It’s sometimes a matter of timing

It’s already well-known that the Kulog ng Hagonoy, Senator Blas F. Ople, will be resigning from the Senate today (he already deserted the Opposition), and will be sworn in tomorrow morning by President Macapagal-Arroyo, his new boss, as Secretary of Foreign Affairs.

President GMA told us last Saturday that she was timing Ka Blas’ swearing-in ceremony early, so he could attend his first Cabinet meeting tomorrow. "Since I don’t often convene Cabinet meetings," the President dimpled, "this is his chance to participate in a full-dress Cabinet deliberation."

What’s there for incoming DFA Secretary Ople to deliberate anyway? As is clearly indicated, his firm unswerving foreign policy is supposed to be "Yes, Ma’am". He’s already gotten into synch by declaring: "What’s wrong with being called an ‘Amboy’ (American Boy)?" This was a remark which provoked the Leftists and other radical and anti-American groups to paroxysms of fury.

And to think that for most of his career, as a journalist, as a politician, and as veteran Cabinet member (he started out as a technical assistant to President Ramon Magsaysay, then went up to Labor Minister in the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos’ Cabinet), Ka Blas was regarded as a "Red" and an Old Bolshevik, of not the chic Maoist but of the steely Stalinist variety. Age must have mellowed him, or his heart must have been transformed after decades of being pickled in alcohol, or else the serious stroke he suffered a few years ago (he was rushed to the Heart Center) brought with it a rush of blinding revelation – like that which converted the violent Saul to the saintly Paul on the Road to Damascus.

Whatever "changed" the Great Survivor over the years, we now await the unfolding of his latest persona. When he takes over the DFA tomorrow, perhaps we’ll see another side of Blas – if we can fight our way through the smokescreen that constantly envelopes him from his endless (against doctor’s orders) cigarette-puffing.

One thing can be said: Ople is a very experienced guy. He can at least say, "Been there, done that."

* * *

It’s confirmed that the President will go to Tokyo on a state visit next December. The exact date hasn’t been set, since the schedule – it being a formal state affair – will include a call on His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Akihito.

The Palace planners and their DFA counterparts will also have to figure out how the President can avoid visiting Japan on a date fraught with emotional implications, which is December 7th. If you’ll recall, that’s the date the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor (December 7 according to the Hawaii and US mainland calendar, or December 8 our time) in 1941.

Then United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in reaction to that sneak attack, condemned December 7 as a day that will live "in infamy". It would be a no-no in the eyes of GMA’s American allies and for the surviving Filipino veterans of the Pacific War and World War II, for our President to be visiting Japan on the "wrong" date.

That having been said, it’s good that we in the Philippines – as one of the nations which suffered the most (we lost one million dead during that war and Japanese Occupation, while Manila itself was 85 percent destroyed) – now enjoy the best of friendly relations with Japan.

Our family was among those who fought most actively, in Bataan, and in the guerrilla movement, and we lost many members, from a father to uncles and cousins in the struggle. But the war has long been over. It seems strange that more than half a century after the war’s end, some are still fighting it, or demanding an "apology". (I’m not referring to the "comfort women", of course, but any hope of the remaining, elderly victims for recompense is obviously fading. The misfortunes of war have been superseded by the amnesia induced by the passage of time. When it’s over, it’s over. That’s the reality.)

There are those who’ll complain that GMA has been to Japan too often already, but this time a significant amount of aid and investment is being programmed – much of it earmarked for Mindanao. Japan’s Ambassador, Kojiro Takano, told this writer the other day that Tokyo was particularly interested in initiating projects in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

* * *

The reason the President directed the Philippine National Police chief, Director General Hermogenes Ebdane, to instruct his 2,000-member PNP Maritime Police to cooperate with the Bureau of Customs in going after smugglers, and Secretary of Transportation and Communications Larry Mendoza (by coincidence, the former PNP chief himself) to provide Philippine Coast Guard vessels for the use of the police, is the embarrassment suffered by the government when a ship caught by Customs officials unloading P17 million worth of smuggled rice broke free of its moorings and sailed out to sea.

The astonished Customs men and policemen were left hanggang pier lamang – allegedly shaking their heads in frustration not having any vessel or aircraft available with which to pursue and intercept the escaping freighter.

The question is: Where is that wayward vessel, the M.V. Rodeo, owned by the Cebu-based Sam Shipping Lines now? It has got to dock somewhere. Has it gone to hide in Sabah, Sarawak, or some other nearby haven? It can’t be too difficult to trace.

It seems the M.V. Rodeo was caught in the early morning of July 12 in the port of Masao, Butuan, as it was unloading its cargo of rice smuggled into the country from what was later described as "an unidentified Asian country". Why unidentified? Was it Vietnam, Indonesia, or Thailand? The police and Customs reports have to be more accurate.

Rep. Robert "Ace" Barbers has charged that the "escape" of the ship was actually engineered with the collusion of officials.

Whatever the case, such a stupid incident should never take place again. (But, I’m afraid it will. Our PNP and our Coast Guard always behave like those Keystone Cops in the ancient Mack Sennet comedies. Most people, however, suspect that Barbers is right, there’s more collusion than confusion.)

* * *

I hope the new "order" of GMA designed to get those 2,000 Maritime cops, who’re doing nothing but scratching their B’s, aboard Coast Guard ships, won’t just be cosmetic. The trouble is that the PNP is under the Department of Interior, while the Coast Guard is under the DOTC. It may be an advantage, then, that DOTC Secretary Mendoza last came from the PNP, and knows PNP Chief (General) Ebdane well. This should spur the former General Mendoza to get the chief of the Coast Guard, Vice Admiral Reuben S. Lista, off his butt — and out to sea.

For I’ve long puzzled over the lack of activity and achievement of our Tanod Baybayin ng Pilipinas (which is the impressive-sounding Tagalog name of our Philippine Coast Guard). Certainly this fellow Lista must, by now have enough ships to make our Philippine Navy – with its moth-eaten rust-buckets, mostly World War II landing ships and other relics handed down from the US Navy – green with envy.

Under the pretext of "Australian aid," for instance (the same discount could have been secured from other countries) Lista has been procuring "patrol vessels" like mad from a shipyard called Tenix in Western Australia – through an intermediary, a businessman with whom he constantly plays golf. Now there’s nothing . . . well, really illegal in this, but when he gets those "hulls" from the Australians, what does he do with them? (The first two "patrol craft" were purchased during the Ramos administration, another four have been "ordered" during the GMA administration. Where are they now? They should have been around when the Rodeo was making its getaway.)

In any event: Let’s use them now. Provided, of course, those vessels have been properly armed, outfitted and prepared for "combat" and hot pursuit. I’ve a suspicion Vice Admiral Lista may have installed only 50-caliber machine guns. May we have a report? Such minuscule armaments couldn’t even repel an assault by the Abu Sayyaf. Like the one the ASG rascals mounted when they kidnapped those Indonesian tugboat operators.

What a way to become a "strong Republic".

We’ve got a Navy with thousands of gallant seamen, but only leaky, slow-moving tubs. Why, our intrepid Navy Seals and Marines had to use the same speedboat they earlier "captured" from Abu Sabaya’s gang to pursue and ram Abu Sabaya’s fleeing banca. We’ve got a Philippine Air Force without enough airplanes – with those they’ve got of the old-model variety. And we’ve got a Coast Guard that even doesn’t patrol the coast. Our Guardsmen seem to be hunkered down, mostly, in their Himpilan at 139 25th st., Port Area, Manila – not far from our Philippine STAR offices.

Whatta life!