A flattering rumor, but absolutely untrue

What happened? It seems to be all over town, fueled by radio reports and some newspaper stories that my "commander" – i.e., my dear wife, Precious – is going to be the next DepEd Secretary. Sus, even Abante, the big-selling tabloid, ran a dispatch headlined: "Soliven sa DepEd?"

In answer to that question, and to friends (both sincere and mischievous) congratulating this poor Saluyot writer yesterday, I have to reply: "Never happen!" My wife, who’s still in Tokyo, having been one of the speakers at a just-concluded international conference with some of Asia’s educators in her role of UNESCO Secretary-General (Unicom) for the Philippines, exclaimed in amazement. "What? They’re still circulating that rumor?"

Anyway, once and for all, PSS is not going to be DepEd Secretary, period. Why, the President, Precious and I even kidded each other about it last July 21 when we had that intimate, relaxed dinner in the Dasmariñas Village home of our STARGATE partner, "Babe" Romualdez. Precious doesn’t want to be DepEd Secretary nor does she covet any Cabinet post. It would be an honor, but she’s perfectly happy doing what she’s been doing – educating kids and young people, and, in addition, being in UNESCO.

And besides, as she remarked when the "rumor" first surfaced in Malacañang more than three weeks ago: "I think that DepEd Edilberto de Jesus is doing a fine job!"

Enough said already. To our media friends who took the flattering but false report seriously, thanks for the good wishes and the "publicity", but no, it just ain’t true.

‘Nuff said already, as they say in the comic strips.

* * *

Let’s take time out from the usual fuss over domestic squabbles, second-guessing on who’ll be in the "new" (re-hashed) GMA Cabinet, whether Gracia Burnham was muzzled or misquoted on the military’s action or inaction during the Abu Sayyaf kidnap crisis, and al-Qaeda terrorists’ threat to bomb New York anew and Washington, DC. This is a time to mourn the death of one of the country’s elder statesmen, a throwback to our so-called Golden Yesterday – former Senator and Macoy’s "Vice President" Arturo M. Tolentino who passed away yesterday at the age of 93.

Turing Tolentino had been "out of sight" for more than three years – weakened by old age and probably saddened by the fact that his beloved Senate, in which men and women of gravitas, intellect, and eloquence had once sat, enriching our political debate and providing a counterfoil to Imperial Malacañang, had deteriorated into a circus sideshow, frequently exposed as "comedy live" by national television. I’m afraid, as a sidebar, that not a few might even express surprise today that Tolentino had just died yesterday, believing he had already died a few years ago.

Even fewer will remember that he was the author in Congress of Republic Act No. 3019 – in 1960 – otherwise known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. It still is the country’s basic Anti-Graft law, 44 years after it was enacted.

In the Senate, Tolentino was a master parliamentarian whose skill in House and Senate proceedings was equaled only by another great parliamentarian, the eccentric but forceful and redoubtable Senator Cipriano Primicias from Pangasinan. Turing and Tata Pianong, as we fondly called the latter in our family, were unparalleled on the floor of the Senate chamber.

As a law professor who had placed 2nd in the 1934 Bar, he left his indelible mark on academe and the legal profession by writing a classic commentary on the Civil Code of the Philippines, which up to now is considered the best annotated set of books on Civil Law.

We knew Turing somewhat well, because he was my mother’s classmate in the famous Manila East High School (later Mapa High School), which was rated one of the best in the public school system. Mama later went on to La Consolacion College, down the street of Mendiola, from where my dad, already a practising lawyer and headed for Congress, plucked her as a cradle-snatcher.

But that’s another, already twice-told tale. As for Turing, he was brilliantly headed for success (as valedictorian) then for statesmanship. He had his ups and downs and his "exploits" and foibles, and even got involved in that funny incident featuring the brief "capture" of Manila Hotel by rebel soldiers (Remember FVR’s punishment imposed on the mutineers of "Do 60 push-ups"? Or something like that? I lose count). Sometimes this is a wacky country, which is why we have to keep on smiling. As the Italians say, Ridiamo per non piangere (We laugh in order not to cry).

