‘Terrorism doesn’t take a holiday – so watch out!’ APEC Security’s Defensor says

Our friend, former Armed Forces Chief of Staff, now APEC Counter-Terrorism Chief, Benjamin P. Defensor, met with this writer yesterday to say that the government must be on heightened alert this Holy Week – because, he noted, it’s when least expected that "terrorists" strike.

General Defensor, who’s organized a Counter-Terrorism Experts’ Conference in Mactan, Cebu, from Thursday next week to Saturday (April 20-22) added that the last thing he wanted to do is sound alarmist, "but we haven’t heard from the terrorists like the Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiyah for months now, and it may be time for them to remind us of their presence." I kidded him about making such a remark, for it might prove a dangerously self-fulfilling prophecy, but Defensor – who takes his job seriously despite his ready grin – retorted that complacency, not paranoia, could be our worst enemy.

In any event, he has been busy ever since he was designated Counter-Terrorism Task Force Chairman at the last Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit held in Santiago, Chile, a year and a half ago. Appointed Philippine Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism, Defensor has been visiting the 21 APEC countries, coordinating their defenses against international terrorism.

Among his main objectives have been what’s called, would you believe, "STAR" in acronym – namely Securing Trade in the APEC region – an operation designed to enhance the safe passage of goods and people by protecting cargo, ships, international aviation and people in transit.

The STAR initiative, he underscores, seeks to curb terrorist financing, promote cyber security, ensure energy security and protect the health of communities (against biological attack, I suppose).

The impending first Counter-Terrorism Experts’ Conference (CTEC) was announced by President GMA on November 18, last year, during the APEC Summit in Busan, South Korea, in her role as Chair of the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee which monitors reports on all non-al Qaeda and non-Taliban terrorist activities.

The three days of sessions to be held in the Mactan Shangri-la Hotel, Cebu, will revolve around the theme, "Defeating Dilemmas in Counter-Terrorism."

Defensor is inviting resident Ambassadors in Manila, as well as other officials concerned, to the gathering.

Among the confirmed speakers are Senior Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta of Timor l’Este (East Timor), the Nobel Prize laureate; Ambassador Ellen Margarethe Loj of Denmark, Chairperson of the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee; Asst. Secretary for Terrorism of Spain, Ms. Carmen Bujan; Dr. Rohan Gunaratna of Indonesia, Head of Terrorist Research at IDSS, NTU; Dr. David Gork of France, Director, Specialized Crime Directorate of INTERPOL; Mr. Matthias Sonn of Germany, Head of the Division for Counter-Terrorism, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ms. Dolgar Solongo of Austria, Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer, Terrorism Prevention Branch, UN Office on Drugs and Crime; Mr. Uldis Dzenitis of Latvia, Deputy Director of the Constitution Protection Bureau, Security Police Dept. Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ms. Evelyn Puxley of Canada, Director, International Crime and Terrorism; Secretary Jesus Dureza, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process; Ms. Maria Ressa of ABS-CBN (formerly of CNN), author of the bestseller on terrorism in Asia, "Siege of Terror," and Counter-Terrorism analyst; Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of Davao City; General Dr. Fahal Shalan of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior; Brigadier (Gen.) Khan of Pakistan; and Mr. L. Jin of South Korea.

Francis Townsend, US Presidential Adviser on Homeland Security, was invited to address the conference but thus far has not replied, neither was any message received from US Secretary for Homeland Security Michael Chertoff – so, I guess, the United States is not involving itself in the affair.

The "snub", however, has left Defensor, who completed his GSC at the Air Command and Staff College, Air University, Alabama, USA, "with distinction" in 1985, totally unfazed.

"If the Americans wish to participate," he remarked, "they’re welcome. If not, we’ll make do without them."

Benjie, who used to be Commanding General of our Philippine Air Force, made armed forces "history" in 1974 by earning two Gold Cross Medals (the highest combat award at the time) within 24 hours of continuous operation in Jolo, Sulu.

He, many years later, assigned women helicopter pilots to spearhead air-support operations against Camp Abubakar, the once "impregnable" headquarters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, because he pointed out that female gunship pilots had the most dependable pinpoint accuracy in attacking targets. This was demonstrated when one PAF woman lieutenant almost mortally wounded the second-highest ranking field commander of the MILF without "harming" the mosque right beside his dug-out.

Defensor has won over 30 awards and decorations, including three Distinguished Service Stars and three Gold Crosses. Therefore, his military capability is not to be doubted.

