Get angry, GMA: But direct your fury at evil-doing

I don’t think I can quite agree with the President’s promise to curb her "notorious" temper in the coming year. Not that she ought to persist in throwing cellphones around (unless they hit the right targets), but a Chief Executive has every right to get angry at the corrupt, the lazy and the incompetent in her administration.

What can we do with a President who keeps on saying to herself, like a mantra: "I’ll keep calm. I won’t get mad. I’ll sweetly say, ‘I forgive you!’" Wrong, GMA. Get sore. Kick ass. Fire those Non-performing Asses (no, I didn’t misspell "assets") from your Cabinet. The Filipino people demand from you impatience, fits of anger and indignation, and aksyon agad to right wrong and give the guilty and the moronic the boot. It was, after all, Our Lord who said in a less than Christmassy mood: "If ye be lukewarm, I will spit thee out of my mouth!"

Somehow I think the Commission on Appointments is trying to sabotage President Macapagal Arroyo by quickly "confirming" the stupid and non-performing asses in her Cabinet, while giving the more competent Cabineteers a tough time. Why? Because aside from the Opposition (which per se opposes everything) certain members of the ruling coalition may still – though they deny it – be nursing Presidential ambitions for 2004. How better to ensure that they can waltz into the general confusion as "dark horses" than to help GMA, with a gentle shove here and there, fall flat on her face?

Okay, okay. This may be too uncharitable a thought to foster on Christmas Eve, but politics never sleeps, although the Herald Angels sing of peace on earth to men of goodwill. Political one-upmanship and goodwill ne-ver go together.

* * *

I’ve always been the staunchest advocate of a modernization fund for our primitively-equipped Armed Forces. It is a continuing tragedy that our brave soldiers, forced to fight without respite or holidays our country’s wars of rebellion and banditry, have too little, too late on the battlefield. By all means, we must give them the tools they need – and, beyond that, the prayers and understanding they need as they man the lonely ramparts or go chasing through the wilderness after the elusive Abu Sayyaf. On Christmas Eve, let’s think of them in those humid and perilous nights in Basilan, Sulu and Zamboanga.

Yet, on the other hand, I can’t feel sad that Congress has lopped off P10 billion from the AFP "modernization fund" in the new budget. I would grieve if that amount could have been used for proper equipment procured in a decent and appropriate manner. But this year’s bidding for equipment, like night vision stuff, seems tailored to fit the specifications of the product of a certain powerful French company. I’m all for Vive la France, La Vie en Rose and sauve qui peut, etc. But this year’s bidding sounds more like the title of that long-running but magnificent show at the "Lido" nightclub on the Champs Elysees — "C’est Ma-gique!" It’s magical, indeed, how Thales (Thomson CSF) and its subsidiary "Agnieux" have wracked up such a winning streak.

Look, it’s true that Thales’ group submitted the lowest bid — beating its nearest rival by more than an eyelash. We can have no complaints about that. What I’d like our government to investigate, however, is for HOW MUCH or HOW LITTLE, the firm of Thales has been supplying other governments with the same type of equipment.

Therein, I suspect, hangs a tale.

* * *

Here we go again. On board an American Airlines plane bound from Paris to the United States, a passenger was spotted by an alert stewardess trying to set fire to his own shoes. Suspecting that he was attempting to give the entire aircraft more than a hotfoot, the air hostess wrestled with the guy, who bit her, then was joined in putting him down by other cabin crew and passengers.

The would-be "bomber" came on board as a Richard Reid, it was discovered. After the man was subdued and sedated, then bound to his chair, the airplane was escorted to a safe landing in Boston by two F-14 fighter jets.

Once again, it seems "tight" airport security, this time at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle (Roissy) airport was breached. Unless, of course, on examination the fellow’s shoes contained only firecrackers and he was trying to stage an early New Year’s bang-fest. Doesn’t seem likely, though. And to think that, slowly, people were beginning to overcome their fear of flying in the wake of 9-11, an d take to the air again.

The lesson to be derived from this is: We must ever be viligant. Even paranoid. Even if, by being too cautious, we may look silly afterwards. Better silly than dead, I’d say.

* * *

Hope is beginning to fade that the hostaged American missionaries, Martin and Gracia Burnham, and the other Filipino kidnap victim, Deborah Yap, will be rescued in time for Christmas. Why on earth did General Roy Cimatu, chief of the Southern Command, make such a rash prediction anyway? For publicity’s sake? Now, he’s got egg all over his face. Scrambled, too.

