The Filipino bahala na attitude conquers all terror and fear

‘God, it’s said, must love fools, He made so many of them. By this token, God must love Filipino fools, He made so many of us.

It is this same foolishness, I submit, that keeps us sane. We say bahala na – derived, I guess, from our ancient word for God. Bathala (pre-Spanish really) – which means, "it’s up to God," or "God will provide". It’s not very far, actually, from the Muslim expression, Inshallah or God willing.

In my years of covering Mindanao and the Middle East, as well as Indonesia, Pakistan, India (one of the most populous Muslim countries, with 130 million Muslims of its own), Bangladesh, and Malaysia, I learned that whenever a Muslim official or friend exclaimed, Inshallah,this meant it would not happen. Otherwise, he would have said "yes" or "no".

In the case of bahala na, it’s the Pinoy’s way of coping. Is there a threat posed by some crazy or vicious Islamic terrorist group styling itself the "Yellow-Red Overseas Organization" or the Abu Sayyaf, or whatever, perhaps some branch of the Jemaah Islamiyah or al-Qaeda – who knows? –against Philippine Airlines, or Korean Air, or Kuwaiti Air, or Thai International? Why were these airlines singled out by those Muslim idiots? Because the countries involved have troops, policemen, aid workers, or some coalition presence in Iraq? So what? All airlines, since Islamic terrorists began hijacking aircraft and blowing them up in the 1970s – yep, that far back – have been at risk. The hijacking of several European airliners, and their blowing up in Jordanian airstrips by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorists were what had provoked the Black September 1970 war between the late King Hussein’s Arab Legion and the PLO, plus the latter’s Syrian allies, for dominance in Jordan. How easily we forget. That PLO is now the "peace-loving" phalanx of Yasser Arafat – who today looks like the victim of Israeli bullying and suppression.

As for that old "terrorist", with the Lockerbie Pan-American tragedy forgiven if not forgotten, Libya’s supremo Moammar Ghaddafi is now in Brussels, being welcomed as a possible new ally against Islamic terrorism, from al-Qaeda to whatever. How the world turns.

Former US President Ronald Reagan, who once sent US warplanes to attack Tripoli and get Ghaddafi, is in an Alzheimer’s Disease-caused coma, in the meantime, having completely forgotten who he once was.

This is a world where you can never say, "never".

* * *

Is there a threat against PAL? Of course, there is. Since terrorism began, there’s always been one.

Osama bin Laden, Ramzi Youssef, and their mad-bombers have changed the way the world lives, travels – and flies. What can we do? Continue to be careful. Try to check everything. There is, however, no safeguard against the determined assassin, murderer, or suicide bomber. Yet, the Filipinos have one saving factor – bahala na attitude. It won’t keep all of us alive, but it keeps us happy.

Right now, we have official government "rescuer", former Armed Forces Chief of Staff, General now Ambassador Roy Cimatu, roving around Iraq trying to locate some 1,500 Filipinos (reported "trapped" in US and coalition camps) so he can "evacuate" them, if necessary. Even Cimatu knows that when he finds them, our Pinoys won’t leave. In Iraq, they may be in "danger", but they’re gainfully employed. Back here, they’d be destitute, and there’s no guarantee on our own mean streets about their safety.

In truth, Cimatu has already visited several camps to assure our OFWs there that contingency plans exist to assist them. What plans? Oh, well, at least Roy is carrying the message to our OFWs that their government somehow cares.

In fact, as Malacañang itself already estimates, there may be as many as 4,293 Filipinos working in Iraq. All over the Middle East, millions of our countrymen and women are employed. Of course, they’re not bullet-proof. But they work for themselves and their families. That’s the Filipino spirit.

This is why it makes sense for our President GMA to decline to do what other membes of the coalition – jittery about threats, bombings and Islamic retaliation (as conveyed by old Osama and his other geeks, via TV al Jezeera and other Arabic networks, or angry "letters") – seem to be hastening to do, pull their troops out of Iraq. We’ve got less than 100 anyway, from cops to humanitarian aid workers.

Let’s continue to show our flag among our coalition allies, not turn tail and run.

