out: "We lacked troops to completely surround the area. The SR Class 142 was not fully equipped. We lacked communications equipment among the units involved in the operation. We got indifference and lack of cooperative assistance from the civilians. The intelligence information we received became ‘tools for confusion’ and not to help us make a better assessment of the situation. Adding to these problems, High Headquarters’ countermanding my orders to my operating units in Tuburan to reinforce those in Lamitan greatly affected the military operations in the area."

These look like frustratingly valid points – and if we don’t learn from them, we’ll continue "losing" to the Abu Sayyaf.

* * *

Col. Narcise explained his absence from the scene immediately after being transferred from his command. He said he had requested "leave" to attend the college graduation of his daughter in the United States. He left for the US on June 12th, he recalled, and attended his daughter’s graduation ceremony (she received an AB English/Journalism from the University of California Irvine (UCI). His leave was spent with his family in Los Angeles, Narcise said, where his wife has been working as a registered nurse in a major Hollywood hospital for the past 20 years.

He returned to the Philippines on July 2, and reported for duty. Narcise avers with regard to Father Nacorda’s accusations: "There is no truth to these allegations. My accomplishments speak for my reputation as an officer and a gentleman."

In fact, Narcise pointed out, he had met Father Nacorda for the first time when the church-hospital compound was cleared by his troops. "I only knew him from the book Under the Crescent Moon: Rebellion in Mindanao. He was in a state of shock and could not talk – silent while we were together in a house where I located my Brigade TCP. Slowly, he started to talk to me and requested for security escorts. I immediately approved the detail of two regular Philippine Army troops as his security."

That’s the colonel’s recollection of what had occurred that fateful June 2.