GMA off today for major powwow with CINCPAC brass on stepped-up military aid
October 24, 2002 | 12:00am
It’s being kept under wraps, but there’s a vital stopover meeting in Honolulu for President Macapagal-Arroyo who’s ostensibly enroute to the Asia-Pacific Economic Coope-ration (APEC) summit in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, which begins tomorrow, Friday.
The President, who’s booked on a Philippine Airlines "commercial flight" (bet most of the seats will be taken by Cabinet members, officials, hangers-on and friends) will overnight in Hawaii before proceeding to the US mainland where she’ll take a special flight to Los Cabos.
What will she do in Honolulu? She’ll be there not to enjoy the Trade Winds blowing, or just to shake hands with Hawaii’s Philippine-born Governor Ben Cayetano, although she’ll hold a press conference in his official residence, Washington Place. The Chief Executive is scheduled to have a confidential meeting with Admiral Tom Fargo, the Commander-in-Chief, US Pacific Command (US-CINCPAC), the senior commander of US military forces in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
I’m not sure whether the discussions and command briefing with the assembled CINCPAC brass will be held in Camp H.M. Smith, the nerve center for the US army, navy, air force and marine corps from the US West Coast, through the Pacific and Indian oceans, to the east coast of Africa – an area of responsibility spanning 169 million square kilometers and 16 time zones. However my "deep throat" informs me, heightened military cooperation and not just the restoration of the US$30 million pruned from American military assistance in the last budget, but an enhancement of aid will be deliberated.
When President GMA, some weeks ago, banged the table in a spontaneous gesture of chagrin and disappointment when she learned that the Americans had cut the anticipated $30 million from their military aid package, the thud was apparently heard all the way from Manila to Washington, DC. There’s an old American proverb: "It’s the squeaking wheel that gets the grease." The squeak was heard all the way to Pennsylvania Avenue. Messages flew back and forth between the US Embassy, the White House and the Pentagon.
A few days ago, Brig. Gen. Donald Wurster, the general who had spent more than half a year in Zamboanga and Basilan commanding the US servicemen, special forces, marines and US air force personnel involved in Balikatan II, was sent back here to call on GMA in Malacañang, convey the Pentagon’s expression of support, and, obviously, "invite" her to the special strategy and logistics session in CINCPAC, Hawaii.
From Honolulu on Friday, GMA will fly on — also on a PAL flight – to Los Angeles, where she will change aircraft for the journey to nearby Los Cabos, Mexico, where the 21-member APEC will be meeting. It’s there that she will be meeting her "phone pal", President George "Dubya" Bush – who’ll also be busy, of course, with the other leaders of the 10th APEC; i.e., the assorted presidents, sultans, prime ministers et al., from Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico (the host country, naturally) and New Zealand.
Dubya will probably be late arriving there, since he’s hosting China’s President Jiang Zemin, who’s doing his "swan song" visit to the US, in his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
The APEC venue, Cabo San Lucas, is located at the tip of the Baja peninsula. GMA and party will be staying in a Sheraton in the Los Cabos area, which is the collective name for the resort of Cabo San Lucas and the 30- kilometer "corridor" which links it with San Jose del Cabo – featuring beautiful beaches, a cobalt sea, nightclubs, restaurants and five golf courses. But beware, locals warn, of going too deep into the welcoming blue waters: The waves and undertow, in some places, can be treacherous.
For serious divers (scuba aficionados) and sport fishers, it’s said, there can be found a wealth of undersea "riches" in the five underwater trenches, some down 10,000 feet, which harbor 800 species of reef fish, not to mention the largest fish in the world, the whale shark, and giant manta rays with wingspans of about 23 feet. (Remember the famous 1960 documentary of the late, legendary Jacques Cousteau of the underwater sand canyon in the bay of Cabo San Lucas?)
Anyway, this isn’t a tourism-touting column. Let Mexico’s own propaganda brochures take care of that.
The focus of the APEC meeting, it’s already being announced, will be how to cope with "terrorism" for the second year in a row. (It was the theme in last year’s APEC sessions in Shanghai, China, which took place barely a month after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York’s Twin Towers and the Pentagon in Washington, DC.) Terrorism, after all, has grievously impacted on the business, finances, and economic prospects of the world.
Indeed, the terrorists have succeeded in destabilizing economies of this planet, starting with the United States, Western Europe, and spreading its evil effects through Asia, the subcontinent and the Middle East.
