Brushes with death

Last Sunday, when a bomb was discovered and defused before it could explode in the Agora public market in Pagadian, Zamboanga del Sur, Brig. Gen. Raymundo "Ding" Ferrer, commander of the 1st Division in that province, hinted that it would have been impossible for the would-be bombers to operate in the area without the tacit approval, or even the "cooperation" of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

That the general did not come out and say outright that the MILF is helping – or backing – the terrorists, i.e. the Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf, speaks volumes. Every field commander in Mindanao tiptoes gingerly around the issue because they fear being scolded by Malacañang which continues to desperately seek a "peace" deal with the MILF so as to suck up to the oil-rich Arab countries and attain "observer" status with the OIC (Organization of the Islamic Conference).

Susmariosep! What a bunch of wimps we have become in this marshmallow Republic where our soldiers die in combat and from ambush in fighting Muslim extremists and insurgents, yet we must pussyfoot around the most aggressive and warlike of all the rebel groups, the MILF, which brags it has an "army" of 10,000 men.

I saw its chieftain Ghazali Jaafar on television again yesterday repeating, like a conqueror (not simple negotiator) some of the terms of our government’s "surrender," such as the recognition of their Bangsamoro demand for "ancestral domain" and disavowing that the MILF was collaborating with the terrorists.

Governor Manny Piñol of North Cotabato, although owing to perceived Palace frowns he sort of muted his attack, politely accused the MILF of supporting the bomb "offensive" in his area and elsewhere in Mindanao.

Then there was this ANC program hosted by Twink Macaraig in which she interviewed some woman "expert" named Astrid Tumindez, belonging to an organization called USIP based in Hong Kong. Astrid’s nationality is unclear to me since I merely chanced on the TV show while surfing the channels, but she sounded quite Filipina despite her Hong Kong official address. In any event, among the statistics the lady trotted out was that 120,000 persons have been killed in the Mindanao fighting during the past few years.

Having been a reporter and a foreign correspondent for almost the past half-century, during which period I covered five wars, I am astonished at how glibly such overwhelming figures as 120,000 civilians dead in Mindanao’s wars are calculated. Are there names, places and dates verifiable to justify the astounding figure of 120,000 which wire service agencies, NGOs and human rights groups are quick to pick up and disseminate? Why, that’s a number of dead larger than those who were blasted by the first Atom Bomb in Hiroshima during World War II, or died thereafter owing to injuries suffered from the nuclear fall-out. Or the total of Chinese massacred by the Japanese in the Rape of Nanjing. Or having covered the 1968 "Tet" offensive, the number of killed in action or by collateral damage in those murderous weeks in South Vietnam.

Sanamagan. The statistic-grinders of the Mindanao wars are obviously more efficient in production than Charlie’s "Chocolate Factory."

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The latest bombing incident occurred in Jolo, Sulu, yesterday.

The "bomb" hit a beauty parlor (other reports say a police-run cooperative store) in the vicinity of police Camp Asturias and the "Peacekeeper Inn" (yep, that’s really its name), a place frequented by journalists and other visitors. If you know the lay of the land, nearby is the military station hospital and police headquarters – and a Catholic Church. It was that very church in the 1990s (can’t remember the exact year) that an American priest, Father Clarence Bertelsman, was abducted by the Abu Sayyaf rascal, Commander Global (who was killed much later during a foiled break-out by ASG prisoners in Camp Bicutan more than a year and a half ago). Global had kidnapped the priest in the midst of his sermon, but the Father was fortunately rescued by Marines with the cooperation of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) since Nur Misuari was on the verge of a peace agreement with his friend, former President Fidel V. Ramos.

Fortunately, the Sulu bomb resulted in only two persons wounded. However, the military and police are chasing down reports of six more bombing attacks being planned against targets in Davao, the Zamboanga peninsula, Central Mindanao and Sulu.

If the recent incidents are part of the revenge campaign being conducted by the Indonesian Bali Bomber, the JI’s Dulmatin, owing to our military’s capture of his wife and two sons the other week, I’m afraid Dulmatin-Baby isn’t at his best. But let’s not relax our guard. The monster who engineered the October 12, 2002, explosions near Kuta Beach, Bali, which blew up or incinerated 202 hapless holidaymakers (the majority of them Australians) surely can produce more sting.