Neither is his versatility. A champion amateur football (soccer) player in his youth, "as everybody from Iloilo is!" (he brags), he used to be a fighting cock breeder.

Would you believe, we spent the better part of an hour yesterday discussing, not terrorism, but another form of aerial combat – cockfighting. The sharpest "blade," attached to the talons of a fighting cock, is known in all international cockers’ circles, he reminded me, as the "Philippine slasher." It wounds so deeply that Filipino fighting cocks literally fight to the death, giving no quarter – and expecting none.

I wish we had a Philippine "slasher" of an Air Force. Sadly, our aircraft are obsolete and outmoded – thus our fighting cocks have more power, durability, and "fight" in them. Someday, I trust, we’ll get better jets for our fighting airmen – and women.

* * *

Every time Holy Week comes around, I remember somebody we used to call "Jesus Christ." Sounds sacrilegious, doesn’t it – but we named him thus with all good intentions.

"Jesus" really wasn’t his name. In fact, he wasn’t even a Christian. He was a Lebanese Muslim named Hassan.

Yet, Hassan with his soft beard and finely-moulded features was such an exact look-alike of all our childhood stampita pictures and familiar classroom portraits of Jesus that, for my wife and myself, there was no other name to call him but that.

Hassan was our temporarily-hired driver in Beirut and would maneuver his old Buick through the chaotic traffic that choked Al Hamra and the narrow, winding lanes of that ancient Phoenician town with the dexterity and deftness of a Roman charioteer.

One day, I decided to drive to Damascus, that marvelous ancient city once known as the "Gateway to the World." In its forges were once tempered the famed Damascus swords, the blades used by the Saracens to combat the Toledo blades of Spain during the Crusader wars. I had always wanted to pay my respects at the tomb of the great Saracen King Salah el-Din who had defeated the Crusaders, including Richard Couer de Leon (the Lion Heart of England, immortalized by the Robin Hood tales of Sherwood, whose equestrian statue stands in front of London’s House of Commons).

Alas, I had recently been in Israel with my wife – and I forgot that one of my passport pages bore a Jordanian government entry seal which read: "Mandelbaum Gate."

In the old days, one could cross from Jerusalem to the Jordanian side only over a short bridge identified – after the man who had previously owned the property – as Mandelbaum. All Arab states in those days absolutely refused entry to anyone who had been in Israel, so the Israelis would provide a "visa" or laissez-passez on a separate sheet of paper (detachable from your passport) – except that if you arrived by the Mandelbaum Gate route, the Jordanian immigration police stamped your entry on your passport without regard to such niceties.

When the Syrian Immigration officers spotted that Jordanian "stamp" on my passport, they immediately ordered our car to turn around and return to Beirut.

I argued. "Jesus", the driver, got into the argument, too, with an indignation that surpassed his driver’s role.

A Syrian colonel came out of the tent and ordered "Jesus" arrested for his impertinence.

I remonstrated with the colonel, whipped out my "NEWSWEEK" magazine press card, appealed to him as an officer and a gentleman – and humanitarian – to at least release my driver. In final exasperation, I played my trump card: "I know you are not a Christian, Colonel," I said. "But I am – and I ask you: would you arrest and detain a man who looks so much like Jesus Christ!"

The colonel, struck by my argument, peered long and hard at my Lebanese companion and then, struck with the humor of it, burst into laughter.

"Let the man go," he chuckled as he instructed his men. "And as for you, Monsieur Soliven, please go to your nearest Embassy and get yourself a new passport without a Mandelbaum Gate stamp in it, and I’ll let you in."

"But you already know I’ve been in Israel," I replied, "Why will you let me in if I bring you a new passport?"

"Because," the colonel smiled, "if I let you in carrying a passport with a Mandelbaum Gate stamp today, and my bosses in Damascus find out, goodbye Colonel Ahmed!" He drew a finger across his throat to illustrate. "They would give me an immediate passport to paradise, and I’m not ready to leave just yet!"

I shook the man’s hand gravely, got into the car, and told "Jesus" to drive us back to Beirut.

Halfway back, I turned to him and said: "For your own good, you should learn to control your temper. Blessed are the meek, a wise man once declared, for they shall inherit the earth."

My driver Hassan creased his face into a puzzled frown: "And, Effendi, (master) who was that?"

"Someone who looks like you," I answered, "really, someone who looks like you."