‘Whether you like it or not, as long as I’m Mayor, Davao will have peace and order!’ That’s what Duterte said

This has been a very busy weekend for a journalist who’s been trying to beat the clock since Thursday.

In any event, I had a chance to have breakfast yesterday with our newly-promoted Ambassador to Washington DC, Willy C. Gaa, who returned to Manila for three days of consultations, but will soon be headed back for the US capital via Los Angeles.

Ambassador Gaa, whose confirmation hearing in the Commission on Appointments will be held soon, brought a pasalubong for me: the most recent book by Pulitzer Prize winning author Thomas E. Ricks, The Washington Post’s Senior Pentagon correspondent. Entitled "FIASCO: The American Military Adventure in Iraq" (The Penguin Press, New York, 2006) the volume mourned that "too many American and Iraqi lives have been lost, and too much of America’s might and influence have been squandered."

More and more, America’s thoughtful journalists and former senior diplomats have been writing pessimistically about the outcome of the war in Iraq.

I just finished reading a book – also "hot off the press" – by Peter W. Galbraith who served as the first US Ambassador to Croatia, and is currently Senior Diplomatic Fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

Galbraith had entitled his tome, The End of Iraq, with its subtitle mordantly stating: "How American Incompetence Created a War Without End" (Simon & Schuster, New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, 2006). The former diplomat knows whereof he speaks. He has been in Iraq many times over the past 21 years, particularly during historic turning points for that country – the Iran-Iraq War, the Kurdish genocide, the 1991 uprising, the immediate aftermath of the 2003 Gulf War, and the writing of Iraq’s constitutions. His verdict: "There is no easy exit for America. We have to relinquish our present strategy – trying to build national institutions where there is in fact no nation."

In the Vietnam War which this writer covered, America was caught in the middle of a bitter struggle in which a nation was fighting violently to "unite" – with the south resisting strongly, and the north determined to impose its hegemony on all Vietnamese. In Iraq, America – and Britain – are caught in the middle of a country viciously and violently fragmenting into three "nations." Nonetheless, Iraq gives me a weird sense of deja vu. Both conflicts are the same in one thing: over the discouraged Americans, though they won’t admit it, hangs the scent of failure. They tried to transplant "democracy" into two diverse regions of this planet which never understood what it means – nor, worse, don’t desire it. Their hopeful expeditions ended in disaster.

* * *

Cuba’s Fidel Castro once declared, at the beginning of his Revolution, that "historia me absolvera! " (History will absolve me!)

George W. Bush has been saying much the same thing. In the end, perhaps, he may not forgive himself. I like Bush. He cannot be faulted for lack of good intentions. But you know what the road to hell is paved with. And that’s where the poor, embattled Americans now find themselves, in hell – in the desert.

Now, increasingly, sober journalists and experienced diplomats are beginning to sound the dirge. Mr. Bush has one thing going for him. Nowhere in the United States are we seeing the anti-war riots and demonstrations which plagued Lyndon B. Johnson, and caused him to decide not to post for reelection – or which bedevilled Richard Nixon until he beat a full retreat. America remains united, probably because the Americans believe they face the threat of global terror. Better to fight in Iraq, and Afghanistan, than on the ramparts of New York, or on the beaches of California. Soon, the anniversary of 9/11 – black September 11, 2001, will come around, as a reminder of what they’re fighting for.

VANITY FAIR magazine has just come out in its September issue with a revealing exposé of "WHAT THE AIR FORCE DIDN’T DO ON 9/11/." In sum, the US Air Force didn’t scramble its F-16 jets to intercept the United Airlines and American Airlines commercial jetliners which inexplicably deviated from their routes – and were agog when American Airlines 11 slammed Tower One of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, then even more stupefied when United 175, also scheduled from Boston to Los Angeles, crashed into the second Tower of the Twin Towers.

When United 93 also started deviating, VANITY FAIR reports, the air controllers started "speculating about what the hijacker was aiming at – one guessed the Statue of Liberty – and the room erupted in horror."

United 93, perhaps headed for Capitol Hill or the White House, however, crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, when its courageous passengers decided to do or die, trying to overwhelm their hijackers and seize the cockpit. Their action resulted in the plane crashing, killing all aboard, but they had saved Washington DC from further attack.

9/11 was a debacle worse, and more costly, than Pearl Harbor. And, once more, America was caught unaware.

This should be an object lesson to us. We are a nation which tends to be unaware. Why, embroiled in petty political wars (even trying to breathe life into the corpse of the already twice-dead "impeachment" movement), we cannot even manage to pass an anti-terrorism law. In the Philippines, our military and police can hold a terrorist suspect in custody only 36 hours. In Britain, as long as its cops and intelligence wallahs hold to a Warrant Card, "suspects" can be detained behind bars for 38 days.

Our war against terror? It’s a joke. And someday, some Jemaah Islamiyah nutcase or Abu Sayyaf murderer will come along with a bigger bomb. There are those who wish they would target the Senate – but the terrorists know that some Senators are their best friends.