The blast last October 11 on Don Rufino Alonzo street located some ten meters away from the busy South-Seas shopping mall in Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat was an IED rigged from an 81 mm mortar linked to a timing device. The clumsy bomb attributed to the Abu Sayyaf neither injured nor killed anyone.

Last October 11, on the other hand, six persons were killed and 42 wounded when a bomb detonated at a public gathering in Makilala, North Cotabato.

In sum, thus far, we’ve been comparatively lucky. Several bombs were detected and rendered inutile in Mindanao. We must not be so naïve, though, as to believe that our luck will not someday run out.

I repeat what I said yesterday: We must get Dulmatin, his JI sidekick terrorist Umar Patek, and his cohort, the ASG’s Khadaffi Janjalani! Muscular action, not a mealy-mouthed dependence on "peace talks" must be our government’s aim.

As for our Senate – I hope our Senators get off their asses and put aside their animosities to pass that long-overdue Anti-Terrorist Law. The House of Representatives approved their version of the bill months ago. Our Senators are still asleep. While they snore away – when they’re not nastily busy snarling expletives at each other – people die from terrorist attacks. Our soldiers and policemen cannot hold those gutter-rats for more than 36 hours, and thus, when captured, they are "set free," to plot, attack, and murder again.

On Judgement Day, it is our Senators who will have to answer for their lack of responsibility and concern.

* * *

The title of today’s column doesn’t refer to the above-mentioned bombing events but to the fascinating autobiography of Pakistan’s President (General) Pervez Musharraf which he called, aptly enough, "IN THE LINE OF FIRE."

Does our La Gloria have problems? She ought to read the Pakistani leader’s Memoir (Free Press, New York, London, Toronto, Sydney) released only the other week.

It was air-pouched to me by our friend in New York City, Ray Altarejos – who rang me up last Thursday to report two things – first that a small plane had smashed into the 40th story of a 52-story high-rise only two blocks away from his own Manhattan apartment, and secondly that he was sending me Musharraf’s fascinating book.

TIME Magazine has called the Pakistani President’s post "the world’s most dangerous job." Indeed, his memoir reads like an exciting espionage novel, part of it regarding assassination attempts and other close brushes he had with death.

Distractingly enough, when the publication of his autobiography was announced during his official visit to Washington DC, to confer with US President George W. Bush, much was made on globe-girdling television about his contretemps with US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage just after 9/11 exploded on the world’s consciousness. It had not, it turned out, a direct confrontation. On page 201, General Musharraf wrote: "When I was back in Islamabad the next day, our director general of Inter-Services Intelligence, who happen to be in Washington, told me on the phone about his meeting with . . . Armitage. In what has to be the most undiplomatic statement ever made, Armitage added to what Colin Powell had said to me and told the director general not only that we had to decide whether we were with America or with the terrorists, but that if we chose the terrorists, then we should be prepared to be bombed back to the Stone Age. This was a shockingly barefaced threat . . ."

If so, Armitage’s somos o no somos was plagiarized from the vow of US Air Force General Curtis LeMay in the 1960s to "bomb North Vietnam back into the Stone Age." Guess old Curtis was unable to carry out that threat, although it’s said that more bombs were dropped on Vietnam than on Europe during World War II.

General Musharraf joined the US in partnership, but he asserted, not because he was cowed by Dicky’s threat. "I made a dispassionate, military-style analysis of our options, weighing the pros and cons," he wrote. "Emotion is all very well in drawing rooms, newspaper editorials (Ed: ouch!) and movies, but it cannot be relied on for decisions like this. Underlying any leader’s analysis has to be a keen awareness that on his decision hangs the fate of millions of people and the future of his country."

Surprisingly, in the following page 204, while underscoring that Armitage’s "undiplomatic language, regrettable as it was, had nothing to do with my decision," the Pakistani President absolved Armitage. He stated that ". . . later I found Armitage to be a wonderful person and a good friend of Pakistan."

By golly, that was an unexpected maneuver.

If I had my druthers, I’d have continued to regard Armitage with disdain, but I’m neither a General nor a President.

When Musharraf abandoned and rejected his old friends in the Taliban, in truth expressed his loathing for Osama bin Laden, it was not without regret. He promised the US what Armitage had demanded from his ISI Director, Lt. General Mehmood: basic logistical support and a high degree of intelligence cooperation.

Parenthetically, by January 2002, Pakistan had secured US $2 billion worth of external aid in the form of debt relief and the rescheduling of interest payments.