In truth, our economy and consumer-confidence were already in bad shape before the latest spate of terrorist bombings in Zambo, Cotabato, and the bus-bombing and bomb scares in Metro Manila. In recent days, our major shopping malls have lost perhaps 30 percent of their customers. In time, the shoppers and strollers will return – but this is a discouraging start to the Christmas season.
How can we combat the terrorists? By not losing our cool. By fighting back with alertness and dispatch. Two cities I know, Saigon and Beirut, went through a thousand times more violence and agony in the past – but now they’re booming.
Will GMA have time enough to "meddle" in the coming Hawaii elections? It’s an interesting situation. Next to "native" Americans (including Hawaiians themselves), Filipinos are the biggest ethnic minority group in Hawaii today. Fil-Americans there now comprise 125,000, as compared with Japanese-Americans (100,000) How they vote will surely influence the coming November 5 elections.
Governor Ben Cayetano, whose roots are in Pangasinan and whose wife comes from Manila, is ending his second term and can’t run for reelection.
The two contenders for the Governorship are women. (Alas, Prophet Muhammad, they’re not listening to you there, either.) The Democratic Party bet is Lt. Governor Mazie Hirona. The Republican Party candidate is the Mayor of Maui, Linda Lingly. For the first time in decades, it appears, the Republicans may have the edge and could take control of the Governor’s mansion.
For one thing, Lingly has been assiduously courting the Filipino-Ameican vote for a long time and may get it "solid".
As for our friend, Ben, I guess it’s a fond Aloha.
The police are saying that one way to detect and frustrate terrorists is to detail more "secret marshals" in the most vulnerable places, including aboard buses. While this idea is commendable and could be effective, how will the public – in an emergency – distinguish between an armed "secret marshal" and a thug, terrorist, or fake policeman?
And how will we be able to "police" the buses? For instance, there are 12,000 provincial buses arriving daily from the north, beari ng 600,000 passengers and commuters. Another 11,000 buses arrive daily from the south, carrying another 500,000 or so. Gee whiz. It’s a nightmare for the tiny corps of "secret marshals".
Every citizen must be asked to help. In Fidel Castro’s Cuba, when I was there for some months to do a series on why the "invasion" failed in Playa Giron in the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs), I noticed that there were posters saying: "Tus ojos son una arma de la Revolucion." ("Your Eyes are a Weapon of the Revolution".) In sum, Cubans were enjoined to look out for saboteurs, infiltrators and — yes, "terrorists". I haven’t been back since then, and probably no such posters and slogans exist any longer (they’re welcoming back the capitalists and anybody with cash, including the Balik-funding for relatives of the Cuban exiles and émigrés). But that’s a good slogan for us, in our current state of unease and outright jitters. Keep a sharp eye out.
The Yanquis, Gringos, and our Norteamericano allies have a similar slogan which dates back three generations: "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
That big splash about President Macapagal-Arroyo ordering a check on the lifestyles of ranking government officials, starting with her Cabineteers, looks like a placebo. This should have been done from the very beginning of her administration. As the law puts it: Res ipsa loquitur. If government officials are living too high on the hog, it’s sure that they’re engaged in graft, corruption, and all sorts of cheating, including extortion and blackmail.
On the other hand, it’s obvious that Madam President is just reacting to that humiliating rating given this country by Transparency International, which ranked the Philippines the 11th most corrupt among 102 countries surveyed.
Sad to say, with the PEA scandal, the PIATCO Terminal 3 deal, and other "gossip", such intimations of corruption have deplorably begun to singe the skirts of the Palace.
For one thing, how can one of La Gloria’s Palace favorites, Don Dante Ang, be the President’s effective image-maker when his own image is deteriorating? Sus, from PR man to newspaper owner and publisher, Technogas owner, and now BankWise banker, seems to be a case of "too much too soon". What other acquisitions haven’t the public still discovered? Dante testily asks whether it’s a crime to become rich. Sanamagan — what a question. It’s axiomatic that if you, by coincidence, get rich when you’re so close to a President and stalk the corridors of political power, the people begin to wonder how you earned such sudden wealth. (By your inborn genius, or King Midas golden touch?) Or are you like James Bond’s Goldfinger?
