GMA still in a blue funk over ‘false’ news of Angelo’s release

Labor Secretary Pat Sto. Tomas – taking the rap for having given media the koryente tale that hostaged truck driver Angelo de la Cruz had been freed by his Islamic militant captors – has tried to exercise damage control by flying Angelo’s wife, Arsenia, with her to Jordan allegedly so Mrs. De la Cruz will be "closer to developments on the ground".

This means the government is still hoping Angelo will be released by his terrorist captors, a group which continues to threaten to behead him.

Hope spring eternal, of course, but mercy is an ingredient which is in short supply in that bitter corner of the Middle East. The Iraqi insurgents have published their new ultimatum on the website of the Al-Jazeera TV channel, which normally is first in announcing the latest declarations of al-Qaeda chieftain Osama bin Laden.

Angelo may, indeed, be in the hands of militants of the same stripe who are holding two Bulgarian truck drivers, also seized in Iraq. The abductors had said they would kill the two Bulgarians last Friday unless the US-led "coalition" freed a specified number of prisoners, but the two – Georgi Lasov, 30, and Ivalo kepov, 32 – are reportedly still "alive". Supposedly the deadline has been extended. Bulgaria’s "crime"? Bulgaria has a 480-man infantry battalion serving in Iraq.

Al-Jazeera, the same Oman-based TV station, has shown a video of the two Bulgarians in the custody of masked captors (like the photos of two previous victims). The hostage-takers were identified as belonging to the Tawid and Jihad group headed by Jordanian terrorist and suspected al-Qaeda partner, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has already claimed "credit" for having beheaded an American contractor and a South Korean in the past month.

There’s a big hullabaloo about "saving" poor Angelo de la Cruz by caving in to their harsh demand that the Philippines pull out its pitifully small 51-member contingent from Iraq immediately. Sorry: To do so would not only demonstrate weakness and cowardice, but declare to terrorists it’s "open season" on all Filipinos within their reach. If we surrender to their demands now, all belonging to that relentless and murderous bunch will know that all they have to do – whenever they want anything (like the release of Abu Sayyaf murderer-kidnappers now in our prisons, or Jemaah Islamiyah bombers in police-military detention) – is kidnap another Pinoy (or Pinay for that matter) in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi or UAE, and threaten to "behead" that hostage.

Yield now, and it will be non-stop blackmail and harassment. That, alas, is the long and short of it.

As for the boo-boo of Sto. Tomas having foolishly announced what turned out to be painfully untrue, the "release" of de la Cruz, President GMA is reportedly in a blue funk over that announcement. Even National Security Adviser Norbert Gonzales seems to have participated in "confirming" that piece of false information. Cabinet members have been instructed to "shut up".

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The real tragedy is that 2,500 Filipinos leave our country daily because they cannot find work at home. This is what happened to Angelo de la Cruz. He had already worked nine years abroad, mostly in Saudi Arabia. Tired of being separated from his family – a brood of eight children – he tried to stay home. But after two years of unemployment in which his debts mounted, he was compelled to seek employment anew in Saudi. So he left last year on a two-year contract to work as a truck driver in Dammam, Saudi Arabia (his fourth stint in the Kingdom). After more than a year at his job there, he was assigned to drive in a convoy bringing oil to Iraq – which is where he was snatched by the militants. (His job allowed him to send between P7,500 to P10,000 to his family in Mexico, Pampanga – for the education of his kids, and a prospective operation of one of them, suffering from an eye problem.)

We frequently express "pride" over the fact that we have 7.4 million Filipinos living and working abroad – sending home between $6 to $8 billion yearly to their families. This is one factor which, in continuing hard times, keeps our economy afloat. The awful truth is that, this is a phenomenon to be mourned rather than celebrated. Families are separated, and, sometimes, broken up by this long-term separation.

We can only strive and work for the day when we can manage to bring our wandering "exiles" home from the diaspora of their desperation.

And that’s not even counting the "brain drain" which is escalating. It’s not only workers, but many of our best-educated and even well-heeled (with their capital) who have begun decamping.

At this moment, we have more than 1.4 million Filipinos working in the troubled Middle East – most of them in Saudi Arabia, next door to Iraq and Kuwait. Of course, in that ever-widening zone of terror and Islamic fanaticism, these are our OFWs most at risk.

