The Zambo blasts are a rude welcome ‘home’ for Abaya

It was not unexpected that bomb terrorists would strike somewhere in Mindanao. What was fascinating was the timing. Perhaps the "bombers" wanted to make their move in front of a stellar audience of ranking military officials. If so, they got what they wanted.

Defense Secretary Angelo T. Reyes was just finishing his speech at the turnover ceremonies of the Southern Command at the military’s headquarters four kilometers away. The Southcom’s banner of command had just been turned over by exiting Lt. Gen. Ernesto Carolina to the incoming Commanding General, Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya. For Abaya, who had commanded the 1st Tabak Division during the war against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Abu Sayyaf and, in fact, as head of Task Force Trident had wrapped up the Abus’ "Sipadan hostage" crisis, it was supposed to be a triumphant "homecoming" to a familiar field of operations.

Well, the fighting general got not just a warm, but the hottest kind of "welcome" from the terrorists – a virtual spit-in-the-eye. I’m not saying his arrival precipitated the bombings: That would be a cruel and, as yet, unfounded speculation. But the presence of so many top brass had the effect of making the government, for all its vows to crush terrorism and rebellion, look helpless and ineffective.

The truth is that nobody can pre-empt or defang a determined terrorist group in advance, except by clever sleuthing (a tip-off by moles or informers) – or sheer luck. Yesterday in Zamboanga, the government’s forces had neither.

Naturally, Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Benjamin Defensor, himself a much-decorated combat officer and former Philippine Air Force commander in the Mindanao Wars, was there — as was General (Chief Supt.) Edgardo Aglipay, chief of operations of the Philippine National Police. They all rushed from Southcom headquarters to review the devastation and visit the wounded and dying in the hospital.

Everything shut down in Zamboanga yesterday following those noontime explosions. Offices were emptied, shops were shuttered, schools were closed down – everybody went home, fearful of further attacks. Everything will soon be back to normal. The fear will persist, but the Filipino is a fatalist. This is what toughens him, and at the same time renders him too complacent; the bahala na syndrome. Everything is in the hands of God, of fate, or Allah.

* * *

Zamboanga was a target already hit before – if you’ll recall the bomb last October 2 which killed an American Special Forces soldier, and three Filipinos, wounding another American serviceman and several others. Then there was the bomb discovered and defused in a minibus.

Next there was the terrible bomb explosion in the bus terminal in Kidapawan, North Cotabato (October 10) which killed six persons and wounded 20 others.

The bomb attack is not new in Mindanao’s wild frontier, far antedating the Bali blasts, and that failed attempt to blow up our Consulate in nearby Manado, Sulawesi. Manado is just a stone’s throw away from Mindanao – which is why so many Indonesian illegals easily infiltrate Davao and its proximate provinces. In Sulawesi (formerly called Celebes), the people look so much like Pinoys, our first cousins really, that I used to travel around Indonesia jokingly referring to myself as Orang-Manado, a guy from Manado. This dodge I utilized to explain, in the old days, my less than fluent Bahasa.

It’s all over the news pages, so it would be redundant to explain that the first bomb struck the Shop-O-Rama mall, then another hit the Shoppers’ Central. Other bombs were found there and in the O.K. Bazaar. Several were, thankfully, defused or exploded harmlessly by responding bomb squads. My sources claim the explosive used in the bombs which detonated was C-4, the same type of "plastique" utilized in Kuta, in last Saturday’s horrendous bombings in Bali. I’ll reserve judgement till the official reports come in.

As I write, no terrorist group has claimed "credit" for the explosions which killed six, including a Muslim policeman from the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), who had been shopping in the department store, probably for groceries. But the death toll may rise, since others were grievously injured among the 144 other casualties.

One fatality, a man killed in the Shoppers’ Central blast, had half his head blown off by the explosion (according to my special correspondent) that he had remained unidentified up to press time, but no doubt he soon will be. The damage, I was told, was very extensive.

Zamboanga City has a population of 600,000 inhabitants, more than 80 percent of them Catholic. There are today, of course, scores of thousands of Muslim residents – every ranking Muslim leader from Tawi-Tawi and Sulu maintains homes and even mansions in Zamboanga. In the 1960s, most of the Muslims lived in Rio Hondo, but now they are spread all over the city. When bombers attack, they’ll kill more Christians, but innocent Muslims are as likely to die as well.

Were those bombings the work of the Abu Sayyaf, the MILF, the MNLF, al-Qaeda or the Jemaah Islamiyah (which has an axe to grind against the Philippines for having nabbed a number of its agents)? Or extortionists? Nobody is in a rush to point fingers. We’re pussyfooting around — too careful, if you ask me, to avoid being accused of "profiling" or prejudice.

I think we ought to crack down and ask questions later. In this sort of war from ambush, if your finger hesitates on the trigger, you’re history. Better safe than sorry.

* * *

I wonder why the newspapers and television stations were not furnished clear photographs of the two vicious Abu Sayyaf prisoners who escaped from Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig, Metro Manila, last Sunday, October 13.