* * *

Spain’s new Socialist President cum Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, for instance, has begun to fulfill his rash but politically popular campaign promise to immediately withdraw the 1,300 Spanish fuerzas armadas troops from Iraq.

Zapatero thought he would get praise from Western European countries like Germany and France, and the European Union, for doing this – but he’s getting no warm abrasos at all. George Dubya Bush and the Americans, of course, hate him for it, but the surprising thing is that even the Democratic Party challenger, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, whom he thought would cheer his move, is now hemming and hawing that perhaps the departure of the Spanish contingent might have been too hasty a move!

Even the Vatican is cluck-clucking.

Susmariosep, Companero Zap, the man who gave the zapatos to poor ex-Presidente Jose Ma. Aznar and his Partido Popular, is discovering the perils of Spain’s flimflammery on its previous commitments. "Not to be trusted" is the word now going around regarding Spanish pledges.

Indeed, handsome Señor Zapatero’s recall of Spanish troops (the South Americans, like Honduras, etc. are also leaving, bringing the pull-out to about 2,000 Spanish-speaking soldiers), means the Iberian-Latin presence will soon be nil. The vacuum is being quickly filled by volunteers from Georgia (near Russia) and the former Eastern Europe, eager to gain the goodwill of the US. So there.

What might be a cause for worry for Zapateros is that many of the soldiers (men and women) he’s calling "home" might be irked, too, at being cravenly withdrawn. For the bulk of Spanish forces in Iraq belong to the famed La Legion, whose tough "Don Juan de Austria" brigade is based there.

The Legion, founded in 1920 as the Tercio de Extranjeros by Col. Jose Millan-Astray y Terreros (who once fought with the Spanish forces in Manila), was the unit which rushed home with Generalissimo Francisco Franco from North Africa and the sub-Sahara to "liberate" Spain from the Republican Government of Communists and Anarchists and thus ignited the Spanish Civil War.

Ironically, Franco had been aided by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, while the Americans had supported the Republican Leftists who were killing priests and nuns and destroying Catholic churches.

This is why Ernest Hemingway romanticized the Leftist heroes in his novels, For Whom the Bell Tolls, etc., and the American "Abraham Lincoln" volunteers heroically fought for the Leftists against Franco’s Falangista "Fascists" and his Nazi-Fascist allies. How the world turns, I say again.

Our brief is to stand fast for what best helps our people survive – and eventually prosper, we hope, in this cruel world.

As it is, we’re doing well enough. Bahala na.

* * *

Aren’t you already sick and tired of hearing and reading about politics?

Well, from where I write, I see that the FPJ-Ping Lacson talks won’t ever take place. The ASO gang has already seen to that. Former Executive Secretary Edgardo Angara, who intensely dislikes Lacson (and vice-versa) will be among those who’ll see to that.

Lacson and Poe have been playing hide and seek for so long that I guess unity is not in the cards, if ever it was in the cards. Let the devil take the hindmost then.

As for that debate over whether the poll surveys are true or false, it will never be resolved to anybody’s satisfaction. We shouldn’t be worried about the surveys – we ought to be worrying about the Commission on Elections. That‘s where the danger lies. Surveys are useful or harmful in that they discourage or encourage campaign contributors to certain candidates. This weekend is the zero hour.

After this weekend, the outcome will already be decided. Right now you probably know in which direction the money is flowing.

This is the nitty-gritty.

As for GMA, she and her well-oiled, well-funded, and well-seasoned propaganda machine are trying to create a "bandwagon effect." The message she wants to deliver: "Join me now, or else, Latecomers will be rejected."

I’m happy that Alyansa ng Pag-Asa’s Raul Roco is coming home today – hopefully better in health, or even . . . cured? But his campaign, alas, is somewhat in disarray. Raul is expected to manfully take up where he left off. But is it too late?

In any event, I trust we’ll have him on Friday, as scheduled, as our Impact 2004 guest. Everybody will be interested I’m sure in what Raul says – and, equally so, about how he looks.

Even though the great tenor, Andrea Bocelli (my idol), is singing simultaneously in the Araneta Colisseum, many people will be tuning in – I believe – to hear Raul’s own fortissimo performance.

If he shows up.

This is a world of ifs and whys.