An I.D. card system won't let future ‘bombers’ escape

It was ridiculous of our so-called "pro-administration" senators to have pompously dismissed out of hand the Government’s plea to approve the imposition of a National I.D. Card for all Filipinos.

Senate President Franklin Drilon and Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. (of all people) trotted out the silly argument that the existing personal identification cards issued by the Social Security System (SSS), the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the Taxpayers’ Identification Number (TIN), and even drivers’ licenses ought to suffice. Sanamagan! Get real, guys. Have you ever seen an Abu Sayyaf kidnapper, a Jemaah Islamiyah bomber, a New People’s Army (NPA) hit-man, or a Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrilla going around with an SSS or GSIS I.D., or his TIN number in pocket, or even bothering to exhibit a driver’s license?

In any event, when a kidnapping-for-ransom (KFR) gang member or everyday gangster carjacks a vehicle and uses it for either abduction or bank robbery, who bothers with formalities like driver’s licenses? In truth, all those I.D.s and licenses are so easy to fake.

We’re speaking of a tamper-proof, computer-checkable, national I.D. which identifies without doubt the person carrying it. When an individual is accosted, or nabbed, he or she will have to produce an I.D. card. Those found without I.D.s, in that case, will be regarded as beyond the pale of the law – and subjected to further investigation. If innocent, they will be released with a reprimand, and the imposition of the requirement to produce a valid I.D. On the other hand, the non-possession of an I.D., or a counterfeit one, would ferret out who’s up to no good, or guilty, in our already overcrowded society.

Drilon and Magsaysay are supposed to be solons, not simpletons – so I’m aghast at their absurd notions.

Then we have Senators Joker Arroyo and Francisco "Kiko" Pangilinan getting on their high horse and condemning the national I.D. card idea as an "invasion" of the people’s privacy. What invasion of privacy? If Filipinos aren’t proud of who and what they are, then we’ve cause for worry in this land of ours.

Why should people want to keep their identities "private"? Are they just numbers, or robots, or statistics? Those, may I repeat what I’ve said ad nauseam, who want to keep their identities "secret" or hide behind anonymity, are up to mischief – this is why bandits, killers, robbers – and some lawmen – wear masks or balaclavas (the head to neck hood) when conducting an operation or a raid.

Pangilinan even added the non-sequitur that the I.D. requirement might give government agents the opportunity to abuse "innocent civilians" who might not happen to have their I.D.s with them. Sus, Kiko, this is begging the question. The intent of the I.D. card proposal is that citizens must have their I.D. on their persons at all times, so we can ferret out the outlaws and distinguish them from the law-abiding.

Pangilinan’s more valid argument is that the Supreme Court, in 1998, had handed down an en banc ruling junking an administrative order issued by then President Fidel V. Ramos imposing a national I.D. system. I submit that somebody test this idea anew by seeking clarification from the High Tribunal. My memory of the details of FVR’s original directive is faulty, and I don’t wish to offer any off-the-cuff conclusion, but I suspect the Court might have found the FVR order defective or out of line in some way.

Criminals and terrorists succeed only when they are faceless and nameless. Once more with feeling: Let’s get that I.D. scheme underway without delay. Our lives may depend on it.

Incidentally, the fourth victim in the "Valentine’s" Makati bus bombing died last Friday. Ronie Soriano, 24 succumbed to his bomb-injuries in the Ospital ng Makati. Who will be next?

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What’s of note is that Philippine National Police Director General and Chief (Gen.) Edgar Aglipay has just revealed that all three of the bombs exploded on Valentine’s Day, the one in Makati, and the others in Davao and Gen. Santos City, were triggered off by cellular phones. This has become the trademark of the modern terrorist.

The Australian Federal Police, working with our own forensic experts, have confirmed this fact. The same modus operandi was utilized in the nightclub bombings on October 2002 in Bali, Indonesia (off Kuta beach) in which 202 revelers, mostly foreign tourists, were slain hideously. The JI "hand" coupled with the Abu Sayyaf’s, is being unmasked in the three incidents.

This writer was in Madrid, Spain’s capital, on March 11, when our nearby hotel felt the shock of the blasts which hit four trains nearing the El Atocha station in central Madrid.

Ten bombs were exploded simultaneously on four trains, killing 200 and injuring more than 1,420 commuters. The explosives were later pinpointed as Goma-Dos, packed with shrapnel to boot, for maximum shredding power.