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President GMA is flying to Cebu this Friday (July 16). Perhaps this is the time she may announce that she is appointing Congressman Joseph "Ace" Durano of Cebu’s 5th district (Danao), the new Secretary of Tourism. Durano, who? That’s the inevitable question. That name, if this happens, will have come out of the blue to most people in the country.

Yet, this is the buzz in Malacañang, coming from A-1 sources. The present Tourism Secretary Roberto "Obet" Pagdanganan is a good man, but he already has had intimations of his "mortality" as DOT Chief. As former Bulacan Governor, his "feud" with incumbent Governor Josie dela Cruz led to grave political implications. Obet ran his son, Raymond Pagdanganan, for the Vice-Governorship of Bulacan, under the Lakas-NUCD banner of the ruling coalition, but when GMA went to Bulacan, she instead proclaimed Josie’s runningmate, Rely Plamenco, as the Lakas-NUCD official candidate for Vice-Governor. Both De la Cruz and Plamenco won, and Raymond lost his bid. Worse, Raymond Pagdanganan was alleged to have been supported by FPJ’s leaders (which Obet vehemently denies). Sad to say, La Emperadora seems to believe otherwise.

In any event, we’ll see it happen – when it happens. Why Ace Durano? People will ask. Joseph is the grandson of the late "king" (warlord?), the formidable Ramon Durano of Danao, which was once known as the paltik capital of the country. But the Duranos, formerly hellers and gun-slingers, have apparently mellowed. And Ace was a devoted supporter of GMA in the past election.

What about the other Cebuano leaders who gave La Presidenta her landslide victory in the city and province? Wouldn’t they object to a Durano, whose participation in the House Tourism committee remains obscure, getting the Tourism Department plum? I’m told that Cebu Mayor Tommy Osmeña, who delivered Cebu City with a thumping majority, isn’t bothered by it – as long as the Department of Tourism (DOT) itself is transferred from Manila to Cebu.

What makes GMA’s choice of Ace Durano fascinating and somewhat problematic is the fact that in Congress, Durano was in the forefront of the "impeachment" attempt against Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. After all, Justice Davide – whose reputation and integrity overwhelmed this strange impeachment move – is a fellow Cebuano. Did La Presidenta bounce the idea of appointing Ace to this major Cabinet post off the Chief Justice – to gauge his reaction?

Anyway, nothing is graven in stone – until the deed is done. Abangan.

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Malacañang has been appealing to media to stop speculating on who will stay and who will go in the Cabinet.

If there is speculation on these matters, it is due to the fact that appointments to the Cabinet are being disclosed piecemeal. You can’t stop the "guessing game", or the frenzied tidbits "leaked" to media by those aspiring to be retained, or to elbow their way into the Cabinet.

However, a possible pernicious effect of delayed replacements of Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) in Cabinet-rank positions are (1) "last two-minute" deals; and (2) midnight promotions by the outgoing officials of their protégés to serve as rear-guard echelons to cover their tracks, just in case investigations may be initiated by their successors.

It’s not just the Cabinet we must worry about. Lobbying has intensified for juicy positions and rich agencies and government-owned or controlled corporations. The applicants ought to be carefully scrutinized.

I distinctly recall that at one time the head of an activist farmers’ group, who had been convicted of more than 30 counts of estafa by a Bulacan Regional Trial Court and had even served his sentence in the National Penitentiary was actually nominated for membership in the Board of Directors of the Land Bank. His nomination was hastily withdrawn after his criminal record was discovered.

Among GMA’s first appointees in 2001 to a section at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in charge of concessions and contracts at the airport was a Pampango lawyer who had a pending case in the Sandiganbayan for a land scam in San Fernando, Pampanga.

In fact, the complainant was even GMA’s own half-sister, former Vice-Governor Cielo Macapagal-Salgado. The lucky fellow must really have been very influential with the "boss" to have merited that powerful appointment despite the pending criminal case against him.

Will La Emperadora’s appointments in her "new" six-year Administration be based on the same criteria? That’s what everybody would like to know. She’s the captain of our Ship of State, and we are all eager to help her if we can, steer it straight and true – and plug the leaks (because it’s very leaky). For if she sinks, we’ll all sink with her.

And I’m not such a good swimmer, either.