When GMA became President with the downfall of Erap, a white paper was circulated, inquiring maliciously: "Will Dante Ang be the Atong Ang of the GMA Administration?" Well, for your information, Atong Ang is now in jail in Las Vegas — and asking Justice Secretary Hernando Perez for "immunity" if he comes home and testifies against his former bosom buddy, former President Estrada. Secretary Nani Perez told me the other day that he’s not inclined to allow Atong Ang to get away with such a Judas act, since he’s in the league of not just a "witness" but one of the main perpetrators.
As for Mr. Dante Ang, wasn’t his name formerly Arevalo? Changing names and changing lanes may be a personal prerogative, but when you’re one of the President’s minders, one ought to be more circumspect.
The President, who’s booked on a Philippine Airlines "commercial flight" (bet most of the seats will be taken by Cabinet members, officials, hangers-on and friends) will overnight in Hawaii before proceeding to the US mainland where she’ll take a special flight to Los Cabos.
What will she do in Honolulu? She’ll be there not to enjoy the Trade Winds blowing, or just to shake hands with Hawaii’s Philippine-born Governor Ben Cayetano, although she’ll hold a press conference in his official residence, Washington Place. The Chief Executive is scheduled to have a confidential meeting with Admiral Tom Fargo, the Commander-in-Chief, US Pacific Command (US-CINCPAC), the senior commander of US military forces in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
I’m not sure whether the discussions and command briefing with the assembled CINCPAC brass will be held in Camp H.M. Smith, the nerve center for the US army, navy, air force and marine corps from the US West Coast, through the Pacific and Indian oceans, to the east coast of Africa – an area of responsibility spanning 169 million square kilometers and 16 time zones. However my "deep throat" informs me, heightened military cooperation and not just the restoration of the US$30 million pruned from American military assistance in the last budget, but an enhancement of aid will be deliberated.
When President GMA, some weeks ago, banged the table in a spontaneous gesture of chagrin and disappointment when she learned that the Americans had cut the anticipated $30 million from their military aid package, the thud was apparently heard all the way from Manila to Washington, DC. There’s an old American proverb: "It’s the squeaking wheel that gets the grease." The squeak was heard all the way to Pennsylvania Avenue. Messages flew back and forth between the US Embassy, the White House and the Pentagon.
A few days ago, Brig. Gen. Donald Wurster, the general who had spent more than half a year in Zamboanga and Basilan commanding the US servicemen, special forces, marines and US air force personnel involved in Balikatan II, was sent back here to call on GMA in Malacañang, convey the Pentagon’s expression of support, and, obviously, "invite" her to the special strategy and logistics session in CINCPAC, Hawaii.
Dubya will probably be late arriving there, since he’s hosting China’s President Jiang Zemin, who’s doing his "swan song" visit to the US, in his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
The APEC venue, Cabo San Lucas, is located at the tip of the Baja peninsula. GMA and party will be staying in a Sheraton in the Los Cabos area, which is the collective name for the resort of Cabo San Lucas and the 30- kilometer "corridor" which links it with San Jose del Cabo – featuring beautiful beaches, a cobalt sea, nightclubs, restaurants and five golf courses. But beware, locals warn, of going too deep into the welcoming blue waters: The waves and undertow, in some places, can be treacherous.
For serious divers (scuba aficionados) and sport fishers, it’s said, there can be found a wealth of undersea "riches" in the five underwater trenches, some down 10,000 feet, which harbor 800 species of reef fish, not to mention the largest fish in the world, the whale shark, and giant manta rays with wingspans of about 23 feet. (Remember the famous 1960 documentary of the late, legendary Jacques Cousteau of the underwater sand canyon in the bay of Cabo San Lucas?)
Anyway, this isn’t a tourism-touting column. Let Mexico’s own propaganda brochures take care of that.
The focus of the APEC meeting, it’s already being announced, will be how to cope with "terrorism" for the second year in a row. (It was the theme in last year’s APEC sessions in Shanghai, China, which took place barely a month after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York’s Twin Towers and the Pentagon in Washington, DC.) Terrorism, after all, has grievously impacted on the business, finances, and economic prospects of the world.
Indeed, the terrorists have succeeded in destabilizing economies of this planet, starting with the United States, Western Europe, and spreading its evil effects through Asia, the subcontinent and the Middle East.
In truth, our economy and consumer-confidence were already in bad shape before the latest spate of terrorist bombings in Zambo, Cotabato, and the bus-bombing and bomb scares in Metro Manila. In recent days, our major shopping malls have lost perhaps 30 percent of their customers. In time, the shoppers and strollers will return – but this is a discouraging start to the Christmas season.
