Just like Bali – a paradise with poisonous serpents

Last Saturday, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, just home from the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Conference in Bali, and this writer spent three hours talking about old times and assessing the Bali conference he had just attended.

He told me that an old friend, former Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas (who served prominently in the Cabinet during the late President Sukarno’s time and has played a continuously active role in his country’s leadership) was one of the ASEAN Eminent Persons Group tasked with elevating cooperation in the Association of South East Asian Nations to a higher level. Former President Fidel V. Ramos, of course, also belongs to the EPG and has proposed as an "ultimate" goal an "ASEAN Political Union."

Alas, this will never be achieved, for all the florid oratory about it. Bert Romulo and Ali Alatas ought to realize this best of all. We were together in Tokyo in August 1963 when La Gloria’s late father, then President Diosdado Macapagal, the late Bung Karno, and Malaysia’s late Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman were trying to forge such a "union" which they jauntily termed "MAPHILINDO" (an acronym for "Malaysia-Philippines-Indonesia). I was a columnist for the "Weekly GRAPHIC" and a stringer of "NEWSWEEK" Magazine at that time.

There were Sukarno in his jaunty red songkok (normally he wore it black), bemedaled and beaming in a dark-green military uniform, Cong Dadong in his signature barong Tagalog, and the Tunku – tall, British-educated, in his princely silk-maroon outfit, gold-braided (he used to tag me along to his home state of Alor Star – pardon the coincidence with Philippine STAR).

By gosh, those three heads of state had a jolly good time joking with each other in the Japanese capital, while we Filipino newsmen were "rich" in contrast to our less well-paid Japanese journalist counterparts.

Within months, however, the very idea of "MAPHILINDO" had vanished like a puff of smoke. Sukarno was angrily perorating, "Ganjang Terus Malaysia" (Crush Malaysia) denouncing that country as an Oldefo and Necolim (Neo-colonial imperialist), while the Philippines was demanding the return of the former British North Borneo (Sabah) which had been incorporated into Malaysia. Cong Dadong asserted, and I agree with him, that it rightly belonged to the Sultan of Jolo.

As for us Pinoy journalists, we were the neo-pobres, the increasing poor newspapermen in contrast to our better-remunerated Japanese brethren.

How the world spins.

But one thing never changes. When push comes to shove, national interest and questions of sovereignty always prevail over dreams of political unions and even "common markets." Look at the French. The other year, they went to the polls and rejected the draft of a European Union constitution – which, ironically, had been drawn up by a former French President no less, Valery Giscard d’Estaing.

In any event, ASEAN will continue to merrily roll along as long as it doesn’t take the idea of a political union too seriously, and goes on playing golf, and giving its heads of state and foreign ministers the opportunity to meet colorfully attired in the costumes of the current host country, in the 18-19 meeting the batik shirt of Indonesia.

What’s significant is that this December, the Philippines will take over the Chairmanship of ASEAN.

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To the participants in last week’s conference, Bali was once more a serene, green paradise island, with a soaring sacred mountain volcano, rice terraces (yes, there, too), Hindu temples, rhythmic leggong dances, and sandy beaches.

One could almost forget that on the night of October 12, 2002, bomb blasts shattered two of the isle’s favorite nitespots, the Sari nightclub and Paddy’s Bar, resulting in 202 dead (most of them holidaymakers and surfers from Australia) as well as other Western tourists and Balinese.

Subsequently, a bomb detonated in a car in its driveway devastated the front of the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta on August 5, 2003 this time killing 11 persons and injuring 150.

The third terrorist attack was again in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. By coincidence, I had arrived there the day before, planning to attend the birthday party of then Presidential candidate (General) Susilo Bambang Yudyohono in the Jakarta Hilton.

The following morning, a huge bomb was detonated at the gate of the Australian Embassy by the same terrorist group which had attacked the Bali nightspots and the J.W. Marriott. We rushed over to the gory scene. All of the fatalities had been Indonesians – not Australians this time.

It has been established that the organization orchestrating all these bomb-attacks is the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

The just-concluded Counter-Terrorism Experts’ Conference in Cebu (April 20-22) should be credited with spotlighting the JI’s destructive programs and activities. It was ably organized by our Ambassador (cum General) Benjamin Defensor, our former Armed Forces Chief of Staff and currently APEC Counter-Terrorism chairman (forgive me if I lose track of his titles).

