A busy travel sked ahead for La Gloria

This Saturday, the President will be off for Helsinki, Finland, for the Asia-Europe meeting (Sept. 10-11).

Two days after that she’ll fly over to Brussels for a meeting with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and other officials of the European Union, plus a visit to our diplomatic personnel there, including, of course, the staffers of Ambassador Christy Ortega who hails from La Union – and is, indeed, the first cousin of La Union Governor Victor Ortega. Christy, don’t get me wrong, is a career diplomat, who speaks excellent French and was earlier our Ambassador to Canberra (Australia). If you look at the record of La Union, the Ortega clan has "ruled" that province politically for a hundred years – speaking of everlasting dynasties. To his credit, Victor has built a splendid provincial hospital with all the modern facilities, available to the poor, and other public services. He was a former Congressman, too, and his brilliant wife, Mary Jane, is Mayor of San Fernando, the capital.

Victor tasted political leadership with his mother’s milk. His father, the late Congressman Francisco "Pacuy" Ortega was in the House of Representatives forever.

From her September 12 to 13 meetings in Brussels, La Presidenta will hop over to London for another round of meetings (purpose undisclosed). I hope she doesn’t have to spend three hours getting cleared out of Heathrow.

From London, GMA and her official party will fly over to Havana, Cuba, to attend the summit of the Non-Aligned nations, an organization of 149 states. The host of that major conference is supposed to be Cuba’s President Fidel Castro, but if Fidel is still sick in hospital and unable to preside, I guess it will be his brother, and designated "heir" Raul Castro who’ll chair the conference.

Malaysia, for the past two years, chaired the Non-Aligned organization and will formally turn the gavel over to Cuba at that Havana conference, lasting September 15-16.

It will be interesting to find, at first hand – I told Foreign Affairs Secretary Bert Romulo (who’s travelling with the President) – how Fidel is, and whether, having turned 80 last August 13, he’ll be able to return to ruling the island kingdom he dominated for 47 years. Both the Chief Executive and Bert speak fluent Spanish, which will make their visit even more entertaining.

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I love Havana – and, in truth, Cuba – although I’ve not been there for many years. I once spent almost three months there researching a frontpage series for my former newspaper, the now-defunct The Evening News (where I was Publisher and Editor), on What Had Gone Wrong with the Cuban-Exiles’ Invasion Force in the Bahia de Cocinos (The Bay of Pigs).

This was John F. Kennedy’s first debacle as a young President, for which he was privately "scolded" by his predecessor, whose Administration had conceived the plan, late President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ike, who had been Supreme Commander (SHAPE) of the Allied Forces in the Normandy Invasion of 6 June 1944, had drawn up what he and his assistants believed a "foolproof" plan to liberate Cuba from Fidel and his Socialist Barbudos. (In fact, our former "hero" of the anti-Huk campaign, Col. Napoleon "Pol" Valeriano – commander of the dreaded Nenita Unit – had joined Ed Lansdale and the CIA, and was one of the men who trained the Cuban exiles in Latin America).

What Kennedy had done when he took over the White House was okay the originally-planned invasion – but he chickened out and deprived the Cuban emigré "army" of their most vital cover, air support. They were stranded on Playa Giron, blasted by Fidel’s long-range cannon, bombed by his rickety air force, and their reinforcements and supply ships sunk without air protection.

I had interviewed the colonel of milicianos whose men had finally gone barrelling over ten kilometers of swamp to crush the trapped Cuban "invaders" on the doomed beach, or capture those who surrendered. "They might have won," he wryly admitted to me, "but they had no air support." He shrugged, and added, "Compañero, who knows, I might even have joined them." Then, shocked at his own indiscretion (Cubans "joke" easily and cheerfully, which often gets them into trouble), he hastily admonished me: "Amigo, don’t print that." Otherwise, he smiled, and drew a finger across his throat.

Havana is a beguiling city, in those days run-down, with only old model American cars tooling along – since Fidel and his regime permitted no importation from the decadent Norteamericanos. I would go jogging daily on the Malecon. Their slogan was "Patria o muerte, venceremos!" (Fatherland or Death – we will overcome!)