How can we combat the terrorists? By not losing our cool. By fighting back with alertness and dispatch. Two cities I know, Saigon and Beirut, went through a thousand times more violence and agony in the past – but now they’re booming.
Governor Ben Cayetano, whose roots are in Pangasinan and whose wife comes from Manila, is ending his second term and can’t run for reelection.
The two contenders for the Governorship are women. (Alas, Prophet Muhammad, they’re not listening to you there, either.) The Democratic Party bet is Lt. Governor Mazie Hirona. The Republican Party candidate is the Mayor of Maui, Linda Lingly. For the first time in decades, it appears, the Republicans may have the edge and could take control of the Governor’s mansion.
For one thing, Lingly has been assiduously courting the Filipino-Ameican vote for a long time and may get it "solid".
As for our friend, Ben, I guess it’s a fond Aloha.
And how will we be able to "police" the buses? For instance, there are 12,000 provincial buses arriving daily from the north, beari ng 600,000 passengers and commuters. Another 11,000 buses arrive daily from the south, carrying another 500,000 or so. Gee whiz. It’s a nightmare for the tiny corps of "secret marshals".
Every citizen must be asked to help. In Fidel Castro’s Cuba, when I was there for some months to do a series on why the "invasion" failed in Playa Giron in the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs), I noticed that there were posters saying: "Tus ojos son una arma de la Revolucion." ("Your Eyes are a Weapon of the Revolution".) In sum, Cubans were enjoined to look out for saboteurs, infiltrators and — yes, "terrorists". I haven’t been back since then, and probably no such posters and slogans exist any longer (they’re welcoming back the capitalists and anybody with cash, including the Balik-funding for relatives of the Cuban exiles and émigrés). But that’s a good slogan for us, in our current state of unease and outright jitters. Keep a sharp eye out.
The Yanquis, Gringos, and our Norteamericano allies have a similar slogan which dates back three generations: "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
On the other hand, it’s obvious that Madam President is just reacting to that humiliating rating given this country by Transparency International, which ranked the Philippines the 11th most corrupt among 102 countries surveyed.
Sad to say, with the PEA scandal, the PIATCO Terminal 3 deal, and other "gossip", such intimations of corruption have deplorably begun to singe the skirts of the Palace.
For one thing, how can one of La Gloria’s Palace favorites, Don Dante Ang, be the President’s effective image-maker when his own image is deteriorating? Sus, from PR man to newspaper owner and publisher, Technogas owner, and now BankWise banker, seems to be a case of "too much too soon". What other acquisitions haven’t the public still discovered? Dante testily asks whether it’s a crime to become rich. Sanamagan — what a question. It’s axiomatic that if you, by coincidence, get rich when you’re so close to a President and stalk the corridors of political power, the people begin to wonder how you earned such sudden wealth. (By your inborn genius, or King Midas golden touch?) Or are you like James Bond’s Goldfinger?
When GMA became President with the downfall of Erap, a white paper was circulated, inquiring maliciously: "Will Dante Ang be the Atong Ang of the GMA Administration?" Well, for your information, Atong Ang is now in jail in Las Vegas — and asking Justice Secretary Hernando Perez for "immunity" if he comes home and testifies against his former bosom buddy, former President Estrada. Secretary Nani Perez told me the other day that he’s not inclined to allow Atong Ang to get away with such a Judas act, since he’s in the league of not just a "witness" but one of the main perpetrators.
As for Mr. Dante Ang, wasn’t his name formerly Arevalo? Changing names and changing lanes may be a personal prerogative, but when you’re one of the President’s minders, one ought to be more circumspect.
BrandSpace Articles
<
>
- Latest
- Trending
Trending
Latest
Trending
By FIRST PERSON | By Alex Magno | 14 hours ago
By EDUKAMPYON | By Popoy De Vera | 14 hours ago
By VIRTUAL REALITY | By Tony Lopez | 14 hours ago
By FOOD FOR THOUGHT | By Chit U. Juan | 14 hours ago
Latest
By CTALK | By Cito Beltran | 1 day ago
By ROSES AND THORNS | By Pia Roces Morato | 1 day ago
By COMMONSENSE | By Marichu A. Villanueva | 1 day ago
2 days ago
Recommended