Ms. Maria Ressa of ABS-CBN, and a former CNN bureau chief who authored the bestseller, "Siege of Terror", delivered an excellent lecture on how counter-terrorism efforts could be better-coordinated. I managed to catch her speech on ANC television, but unfortunately it was under-reported in the print media. Ressa described how JI operates, and confirmed what Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, head of the Singapore-based International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research had revealed the previous day: that militants of the JI were being given refuge by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in their sanctuaries in central Mindanao.

Dr. Gunaratna politely referred to the terrorists’ hosts as "rogue elements" of the MILF, but how can you distinguish rogue elements from the mainstream MILF? The trouble is that our GMA government remains in a state of denial about the MILF’s role in permitting if not outright sponsoring JI terrorist training camps in their zone – since our government is over-eager to forge a peace agreement with the MILF.

In their book, "After Bali: The Threat of Terrorism in Southeast Asia" (published by the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, Singapore, 2003), Kumar Ramakrishna and See Seng Tan included a chapter by retired Gen. Jose T. Almonte asserting that "the MILF apparently has a key role . . . Its camps scattered around western Mindanao have apparently trained Indonesians, Singaporeans and other nationals. From 1997 until 1999, Indonesians were reportedly allowed to run their own facility inside Camp Abu Bakar, the main MILF base. Another camp in Malaysia trained Singaporeans: 14 of the 21 suspected terrorists detained by Singapore in August 2002 apparently went there."

Almonte, alas, sprinkled too many "apparently" and "reportedly" into his paragraphs – but the MILF’s participation in assisting Jemaah Islamiyah has been more specifically pinpointed by more up-to-date sources.

* * *

I think almost enough has been said of the landmark 52-page, unanimous (14-0) decision of the Supreme Court penned by Justice Conchita Morales.

The decision voiding the objectionable sections of Executive Order No. 464 was even-handed. It is significant not so much for the over-publicized rebuff it allegedly dealt Malacañang as for the parameters the ruling laid down for both the executive and legislative departments to discharge their mandates in accordance with law, with proper regard for each other’s rights and Constitutional guarantee of the Bill of Rights.

The High Court, in sum, has clarified what officials required to attend congressional inquiries "in aid of legislation" should do – or cannot be compelled to do.

The constitutional legalese of the landmark decision may be better grasped and accepted from the premises on which the ruling was based. These incontrovertible premises, as stated by the Court are: (1) "a transparent government is one of the hallmarks of a truly republican state;" (2) "history has been witness, however, to the fact that the power to withhold information lends itself to abuse, hence the necessity to guard it zealously;" (3) "the Congress power of inquiry is expressly recognized in Section 21 of Article VI of the Constitution;" and (4) "E.O. 464, to the extent that it bars the appearance of executive officials before Congress, deprives Congress of the information in the possession of these officials."

Thus, from these premises two important issues for resolution were synthesized by the Court: (1) whether E.O. 464 contravenes the power of inquiry vested in Congress; and (2) whether E.O. violates the right of the people to information on matters of public concern.

That E.O. 464 clearly nullifies congressional power of inquiry by preventing the appearance of executive officials with needed information on matters of public concern the people have a right to know and which may be necessary for corrective legislation – is evident to even those unfamiliar with constitutional legalese.

But even as the constitutional congressional power of inquiry is conceded and admittedly cannot be nullified by the executive department, it is a fact that this power of inquiry "in aid of legislation" has too often been abused and some attending inquiries verbally brutalized like common criminals. I recall one incident during the Estrada administration when a physician summoned to a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee inquiry on the police drug listing centers was shouted at by one senator who called him a "lying little bastard."

It was appropriate for the Court in this context compare some inquiries with the "McCarthy era" in the United States Senate when the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin conducted a witch hunt against suspected communists in the State Department and the movie industry, verbally abusing those he summoned to his U.S. Senate committee hearings.

Under the parameters and guidelines set by our High Court, Malacañang can no longer and should no longer evade congressional "requests" for needed information of public concern genuinely in aid of legislation (not in aid of reelection and grandstanding) on the other hand, neither can Congress engage in "fishing expeditions" without regard for the guarantees in the Bill of Rights.

* * *

Though the E.O. 464 case is important and there is elation over the Court’s ruling, two equally if not more important cases are yet to be resolved – hopefully as soon as possible.

These are the Proclamation 1017 and CPR (Calibrated Preemptive Response) cases which affect more sectors and people than E.O. 464 and certainly involve basic constitutional rights under the Constitution.