In those days, you could still fly from La Habana to Miami, Florida – a service cut off a week after I took one of the last flights. As our airplane landed on the US mainland, one of the Cuban "emigrants" (lucky one) jibed: "Patria o muerte, venceremos!" The entire planeload erupted into a loud guffaw, and a burst of applause.

If the airplane still had been airborne, that cheeky fellow would never have made such a sally. What if the plane developed "motor trouble" and had to return to the Jose Marti Airport? In that era, Fidel punished all dissenters and "saboteurs", and his berdugo was the charming Che Guevara, along with brother Raul, the Jefe of the Ejercito.

As for the Non-Aligned Movement, it’s an interesting debating society. But all of its members – since it was founded in Bandung – have been "non-aligned" against somebody, usually the United States of America.

* * *

It was a pleasant dinner the President tendered for us in Malacañang’s "Music Room" last Monday night. The dinner was in honor of the officers of the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC), led by this writer as Chairman, and MOPC President Tony Lopez, Editor-Publisher of "BizNews Asia" Magazine. We also had our old friend Karl Wilson, President of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP), who’s Bureau Chief of Agence France Presse, and also an MOPC member. We had Babe Romualdez who’s our Chairman for Special Events, and Jose "Pepe" Rodriguez, who just arrived from Madrid to take over the post of Director of the Instituto Cervantes. Pepe was President of the MOPC when he served here for 21 years as the Bureau Chief of EFE, the Spanish News Agency (Rodriguez was awarded by La Gloria in 2004 the Order of Sikatuna, upon his departure for Spain – but now he’s back on official status).

Perhaps the happiest in our bunch was MOPC Director (and former Press Secretary) Hector "Chito" Villanueva – former editor of "The Economic Monitor" and a prominent journalist-cum-economist. When I kidded him about being in line to become the next Postmaster General, La Presidenta smiled, leaned over, and remarked: "Chito, consider tonight your job interview." Does this mean, then, that Chito will indeed be named Postmaster General? This is a position which carries more weight than it sounds – since it concurrently entails running the Postal Service Bank, a banking institution with branches in all the provinces.

I remarked, as a stamp collector since my High School days, that the Philippines had "the lousiest and most unattractive stamps in the world," and, worse, stamps may soon be going out of fashion, since everybody has started e-mail and texting. GMA again told Villanueva cheerfully: "If you become Postmaster General, listen to Max’s complaint, and print more beautiful stamps." I said that Liberia, Senegal, and even Cambodia and Laos had prettier stamps than we have – giving foreigners a more "admirable" picture of them than reality provides. The best place for stamp collectors is the People’s Republic of China – where the government even "collects" for you and sells stamps already in a well-bound album, complete with background and explanation.

I must say La Gloria was at her best that night, relaxed, happy to be with our group, looking as if she didn’t have a care in the world. In fact, she had personally and meticulously planned everything, including the menu. She even sent Presidential Chief of Staff Mike Defensor to the kitchen to make sure that nothing was in the menu to which any of us were "allergic."

Mike was kidded all evening as now having been promoted to Chef of Staff.

Much of what was discussed is not for publication. But may I say, on behalf of my fellow MOPC officers, "Thank you, Mrs. President for a delightful evening!" Lest we begin sounding like "The Malacañang Gazette," further affiant sayeth not.

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THE ROVING EYE… It’s right for the President to have declined a meeting sought by the self-proclaimed "expert" who sneaked bomb-making materials aboard an airplane to "show" how inadequate our airport security checks are. What this bozo did was the height of irresponsibility – Senator Pong Biazon is correct – and self-glorifying grandstanding. He ought to have secured quiet clearance from the top, then discussed his findings privately, not blared them forth to the media. Too many glory-boys in this land of ours, I’m afraid. If La Gloria had met with this guy, it would have given his stunt official "blessing." The fight against terror must go on steadily – but silently … Armed Forces Chief of Staff Hermogenes "Jun" Esperon assured me yesterday the offensive against Janjalani and his fellow terrorists is going on without pause, even if the troops take casualties. "We’re at war," he said. "And this is real life and death, not teledrama."