I wish our generals would stop their ridiculous practice of setting "deadlines" for this and that. When such unnecessary deadlines are not met, as they usually are not, the military get embarrassed and look like a bunch of blowhards, incapable of keeping their promises. If Cimatu knew enough of the location of the Burnhams and the other captive to "predict" their coming rescue, why didn’t he just do it and save the back-patting and press releases for afterwards?

As that sports shoe ad says: Just do it.

* * *

The Supreme Court’s recent 10-5 decision penned by Justice Artemio V. Panganiban reversing the Sandiganba-yan by allowing the government through the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to vote the sequestered shares in the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) now bestows on Malacañang the privilege of nominating several members to the bank’s board of directors.

As everyone knows, in government-owned or controlled corporations, no director is nominated and elected to serve in the board of directors without being anointed by Malacañang.

It’s sad to say that, over the years, under the Aquino, Ramos and Estrada administrations nominees who’ve sat in the boards of government-owned or controlled corporations turned out to be "raiders of the Lost Ark." In fact, one Ramos nominee who served as senior officer in the UCPB, prior to his "retirement", from the bank generously appropriated for himself several million pesos in retirement benefits plus other perks. Sources in the banking industry said that the senior officers and directors who entered UCPB during the Ramos administration almost bankrupted the bank.

It is not only in UCPB that Malacañang-nominated directors turned out to be "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Aside from being rapacious, most of them were also unfit for the positions to which they were nominated. They had no management expertise or experience in running anything at all, not even a dog pound.

I’m glad that among the current nominees for the San Miguel Corporation board of directors is retired Court of Appeals Justice Hector Hofileña, a highly respected law professor in the Ateneo Law School and former magistrate. I hope for the sake of UCPB board and the bank’s legitimate stockholders, Malacañang will not be nominating a cabal of bums and nitwits just to give sustenance to camp followers and the political faithful.

Since it will be the PCGG that will nominate (at Malacañang’s behest) the directors who will represent the sequestered shares, PCGG Chairman Haydee Yorac should speak out her mind on the qualifications of the Malacañang-annointed nominees. (This is the time for her to sing out, loud and clear.) The business of banking is too sensitive to allow sleepwalkers and incompetents to sit in one of the country’s biggest commercial institutions.

The entire banking system is so fine-tuned that it can be undermined by its "weakest link." If that sounds like a TV quiz show, so there. The worst thing of all would be to designate a "missing link" and put such a primate into a position of decision-making. Even Tarzan would object.

* * *

The Santa Claus who arrived from Finland the other day to spread Christmas cheer in Manila looked on television a trifle undernourished. That’s what happens when Santa and Mrs. Claus give in to all those fad diets. What happens to the "ho, ho, ho"?

The Finns, of course, have once again stolen a march on the other Scandinavians by demonstrating that old Santa Claus is as Finnish as Nokia. I remember many years ago when my wife and I were driving around Finland (things were quainter then). We went down to Turku, then up through Musta Kissa (you must!), then up to the Karelian forest. Then we took a ten-seater plane to Lapland. Up there, we visited Roganiemi, said by the Finns to be the "home" of Santa. And there he was, indeed, doing his "ho, ho, ho" and signing postcards to be mailed home to the folks.

When, as always the skeptic, I questioned whether this was really the hometown of Santa, our guide took me down to the stables to give me "the ultimate proof." And there was Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, although I wasn’t quite sure whether it was just paint that would come off. (They thought of everything.)

Five years later, I found myself in Norway in the mountains of the Telemark. When I mentioned my visit to Santa in Finland, the Norwegians were indignant. "Those Finns are lying again," one of my hosts swore mightily. "Everybody knows Santa Claus or Sinter Klaus is a Norwegian!" he boomed. Then added: "He lives in Norway in a town called Finnmark."

As for me, when I caught Santa and Mama Claus sneaking presents under the Tree – yes, and I believed in the Tooth Fairy, too – I found them to be Papa and Mama. That was not a disillusionment for me. I was happy, as a little kid, to realize that Santa was really a Filipino, and I belonged to that blessed family of "Clauses." The illogic of a small boy is what makes the world go round.

Merry Christmas! May you never grow old! May God – as the Irish say – hold you, always, in the hollow of His Hand!