This time, it’s very probable that US President George W. Bush will shoehorn an address to a joint session of our Congress into his still hotly-debated schedule.
Last week, in a compromise designed to adjust to the still strong objections of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to Mr. Bush even visiting "dangerous" Philippines, the American Chief Executive’s sojourn in Manila had been pared down to just seven or eight hours, with Air Force One touching down in Clark at 4 p.m., Dubya choppering over to the Coconut Palace on Manila Bay for a wash-up or shower, then flying on to Malacañang for his tête-à-tête with President GMA and a 7 p.m. State Dinner. Then he would take off for Singapore to sleep overnight there, SARS or no SARS.
This week, it’s another story. This time, the tentative schedule calls for Air Force One to arrive about noontime (it’s as yet iffy, but most likely the aircraft will land in Clark, alias the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport), with Bush taking his helicopter directly to Malacañang. This means, no more Coconut Palace, and no side-trip to the disconsolate DOT Secretary Dick Gordon’s spruced-up Intramuros where a grand fiesta of welcome had hopefully been prepared for him.
The Premier Guest House in Malacañang has been readied for the American President, with all the offices in that building, including that of Executive Secretary Bert Romulo, temporarily moved out. This will be a much more secure arrangement than the previous, rather vulnerable one (despite the installation of a "bullet-proof" bedroom) in the hastily-renovated Coconut Palace.
Why the agreement to Speaker Joe de Venecia’s eager importunings for Mr. Bush to address the Senate and House? I suspect this change of heart can be attributed to the need for the US to secure Congressional support if it wants "access" to Philippine air, land and sea installations for military aircraft, land and sea forces "just in case" an emergency arises.
One emergency is the fervent desire of the Japanese government to get the Yanks out of its long-held bases in Okinawa. The US Navy, Marines and US Air Force captured those bases in June 1945, at the close of World War II, and never left. In recent years, the importance of maintaining these bases at full strength was premised on the requirement of having a rapid reaction force combat-ready at all times to defend South Korea if that country were suddenly attacked by the North.
The Japanese, my sources say, are ready to sweeten the pot for our government with an additional $1 to $2 billion in aid if we give the Americans "bases" of some sort here, so they can send the Yanks south, out of their own increasingly restive territory.
Would "access" (not "bases") be in violation of our Constitution? Now you see why Mr. Bush is courting the goodwill of our nettlesome and often muckraking congressmen.
US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone Jr. flew to Washington, DC last week in an effort to convince the US President to at least spend the night after the ceremonial functions of October 18, instead of zipping off to Singapore for his overnight "rest", preliminary to his going on to Bangkok for the October 20 and 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. I’m afraid he’ll be returning this weekend without budging the White House, least of all the tough-minded National Security Adviser Ms. Rice one inch. As long as Jemaah Islamiyah bomb-terrorist Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi may be lurking in the neighborhood, a Bush overnight is out.
The JI’s may, of course, be waiting in ambush in Bangkok for Bush, but the Americans have expressed no confidence in our security here. As they politely but firmly point out, al-Ghozi simply waltzed out of his cell in Camp Crame, the nation’s police headquarters itself.
Let’s see now our PNP handles the howling Leftist mobs who’re certain to attempt to make the Bush visit a dies horribilis.
US Air Force One will be escorted by US fighter jets.
And it’s no coincidence that the aircraft carrier, USS Essex (Cv-9), a vessel whose battle-serried name dates back to World War II (it fought under Admiral Chester Nimitz in the Marianas and other Pacific campaigns has berthed at Subic Bay. Today’s modernized Essex took part in the Korean War, with its jets escorting USAF B-29 bombing raids on the North Koreans and Chinese. The Essex operated in that conflict with other carriers with equally storied appellations: The Boxer, Bon Homme Richard, Philippine Sea, Oriskany, Princeton and Valley Forge.
The 1,500 US Marines who arrived last Sunday will also remain on stand-by in Subic – let’s not kid ourselves – for the duration of the Bush visit. With their President’s progress being tracked every minute by re-positioned Global Satellite "eye", you can be certain, POTUS (the President of the United States) will have 24-hour protection.
Yet, everyone has to be on alert. Anything could happen.
Who would have thought that Sweden’s most popular politician, seeded to be a future Prime Minister, the Social Democratic Party lady Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, could be stabbed to death on Wednesday last week, in full view of a department store’s security cameras, by an unknown man. Lindh, 46, was shopping with a woman companion in the NK Department Store in Central Stockholm when she was simply accosted by a "stout" and "dishevelled" man, as the police later described him from security camera take-outs, and knifed to death.
What’s interesting is that the first police patrol arrived on the scene five minutes after the alarm was raised. The killer, they found, had escaped down an escalator towards an exit 200 meters away from an underground railway station.
The Lindh stabbing recalled to anguished Swedes the killing of Prime Minister Olaf Palme in a city street in 1986, in another act of political violence.
Let’s face it: Risk comes from unexpected sources. In Holland, if you’ll recall, the fastest rising star, even seeded to become the next Prime Minister, the maverick Pym Fortun, was shot to death at a campaign rally by a so-called "animal rights" activist. Would you believe?
Is it true that Lacson went to Florida to meet Mark Jimenez? For what purpose? To ask MJ for those "cancelled checks" – assigned to whom? Then, did he meet wtih intelligence and police friends in San Francisco?
When he gets home, Lacson should tell all. If there were a warrant for his arrest in the US, as some allege, how come Lacson hadn’t been arrested there?
I don’t buy, on the other hand, the idea that the Senate has the right to conduct non-stop investigations. How can these inquisitions be "in aid of legislation"? The Senators who insist that individuals be dragged into their chamber, to be humiliated in televised hearings and insultingly interrogated, are way out of line. And our bloodthirsty public is contributing to their arrogance and hubris. Today was correct in its editorial yesterday when it asserted: "This is a town of usiseros and inggiteros."
You bet.
Evil must be thwarted. Evil-doing must be punished. Crooks, criminals and swindlers must be exposed and brought to book. However, the Senate is a legislative body – not the holy office of the Grand Inquisition. We must be fearless in fighting crime and sleaze. But we must do it right.