Not FVR, but somebody else

ANGELES CITY, Pampanga – Although the balloon was floated the other day about ex-President Fidel V. Ramos being offered the post of Secretary of National Defense, President Macapagal-Arroyo’s first choice is someone else.

This she revealed when we had lunch yesterday noon at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport after ceremonies commemorating the 100th anniversary of Clark Field, its US military predecessor.

GMA said her choice of DND Secretary was still "tentative", and she would still have to discuss the matter in full with the nominee. (She revealed his name in confidence, so we can’t tell.) She told us, however, that she planned to hold on to the Defense portfolio until after the state visit of United States President George W. Bush on October 18th. It seems she wants to be "hands on" in supervising all the preparations, including security, so that nothing goes wrong – or gets messed up by bureaucracy.

As we spoke, engineers and construction workers were busily engaged outside in reinforcing and fixing up the tarmac and runway in preparation for the landing of Air Force One, the American Chief Executive’s bubble-topped Boeing 747-200, known in the US Air Force as VC-25A. The "Flying White House", as Robert F. Dorr calls it in his beautifully-illustrated book on the subject, will take off from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, just outside Washington, DC, after being wheeled out of the hangar operated and maintained by the 89th Airlift Wing. There are actually two "Air Force One" jets, identical in facilities, size and color (blue and white exteriors), four-engined, 85 tons in weight.

With Mr. Bush’s flying carpet landing at Diosdado Macapagal International (formerly Clark, before that Fort Stotsenburg), everything must be letter perfect and security perfect. An $11 million radar system is being put in by Dr. Emmanuel Y. Angeles (Manny is the president and CEO of the Clark Development Corporation) and former DTI Secretary Rizalino S. "Roy" Navarro, chairman of the CDC.

The President further announced in her speech she is earmarking an additional P100 million to streamline the airport and its facilities, so its status will truly be that of a world-class international hub. She declared that she was determined that international airlines begin flying in and out of Clark.

In his own address at the gathering, US Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone asserted: "America has full confidence in the Filipinos!" He stated that his everyday practice was to gather "good news" about the Philippines and transmit it to the US capital. This elicited hearty applause from the audience, but, after all, Ricciardone’s an ambassador and is supposed to be diplomatic about what he says about our country. Anyway, yesterday he went the extra mile, which was obviously much appreciated by his listeners.

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It seems that the airport in Angeles will be "managed" by the Manila International Airport under General Manager Ed Manda (according to GMA’s new instructions) and overall supervision of both airports will be under the aegis of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Leandro Mendoza (PMA ’69), former PNP Director General.

Anyway, that’s the way I heard it from the President’s speech.

Afterwards, GMA told me that she had been "jumping about" in her remarks, so her teleprompter director got confused, and she was unable to deliver a part of her prepared text concerning the mopping up "corruption" by implementing "reforms" in the procurement process of the Armed Forces.

She asked her aide to hand me the four pages inadvertently left out from her address, and on first reading the text completely knocked into a cocked hat the speculation in some media quarters that she had "discovered" a "coup plot" being organized by former Defense Secretary Angelo T. Reyes on the basis of which she allegedly had told him to resign, or else be fired.

Indeed, she fulsomely praised Reyes in the "undelivered" portion of her script. Just to give you a sample, she would have said: "By his magnificent and magnanimous heroism on January 19, 2000, Angelo Reyes affirmed the firm hold of civilian authority over the military devoid of Old Boy networks and special relationships." To be frank, I didn’t understand the connection and methinks the convoluted sentence concluded with a non-sequitur. (Perhaps her speech-writer for this one came from the same school as Erap Estrada.)

The President said that after lunch she was conducting a security conference – hence, there were so many generals at the adjoining tables – to discuss, among other matters, "moving logistics to the field".

In short, GMA’s intention is to review the needs of our military on the battlefield level, so the budget can be adjusted to meet the practical requirements of the officers and men, thus eradicating any excuse for "conversion". All through the undelivered text, GMA gave lavish credit to Angie Reyes as "the chief advocate of a holistic approach to national security". Perhaps that’s why the teleprompter misplaced that only part of the philippic.

"After my short stint as Defense chief," GMA averred, "I shall expect my successor in the department to follow through."

In addition: "I have come to Clark in a continuing drive to consolidate our nation in the aftermath of crisis.

"Persistent rumors of destabilization remain, but these are the handiwork of a few spoilers using the open opportunities offered by a free press, and the speed and reach of our modern communications systems.

"Let us discount these threats and get on with the proper business at hand."

Throughout the lunch, during which GMA alternately frowned and smiled, not another word was said of Ping Lacson, Jose Pidal, or related topics. I suppose that fellow – whoever it is – will have to Pidal his own canoe.

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It turns out that Ft. Stotsenburg, where Clark Field was later established, was first set up by the US 5th Cavalry Regiment, and named in honor of Col. John M. Stotsenburg who had been killed on April 29, 1899, in Bulacan, in a battle with Filipino forces. I disliked calling our "revolutionary" troops (who rebelled and defeated the colonial Spaniards) either revolutionaries or insurrectos with regard to the Americans. Spain "sold" the Philippines to the US in the Treaty of Paris for $20 million. The envoy of Revolutionary President Emilio Aguinaldo was not allowed to either attend or protest. The gallows humor-type joke which went around later was that the Americans had paid the princely sum of two dollars for each Filipino, since our population was only 10 million then. (Sus, we’re now about 82 million.)

In any event, in 1919, Ft. Stotsenburg was renamed Clark Field in honor of Major Harold M. Clark of the US Army Signal Corps. Clark, who had grown up in Manila, and died in a seaplane crash in Panama.

It was interesting to note that US Ambassador Ricciardone and Japanese Ambassador Kojiro Takano were both present at the Clark 100th anniversary event. You’ll remember "Sleepless in Manila" Takano, of course. His presence was due in large part to the millions of yen in ODA or official development assistance being given by Tokyo to The Pinatubo Hazard Urgent Mitigation Project, and the construction of the 94.5-kilometer Subic-Clark Tarlac Expressway (due for completion of 2006).

GMA had, in fact, just come from the inauguration of the new Candaba-San Simon segment of the North Luzon Expressway "to bring Clark closer to Metro Manila". She further disclosed that Beijing had just awarded us a P400 million loan for a Manila-to-Clark railway.

She added that travel time from Balintawak to Clark, and even up to Sta. Ines will become considerably reduced and made more comfortable with the improved road and the addition of the 132 kilometers of additional lanes along the North Expressway.

What’s fascinating is how the Americans are talking about the "possibilities" of the new airport. They’re reportedly putting in repair and maintenance facilities, I notice, which could be utilized for military aircraft – including theirs, di ba? Why, they’re even interested in the development of Crow Valley. Wasn’t that the old USAF target range? In the old days, about 30 scavengers got hit by jet aircraft conducting shooting practice and military exercises – but nowadays, there’s nothing left to "scavenge" anymore.

When somebody at the luncheon table humorously asked both Ricciardone and Takano whether the Japanese were thinking of requesting the Americans to transfer their military bases from Okinawa to the Philippines (it’s against the Constitution, Vice President Tito Guingona would immediately assert), the two envoys merely smiled. Either they didn’t take the question seriously, or both of them took that query too seriously.