Yet, when all is said and done, Tolentino will be remembered as a giant in a nation of proliferating, alas, intellectual pigmies. For he had a vision of the law as the guarantor of our rights and freedoms, the "punisher" of the ungodly, the defender of the weak and weaponless. Ave and farewell, Turing Tolentino!

* * *

What a world this is.

All it takes is a "boo" from old Osama’s al-Qaeda barkers to distress the markets and put the world’s Superpower on full alert against another suicide-bomber attack on likely targets like the New York Stock Exchange, and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington, DC.

The threat was announced by no less than Tom Ridge, who’s chief of US Homeland Security, and is being taken very seriously indeed. Why, those rascals might even bomb Toys ’R Us or give their regards to Broadway! In sum, anything could happen. This is the age of the unexpected, from Baghdad in Iraq, to Baghdad-on-the-Bay as they used to call San Francisco, or another bomb attack on Moscow, meaning Moscow, Pennsylvania.

The suicide-bombers who shocked America in 9/11 by crashing planes, full of screaming passengers, smack into the Twin Towers and into the Pentagon – 15 of the 19, by coincidence (?) coming from Saudi Arabia – have left a lasting trauma on Americans – a horror and anger now resurrected by the new bomb-attack threat. The lights are burning night and day, I’m informed, in DC’s security centers. (By coincidence, John Kerry’s ratings have suddenly taken a plunge, and George Dubya "wartime President" Bush’s ratings have gone up somewhat – but public opinion is fickle, so the Republicans can’t make book on this remaining significant in November.)

In any event – there you are. The terrorists have made the world change in unwanted ways, forcing everyone to live on the razor’s edge of paranoia. But the world will move on, adjust, and learn to handle each evolving challenge.

In the Philippines, we ought to know that well enough. Suicide-bombers? We’ve had to cope with suicide-attack on the part of Muslims – i.e., Moro juramentados or amoks – for more than two centuries. In the old days, the suicide-attackers used kris and bladed swords, later guns and rifles. Today, the weapon of choice is the bomb. The Moro amok dedicated himself to Allah, prayed to Makkah (Mecca) then set out to kill as many infidels as possible, especially Christians. When the Americans came, they added Americans to the death list.

Do you recall the name of the terrorist gang which took our OFW truck driver (now rescued celebrity), poor Angelo de la Cruz, hostage in Iraq and threatened to "behead" him (an old Abu Sayyaf and Moro insurgent practice in Basilan and Mainland Mindanao)? They dubbed themselves the "Khalid bin Al-Walid" Squadron.

Do you know who the above-mentioned Islamic hero was? His name is enshrined in Islamic’s holy book, the Qur’an (Koran), Sura 9:5. And here’s the verse in the sacred book of Islam, which precisely lauds his name as a warrior:

"What an excellent slave of Allah: Khalid bin al-Walid, one of the swords of Allah, unleashed against the unbelievers! Prophet Mohammed may His name be praised . . . Fight and slay the pagans (infidels) wherever you find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every strategem of war."

How many centuries ago were those burning words written, to be learned by the Muslim young in their madrasas and in their prayers?

I think we all ought to read the Qu’ran more often. It’s written as plainly as a road-map. (For the suicide-bomber, his or her road-map to Paradise.) Infidels? That’s us. But this is par for the course. When the Crusaders stormed into the Holy Land to retake it from the heathen, that’s what they called the Muslims – "infidels", too. Godrey de Bouillion and his knights, wading into Jerusalem in a sea of blood, their swords hacking away on a Good Friday, crying out "Deus vult" or "God wills it!" massacred any Jews in the vicinity, as well.

That’s old, heroic Godfrey you can see on horseback in equestrian statue in Brussels, near the Palace square, the "King of Jerusalem" – not far from the headquarters building of the European Commission.

It’s time to call for peace. But where religion is concerned, especially among religions professing peace, this is extremely difficult. In the meantime, let’s not misunderstand what we’re up against.

It’s been said too often that Osama bin Laden and his murderous thugees and assassins "hi-jacked" Islam. Reading the Qur’an and the sacred Suras, what do you think?