Did you know that we are the country with the most NGOs in Asia? We have 300 NGOs (non-governmental organizations) engaged in everything from fund-raising to raising cain. Our Ambassador to Canberra (Australia), former Navy Flag-Officer-in-Command, Admiral Ernie de Leon, is being constantly harassed in his post Down Under by angry NGOs demanding an explanation about the alleged "700" extrajudicial murders and assassinations in the Philippines. In fact, I wonder where they got that figure of "700" killed? It’s time we demanded that those who trot out those statistics, even rampantly in the international press, come out with names of the persons killed, the dates of their supposed assassinations, and the places where the murders took place. Betcha we’ll find that many of the incidents are fictitious.

The enemies of the state (gee whiz, I don’t wish to sound like Norbert or Raul) are smarter than we are in psychological warfare and propaganda razzle-dazzle. They’ve taken a leaf from the Fascist Goebbels, Hitler’s carnival barker, who said that the bigger the lie, and the more often you repeat it, the more people begin to believe it.

* * *

Ambassador Gaa told me that he’s quietly been gearing up to fit into his new job as our envoy to Washington DC. He was very successful in his last posting in Beijing, China – and is, judging from his experience, an old hand in Washington DC and New York. When I remarked that some critics were attempting to dun him as a lucklustre bureaucrat, Willy – an experienced lawyer, a member indeed of the American Bar (inactive) – modestly replied that he would live up to what was required of him in his role as Ambassador, even show biz and hoopla. Shows he’s got a good sense of humor.

He turned the situation around by asking me who had been our most effective Philippine Ambassador to the United States. I replied that, although he was President and not a diplomat, our most effective "Ambassador" had been Ramon Magsaysay. All Magsaysay had to do was ask, and the Americans (with "General" Ed Lansdale as his intermediary) would get it for him, whether it was equipment and armament for more Battalion Combat Teams, or military and civilian assistance.

The irony of it is that the late Monching Magsaysay never travelled abroad when he was Defense Secretary and when he was President. He never went to Washington DC with his begging bowl outstretched. He just went rocketing all over our archipelago and did his job – foreign trips weren’t necessary. His admirers overseas got it for the Philippine President who was fighting a war against insurgency, against poverty – and against corruption, even within his own family.

When will we have another one like The Guy? We had hoped Ninoy Aquino – his youngest spear-bearer in the good old days of our political "innocence" and idealism – would step into his shoes, but a bullet at the airport demolished that hope.

* * *

I had a working lunch with Foreign Affairs Secretary Bert Romulo in the Makati Shangri-La yesterday noon, and discovered from him what Gaa wouldn’t tell me. That he had been called home for confidential discussions on whether the US would send anybody "of substance" to attend the December 10 to 13 ASEAN Summit conference in Cebu City, presided over by GMA.

Sixteen heads or chiefs of state are already confirmed to be coming for that conference. Aside from the heads of the ten member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, there will be six other heavy-hitters. This will include the President of South Korea; the Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China, Wen Jiabao; the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh; the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard; and the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark. It’s still 50-50 whether Russia will be represented. Even less certain is that Washington DC will send anyone as a discussion participant, not even Condi Rice.

In any event, La Presidenta will be going to Helsinki (Finland) for the September 10-11 Asia-Europe conference, where she will deliver the keynote address on Energy Cooperation and Security. As ASEAN Chair she will play an important role in the meeting, which will involve 10 Asian nations and 25 European countries. That two-day confab over, GMA and Secretary Romulo will fly over to Brussels, Belgium, for a two-day meeting with the European Commission (September 12-13).

On October 30, GMA will go to China to join President Hu Jin-tao in the commemoration of the 10th anniversary, in Nanning, of the opening of ASEAN-China relations.

Following shortly, in Hanoi (Vietnam) will be the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit. At least, meeting each other so often, the leaders of different countries can ring up on the cellphone to discuss projects or resolve problems.

In this case, it will be "Hello, J.T., not "Hello, Garci."

* * *

It was both heartening and entertaining to join the irrepressible Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte last Friday morning at the 8th Founding Anniversary celebration of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), which is headed by Founding Chairman Dante La. Jimenez, Martin B. Diño, VACC President, and VACC Vice-President Cory R. Quirino.

They awarded The STAR the title of "Newspaper of the Year", which was my reason for being there.

Since the ceremonies were held in the Gym of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Taft Ave., I was able to have a long talk as well with our friend, NBI Director Nestor Mantaring, and his two deputies, Atty. Victor A. Bessat (who hails from Abra, in the north) and Atty. Rickson L. Chiong (who comes from Jolo, Sulu).

The star of the show, however, was two-fisted Rody Duterte. He arrived in a short-sleeved, Abel-type shirt, untucked at the waistline (not in one of his loud Hawaiian shirts), the trademark of his tough-guy image.

"This isn’t a formal occasion is it?" Duterte cracked, seeing everybody in Barong Tagalog or coat-and-tie. At one point, I shucked my coat and was in shirtsleeves on stage, not because I wanted to ape Rody, but because it was too hot.

In impromptu brief remarks, I told the audience that I was glad to be with Rody, because Davao is the one place in the Philippines where they have not abolished the "death penalty."

Duterte, unflappable as ever, gave a speech as Guest of Honor, off the top of his head. His address could be summed up in one punchy sentence. He recounted that when he assumed the Mayorship in 1987, he had informed Davaoeños: "Whether you like it or not, as long as I am Mayor, you will have peace and order!"

That’s the order in Davao. May his tribe increase!