Time is of the essence

During the recent visit of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to Japan, various multibillion-peso agreements were signed involving the construction of giant infrastructures, investments and low-interest loans for economic development. One significant agreement was the construction of the Subic-Clark road, an undertaking that will hasten the socio-economic progress of Central Luzon.

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With the forging of the Philippine-Japan economic and trade agreements, what Philippine authorities should do now is to fast-track these projects. Steps should be taken to assure that the usual bureaucratic delays attendant to similar projects are done away with. Here, the authorities concerned should have a sense of urgency and a strong political will to implement the agreements, and then finish the projects at the soonest possible time. This is the best way to make President Macapagal Arroyo’s initiatives in Japan become truly meaningful.

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I am glad that Felicito "Tong" Payumo, chairman of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, was part of the official government group that went to Japan. By being there in Tokyo, he was able to place focus on the ongoing business projects of Japanese investors at the Subic Freeport. With the inaugural rites for the Japanese factories and firms at the Subic Freeport just around the corner, a sense of optimism and hope is expected to buoy our nation’s morale.

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Is it possible that parts of the plan to launch a terrorist attack on American symbols of power in the United States were hatched up in the Philippines? And are there pieces of evidence to conclude that this is so? The answer is yes, according to Rafael M. Garcia III, chairman/CEO of the Mega Group of Companies, with office address at Mega-RMG3 Building, 667 Bumatay, Mandaluyong City, Philippines, an alumnus of the Ateneo de Manila University and a computer specialist.

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In a letter circulated to his Ateneo classmates and friends, Garcia revealed that sometime in January 1995, when Philippine police authorities captured Ramsey Youssef in Manila, he (Garcia) was asked to help decode and decipher the hard drives of the computers found in Youssef’s possession. And Garcia’s help was sought because of his affiliation with the National Bureau of Investigation. It was in the hard drives that most of the evidence of the projects that were being funded by Osama Bin Laden in the Philippines were discovered.

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As decoded from the hard drives, the first plan of the terrorist group was to assassinate Pope John Paul II who was then scheduled to visit the Philippines. The second was Project Bojinka, which called for the hijacking of US-bound commercial airliners from the Philippines, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Hongkong and Singapore and then crash them into key structures in the United States.

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The World Trade Center, the White House, the Pentagon, the Transamerica Tower, and the Sears Tower were among prominent structures that had been identified in the plans that were decoded. A dry-run was even conducted on a Tokyo-bound Philippine Airlines flight, which fortunately was aborted by Philippine security personnel.

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It was also from these computers that authorities found the plans for the first bombing of the World Trade Center in February 1993. This evidence was eventually used to convict Ramsey Youssef, Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan for the WTC bombing.

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Apparently, Garcia said, the original Project Bojinka was modified to give it more significant impact on the USA. By hijacking planes that originated from within the United States instead of Asia, the terrorists made sure that Americans would be killed in the hijacking instead of Asians, which obviously would elicit a stronger reaction from the Americans. And likewise, transcontinental flights (East Coast to West Coast) would have more fuel for most of the targets which were on the East Coast.

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Abdul Hakin Murad admitted that they had been taking flying lessons in the Philippines for Project Bojinka. Obviously, after they were caught and convicted, a new set of terrorists was trained in the United States (Venice, Florida) for the modified Bojinka.

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The Philippines has been having a lot of problems lately because Osama Bin Laden has been funding the activities of the Abu Sayyaf through his brother-in-law, Khalifa Janjalani. The success of these recent terroristic acts in the United States will embolden Commander Robot and Commander Sabaya, both of the Abu Sayyaf, to wreak havoc in our part of the world, said Garcia.

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What is strange is that the United States agencies that took possession of the evidence that Garcia and his staff gathered obviously did not take project Bojinka seriously. "I would have thought that intelligence operatives would have analyzed all the evidence and worked out various scenarios that could have included the modified Bojinka plan. If they had done so, the US would have been prepared for this attack," Garcia added.

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For the information of the kind donors to the Good Samaritan Foundation, let me list down the following recent indigent beneficiaries of assistance from the Foundation:

* Seminarian Abraham Mirandilla of the Archdiocese of Sorsogon, P27,000 for his post-kidney transplant medication

* Brian Carl Lucasan, the young boy from Cavite City who has a kidney disorder, P3,000 for his medicines

* Mohammad Nizaar, a three-year-old boy from Cotabato City now undergoing treatment at the Philippine Heart Center, P500 for his medicines

* Miracle Amoroso of Manila, P2,234 for her tuition fees at the MLQ University in Quiapo, Manila.

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Thoughts For Today:

God will never leave you empty.
He will replace everything you lost.
If He asks you to put something down,
it’s because He wants you
to pick up something greater.

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The joy of life comes from the wisdom
Of counting your blessings
And never your troubles,
Focus on what you have,
And have a thankful heart.

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My e-mail address: <[email protected]> and <[email protected]>