You’d think the government would want "WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE" photos splashed all over the front pages, so the public could tip them off about the presence or whereabouts of those fugitives. Why’s this?

The story of that disgraceful "escape" has, it seems, even faded from the news pages. How’s this? It’s as though the get-away of those ASG renegades were just a college caper, not worth a follow-up in the media. What about the guards who let them "escape" with such facility?

The version I got was that two women were let in to visit the detainees. When the group left, instead of two there were four "women". Couldn’t the cross-eyed guards count? Didn’t they "frisk" the women, or inspect them? If the guards were all males, it’s clear they should have kept the "women" from leaving — even if they couldn’t count — until a female guard or woman police officer could be summoned to check the departing women out.

When we were political prisoners of the Marcos "martial law" regime inside the maximum security MSU detention compound of Fort Bonifacio, our wives and womenfolk who came to visit were carefully frisked both coming and going. What about those visiting, or leaving, the compound where ranking Abu Sayyaf commander Hector Janjalani and dozens of other captured ASGs are confined? Those "lax" guards and jailers ought to be locked up and the government should throw away the key.

Do you know who escaped? Two hardened Abus, a pair of brothers named Alih Sailani and Iting Sailani. They have 52 cases of kidnapping charged against them! Five witnesses presented last March 20 have linked them to the band of ASG chieftains Khadaffy Janjalani and Hector Janjalani which abducted scores of students and teachers, plus an ill-fated Catholic priest from the Claret Elementary School and the Tumahobong Elementary School in Basilan. This is the band which viciously raped and killed two of the female teachers, brutalizing them then slicing off their breasts. These Abu bandits were, then, in the band that mercilessly tortured Father Roel Gallardo, who had tried to protect the rape of the women and the molestation of the children. The Abus gouged out his eyes, then beheaded him.

And we let those "suspects" get away?

I met with Justice Secretary Hernando "Nani" Perez yesterday morning, and he was angry at the escape of those Abus because the DOJ prosecutors who had been handling their cases were now deemed in mortal danger, and their families, too. That’s what happens when guards let go such dangerous men. Those erring guards must be charged with "infidelity in the custody of prisoners, at the very least, but the worst punishment is just six years imprisonment!)

The five prosecutors have asked for police protection, Nani said. The DOJ prosecutors who handle cases against rebels and Moro bandits are under such severe pressure, he recounted, that sometimes they succumb to them, he added. Secretary Perez cited the sad instance of DOJ Prosecutor Melchor Lim of Zamboanga City, who had been a member of the investigating panel looking into the Nur Misuari cases and the Abu Sayyaf charges. He was on the receiving end of so many death threats, along with threats to "wipe out" his family, that one day, depressed by those threats (and probably hoping to spare his family from further danger) he shot himself.

This should remind us of the everyday courage required of our government prosecutors when they pursue cases against rebel chieftains and bandit leaders whose henchmen remain in deadly circulation. Now we have two Abu Sayyaf cadres with "black" records at large again – capable of violently exacting revenge on officials as well as intimidating or murdering witnesses.

When those two rascals escaped, they even rang up a radio-TV station and bragged about it.

Do you know why Hamsiraji Sali, that ranking leader of the Abu Sayyaf group, who had already announced that he wants to surrender still hasn’t come in? He doesn’t want to surrender to either the military or the Philippine National Police. Why not? Perhaps he knows too much: Some officers in the armed forces and the police might be eager to silence him.

Who then can he trust to accept his surrender and assure his safety? The President has got to work this out – but please don’t ask those fellows Gonzales or Ermita, and their pangkat. I think Hansiraji Sali trusts them even less.

* * *

I spoke with National Security Adviser Roilo Golez last night, and he explained that the Zamboanga blasts are still being classified as being at the "local executive level", and not being upgraded to a national level. This means those bombings are still under the jurisdiction of Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Clara "Caling" Lobregat.

The next higher level would be a "provincial alert level", Golez noted, "but we haven’t reached even that," he stressed.

Golez, a former naval officer and intelligence expert (he was boxing champ in the US Naval Academy before graduating from Annapolis in 1970), says that while the government is not ruling out prospective attacks in other areas, it doesn’t want to over-emphasize emergencies that occur in traditional conflict areas like Mindanao. The government, he noted, stays on the same "Alert 7" status it adopted in the wake of the bombings in Bali last Saturday.

"There has been pressure from some quarters, including the media," Roy said, "for us to link the Zambo bombings with the Bali bombings, but thus far there’s no evidence of any connection. There’s no need for us to get too alarmed."

When you’re in the maw of a war against terrorism, of course, nothing can be discounted. Metro Manila was hit in December 2000. The same bunch is still in the game. We’re vulnerable, especially so when Todos los Santos comes around and our cemeteries are packed with families visiting and praying for their dead, or when we engage in those many planned "Halloween" parties. When hundreds or thousands congregate, that’s when the mouths of terrorists water with anticipation. Should we panic? Surely not. But neither should we, or our government, be blind to the peril of attack.

As we’ve said before, the paranoid have a better chance of survival than the trusting.