The Ides of March

So far so good. That’s what the government said yesterday when most of Holy Week passed without an Abu Sayyaf, Jemaah Islamiyah, or other Islamic terrorist attack on Christian churches, or malls or other high-profile targets.

But, of course, we cannot and must not relax. Remember the story of Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.) who was warned by an old soothsayer in the street: "Beware the Ides of March!" This soothsayer’s admonition was not a figment of William Shakespeare’s rich imagination, incorporated into the Bard’s famous play, but had been mentioned by several Roman writers, including Suetonius, Plutarch and Appian.

Caesar, knowing he was hated for his growing power, the suspicion he wanted to destroy the republic and proclaim himself king, actually hesitated to attend the Senate meeting that day, but was persuaded by Decimus Brutus to go.

On the way there this time we defer to Shakespeare, he spotted the same soothsayer. He told the old man, "well, the Ides of March have come." (Meaning, I suppose, okay, the deadline came, but nothing happened). To which the soothsayer replied: "Aye, Caesar – but not yet gone!"

Indeed, when Caesar walked into the Senate, the conspirators were waiting for him. The first to strike was Senator Tillius Cimber, who leaned forward towards Caesar as if to ask a question. Casca, a Senate tribune, closed in on him from behind, and drawing a dagger from under his toga, stabbed him under the throat. Cassius stabbed him in the face.

Marcos Brutus – not to be confused with Decimus – one of Caesar’s own protegés, pushed in and stabbed him in the groin. ("Et tu, Brute!" Caesar groaned – "you, too, Brutus!"). Brutus was even reputed to be Caesar’s illegitimate son. Thus, some writers – the "columnists" I suppose at that time – claim the dying Caesar’s last words were uttered in Greek – "kai su teknon!" –or "You, too, my child!" In any event, with 21 stab wounds, Caesar fell dead – ironically, it’s said, right in front of the statue of his mortal enemy, whom he had defeated, the late Pompey the Great (106-48 B.C.).

Some of his assassins had been Senators – like Cassius – whom he had "forgiven" and whose lives he had spared, despite their support for Pompey.

The late US President John F. Kennedy was right. He once said: "You can forgive your enemies, but you must never forget their names."

As for Senators, it’s no wonder, up to now, they can’t always be trusted. It’s not only in Caesar’s time that they couldn’t even trust each other.

As for the Abu Sayyaf, and other terrorists, they may not attack when everyone’s expecting them. The strategy of the terrorist, through the ages, has been to strike where and when he’s unexpected, or least expected.

But today is Easter Sunday. True, the "Ides" of March aren’t over yet.

The Abu "threat", over-hyped probably by our own police, and law enforcement agencies, though, has already resulted in the cancellation of certain Catholic rituals, like the Salubong in Forbes Park, where, in procession, the carossa of Our Blessed Mother meets, in triumph, the Resurrected Christ.

Yet, nothing can quell the exultant exclamation: Christ is risen! Fear not, Our Lord said, I have overcome the world.

* * *

Another journalist was brutally murdered, this time a columnist of the Midland Review in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat, Mindanao.

Mrs. Marlene Garcia Esperat, 45, reputed to be a fearless, "hard-hitting" opinion writer, was shot down last Thursday at 7:15 p.m. inside her own home in Barangay New Isabela, in front of her ten-year old son. The triggerman, who used a .45 caliber pistol for the assassination, escaped on a motorcycle. Esperat is the second journalist to be murdered in our country this year.

Gunman shot down Arnulfo Villanueva, a columnist of the Asian Star Express in Naic, Cavite, last February 28.

Last year, 13 journalists were slain in the Philippines, leading us to be rated by the International Press Institute (IPI), in its annual year 2004 report, as one of the worst countries where journalists can be killed "with impunity". What’s "shameful", protested the IPI, the influential global network of editors, media executives and journalists, representing 120 countries, is "the authorities’ failure to properly investigate and prosecute the killers of journalists."

Carlos Conde, the Secretary-General of the National Union of Journalists (and correspondent of the Financial Times, a daily published simultaneously in three continents) has already condemned the murder of Esperat and called on the police to "solve" the female journalist’s murder.

The arrogant manner in which a hit-man barged into Mrs. Esperat’s own sala, even sarcastically greeted her with, "Good evening, Ma’am," then shot her to death, is an insult flung in the face of the new Philippine National Police Chief, General Arturo C. Lomibao.

I think Lomibao – the tough former Philippine Constabulary officer who once captured the most-feared New People’s Army Commander, Dante Buscayno, ought to personally take charge – and let the murderous killers know that there’s a new PNP Chief in command who’ll get them without mercy, relentlessly track down any protectors they might have among local politicians, or even cops.

You can bet that when a newspaperman or media person is killed, some "big shot" is involved. Triggermen don’t run such errands for peanuts, even if human life seems to have become dirt cheap under the current dispensation.

President GMA may be worried about the non-passage of the Value-Added Tax (VAT), or about "defending" (as Malacañang has done a few days ago) her beloved chief of her "council of advisers" Maurice "Hank" Greenberg who was unceremoniously ejected from top executive position by his own outfit, AIG (Philamlife’s Mama Corporation). I suggest she begin worrying, too, about the way journalists are being assassinated in rapid-fashion – without anybody being arrested for their murders – under the GMA Administration.

The trouble with governments is that they don’t want a "bad press" – but it doesn’t appear to matter too much to them if they get a "dead press".