Spare us from Pamatong, et al.

When Elly Pamatong first broke into television last year, people instantly knew there was something odd about him. Fringe Leftists were at the time demonstrating at the US embassy in Manila, railing against the impending half-day visit of President George W. Bush. Pamatong bought air time to rail in turn that the US should take over RP. There he was in fez, dark jacket and tie-design of the American flag, seated on a throne, arguing for an hour that it was America’s God-given duty to make the Philippines its 51st state. People old enough to remember likened him to a perennial presidential candidate in the ’60s named Cabangbang, who ran under a similar platform and had a Philippine Statehood-USA Movement as backer. The only difference was that Pamatong visualized himself already as the Philippine ruler because, as he kept saying, he had practised law in America. He had a midget garbed in military fatigues behind him, waving an American flag and nodding assent at every word he said. Kipling’s pathetic Gunga Din, it would seem. And televiewers had a good laugh.

Inevitably Pamatong filed a certificate of candidacy as President in January, along with Eddie Gil, Salve Bush and a dozen other queers. Salve had a slight edge against him in idolizing America because she is Bush’s secret girlfriend and they regularly communicate by mental telepathy. Gil, too, had an edge in electoral experience, having ran for senator in 2001. The Comelec promptly disqualified Salve and Pamatong, and later Gil, as nuisances. Salve meekly accepted the verdict. Gil and Pamatong took their cases to the Supreme Court. When the Tribunal upheld the Comelec ruling, Gil declared a failure of election even before the ballots were cast, joined a TV sit-com as singer, then proclaimed himself winner on election day. Six weeks after the balloting, the Court has yet to rule on Pamatong’s appeal. And that is what riles him.

In the wee hours of the morning of Monday, Pamatong, by his own confession on public radio, had his supporters scatter 800 steel spikes on Metro Manila’s main roads. By noon, 168 motorists had suffered flat tires. As if to prove that he commands a national following big enough to carry him to Malacañang, Pamatong said more supporters also had strewn caltrops on the streets of Baguio, Laguna, Bicol, Davao and Cagayan de Oro. What he did was "good for the country," he bragged. It was his "less violent" form of protest against the Supreme Court’s delayed justice for him. "It’s a choice between bullets or any other violent way to express my disappointment with the government" that has refused to grant a permit to lead protest marches to the Batasan, where Congress is canvassing the election results. He needed to attract public attention to his plight, he cried.

Pamatong now asks for public forgiveness. And well he should. A new tire costs at least P3,500; vulcanizing, at least P200. So he needlessly set back the national economy by P33,600 to P588,000, not to mention the man-hours wasted by 168 motorists to have the flats fixed. Pamatong claims to be a lawyer. He must know that in a matter of a few angry months, he has graduated from an election nuisance into a malicious mischief-maker, a property damager and a potential physical injurer.

Sadly Pamatong knows the law only too well to spot loopholes. He believes he can get away with what he did with mere public apology. Hundreds of thousands of motorists chuckled to themselves as they went about their usual chores, ignoring the fact that one protester had violated their right to life and liberty to freely traverse public roads. The 168 victims at first seethed, then just shrugged that Pamatong is part of daft Philippine life. Authorities, instead of arresting Pamatong outright for endangering lives and limbs, merely asked the victims to file complaints. It’s as if Pamatong’s criminal act was a personal affront and not a case that government must prosecute for the People of the Philippines.

Pamatong is a prime example of the Broken Windows theory of law enforcement. Let a little act of lunacy go unpunished, and the perpetrator would graduate to graver acts. Let Pamatong off for busting 168 tires, and he would be emboldened to do it again. Worse, he could someday become opposition senator, and use his mastery of the law to thwart the rule of law. It would be no different from what the nation witnessed in recent days, in attempts to delay the proclamation of a presidential winner and plunge the country into constitutional crisis.

Official reluctance to haul Pamatong to jail springs from a tendency to overlook his past acts of "harmless" oddity. They fear he might change his mind about public admissions, and their case would collapse. There lies the weakness of the "Strong Republic." Pamatong’s little terrorism last Monday coincided with the planting of three bombs – all powerful enough to level buildings – in Camp Aguinaldo, at the Interior Department office, and at the Forbes Park enclave of the rich. No one has been arrested. Authorities are content with insinuating that it’s all the handiwork of an opposition senator who has displayed megalomania many times before in coup attempts. Yup, the same eely fellow who was supposed to handle a presidential candidate’s vote security with five million volunteers, but who didn’t do the job in order to set his principal thinking of massive poll fraud and calling for a civilian uprising.

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I gave the old phone numbers of World Wildlife Fund-Philippines in my column of Monday (Gotcha, 21 June 2004). The new numbers are: (02) 929-1258, 920-7923, 920-7926 and 920-7931.

To volunteer for or donate to the succeeding Tañon Strait whale surveys, one week each month from July to October, ask for Flory Tabio, or e-mail [email protected]. To sign up as member and get regular bulletins on other projects or discounts in certain ecotourism destinations, look for Vix Chua, or e-mail [email protected].

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E-mail: [email protected]