One of the knapsacks left in a coach by the bombers failed to detonate. Through it, the police discovered that the method of setting off the bombs had been movils (cellphones). Investigators were able to track down and arrest three Moroccans and two Indians (Muslims) because a cellphone card was found in an unexploded bomb and traced to them.

When the bombs exploded in further away El Pozo, then in more proximate El Atocha station – next to the university area and two ministry buildings – we rushed over from our hotel, the Palace, which is just fronting parliament.

The station was a scene of utter carnage, blood, and confusion. We’re speaking of a terminal so grand it even has a charming little park inside it – but this time it was a site of horror and chaos. The death the bombers dealt was indiscriminate. The 199th fatality, who died later in a hospital, was a baby girl of six and a half months. The 201st fatality was a 45-year old woman. We lost one Filipino, a young worker from the suburbs rushing to his Iglesia ni Cristo chapel early in the morning.

When the police found the abandoned car in which the explosives had originally been ferried, it contained a tape of Koranic verses along with the bunch of detonaters. A video was later sent by the avowed attackers, and when played, was found to feature Abu Dujan al Afghani, described as Al Qaeda’s military spokesman in Europe.

In the video, the Islamic militant said: "We declare our responsibility for what happened in Madrid. It is a response to your collaboration with the criminals Bush and his allies."

The terrorist bomb attack, as I can attest because I was there, had the effect of shoving the Socialists, the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) of now President/Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero into power, downing poor Mariano Rajoy of the then ruling party, the Partido Popular. Rajoy had been the candidate of President/P.M. Jose Maria Aznar, the leader who had brought Spain to unparalleled prosperity in Europe. A few, well-timed Islamic terrorist bombs did it. A week earlier, Aznar’s Partido Popular had been expected to romp home to victory. The question had been, by how many percentage points. Instead, it was defeated that Sunday, March 14.

We had driven down to the port city of Valencia, Spain, by car, on election day to visit the shrine of our family Virgin, the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados, known in English as "Our Lady of the Abandoned." (This is one of the cities of El Cid). The city was in a jubilant mood, with much dancing and music, since the week was the lead-up to the coming festival, one of the most explosive fiestas in Spain the famous "fallas." On 19th March, the Feast of St. Joseph, every year, papier-mache figures – some of them towering five-storeys high – lampooning politicians, local personalities, creatures of movieland or myth, etc. are put to the torch, in a moment of truth named the crema. The colorful figures, usually 350 in number in every district, are set afire – giving a glow to the "burning" city.

The city had been founded in 138 BC by the Romans and stands on the Rio Turia, just off the Mediterranean. Last March it was in an even more ebullient mood because it had been announced that the next "America’s Cup" yacht challenge would be held in Valencia, not in the hated rival port city of Barcelona. (The Swiss, who won the Cup the other year, don’t have a sea, so they chose Valencia).

Thus, the fallas festival – dedicated incongruously to the woodworkers of the city – would be burning brighter than before.

What got burned down, instead, that Sunday, was Aznar’s "Popular Party."

Valencia’s daily "El Periodico" (Lunes, March 15) banner-headlined it well: "ZAPATAZO AZNAR Y RAJOY." (It was a play on Socialist winner Zapatero’s name: "Aznar and Rajoy "Given the Boot" or kicked out). Editors always go for the jugular and are unkind when dishing out headlines.

In "La Vanguardia," Barcelona’s leading newspaper, Director Jose Antich entitled his editorial in simple words: "Vuelco Historico".

Ten terrorist bombs had accomplished the last-minute upset. It changed the course of history for Spain, for better or worse.

Perhaps, worse? Zapatero, coming into office, soon yanked out the 1,400 Spanish troops (mostly from La Legion) from Iraq. Bush fumed. Spain lost much of America’s business. Its shipyards are in crisis, for one. Zapatero is in direct confrontation with the Catholic Church today. Despite his baby-blue eyes, and his matinee-idol charm, he seems to be much more of a Leftist hardliner than his Socialist predecessor, former Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez.

He apparently wants separation of Church and State spelled out on every level, down to even the parochial schools.

The Partido Popular, now in opposition, charges that he wants to enfranchise and give citizenship to more than one million foreigners and asylum-seekers so he can get their votes in the coming elections. Oh well. Politics is like that.

In our country, it’s vital that we never permit the terrorists and saboteurs to gain the upper hand – or influence what we decide for our present and our future. We have no recourse but to fight them, before they grow stronger, with everything we’ve got.