On fall guys and eleven little Indians who escaped

The conviction by the Sandiganbayan of former Immigration Commissioner Zafiro Respicio for permitting 11 Indian nationals being held in detention on drug charges to get out of the country in 1994 is fitting – but everybody knows that the "big shot" who actually engineered the escape of those drug traffickers (who would have faced the death penalty for their heinous crime) got away without even being mentioned in court.

For doing a favor for the former Cabinet member who interceded for the 11 Indians, Respicio was found guilty of the charge of falsification of public documents and sentenced to from six to 12 years in jail.

As for the big shot, he’s not only still prominently at large, he’s even president of an estates authority and feted in high society.

Actually, the decision to allow the 11 Indians – who were caught by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation in a raid on a drug laboratory in Las Piñas on July 4, 1994 – to get off scot-free was not a unilateral act of Respicio since the agency he headed is a collegial body. However, since the anti-graft court found no conspiracy, Respicio’s co-accused, Associate Commissioners Bayani Subido and Manuel Rojas were acquitted. NBI Deputy Director Arturo Figueras, who was also implicated in the scam, beat the rap after he died while the investigation was still ongoing.

According to the 67-page decision penned by Justice Teresita Baldos, the 11 Indians "derived unwarranted benefit" from the nasty deportation order which prevented their prosecution in court. To my mind, the offense was simply obstruction of justice.

The moral of the story is that public officials should not allow themselves to be suckered into accommodating those who importune them for "favors." When things go wrong, it is the accommodating public official who gets it in the neck. Did Respicio gain anything personally from it? To be sure, the covert operators must have gotten a fat payoff.

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The case of the 11 Indians was so scandalous because it was so blatant. The 11 suspects were in NBI holding cells when the "order" suddenly came down for their immediate deportation. Deportation? By golly – those rats were escorted aboard wang-wang (siren) blowing vehicles by NBI and Justice agents directly to the International Airport, like VIPs, so they could catch a Singapore Airlines flight to Singapore which was leaving within the hour!

Thus they escaped the possibility of going to the lethal gas chamber.

When I challenged the then NBI Director about this, I recall, he lamely replied that he had not known about it because he was "out to lunch." (He’s deceased, too, so he can’t answer any more questions). Sanamagan. Is everybody "out to lunch" in this country when there’s justice to be done?

When a terrorist and bomb-maker once waltzed out of a maximum security building in Camp Crame, a kidnap gangster jumped over the wire in the same camp, and a drug dealer even skipped out of a second-floor facility and disappeared into the street, what’s this nation coming to?

Yesterday’s allegation by Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos – who says she was quoting an October 2006 report of the Citizens Action against Crime headed by crusader Teresita Ang See – that 71 Chinese-Filipinos have been kidnapped since January this year (involving P614 million in ransom demands) is a stark one.

How can the police claim to have "neutralized" all the big KFR (Kidnap-for-Ransom) gangs? Worst of all, when there’s a bust, many of the gangsters are found to be cops.

The rot in our society begins at the street level – and it’s not only the pigs at the top who get away with it. In a country awash with almost 50,000 lawyers, why is there no law and order?

It seems the only order being frequently imposed is the Temporary Restraining Order – the apparently easy-to-get TRO.

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Our friend Congressman Roilo Z. Golez, the former National Security Chairman of GMA now turned opposition legislator, rang up to agree with yesterday’s column about the see-saw race for control of the Senate between the still-dominant Republicans and their Democratic Party challengers.

He said that one of the most closely-watched contests is the fight for the Senate seat in Virginia between incumbent Sen. George Allen (Republican) and the Democratic bet, James Webb. A former Secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan who switched to Democrat, as well as a bestselling novelist, Webb is a good friend of Golez, it seems. Although he graduated from the US Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1968 – while Roy was Class 1970 – both were buddies in the Annapolis Boxing Team. It must be recalled that Golez became Boxing Champ of the Academy in his senior year.

The Republican Senator Allen used to be "an overwhelming 15 percent favorite, Roy told me, until he blundered by calling a dark-skinned Webb aide whom he accused of "tailing" him a macaca. This was interpreted by his listeners as a racist slur, since macaca in some Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America refers to a type of monkey. Now, Golez avers, the competition has narrowed into a close contest, with The Washington Post even endorsing Webb.

Roy hopes his Annapolis friend, whom he describes as a topnotch individual, makes it to the Senate on November 7. Then, he can join another Annapolis grad, Sen. John McCain – who as a Navy pilot during the Vietnam War was a prisoner-of-war, courageously undergoing cruel treatment in the POW building named the "Hanoi Hilton", because his father was a US Navy Admiral. McCain’s dad was CINCPAC (Commander-in-Chief, US Forces in the Pacific) in the 1960s, while his grandfather was a Carrier Group Commander of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Golez recalls that both McCain and Webb were featured in the bestselling volume, "Nightingale Song."

Okay, Roy. Let’s sing a chorus of "Anchors Aweigh" for you Navy boys. But I’m sorry we still can’t lend them GenSan as a replacement for their lost US Navy Base in Subic. Yet, who knows? Anything is negotiable in this changing and perilous world.

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The formal dinner in Malacañang’s state dining room for a few invited guests was conducted with the same military precision with which the visit of Thailand’s new Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, a retired Army Chief, mind you, was undertaken.

In short, Prime Minister Surayud arrived on schedule at Villamor Air Base at 4 p.m. Monday afternoon, was sped to the Palace for arrival honors, then conferred with our President GMA and other officials. Promptly at 6:45 p.m. the Reception for him in the Palace began. We were introduced one by one, as well as the members of General Surayud’s own delegation. Then we all sat down to dinner punctually at 7:15 p.m.

The usual warm toasts of friendship were exchanged between La Presidenta and her guest, who appeared both kindly and sincere – and read his speech in excellent English. (Gen. Surayud, who graduated from Thailand’s elite Chulachhomklao Royal Military Academy, also underwent military training in the United States). He had been appointed Army Chief in 1998, but was edged out by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who came to power in 2001, to make way for the designation of Thaksin’s own cousin, Gen. Chaisit Shinawatra, as Army Chief of Staff in 2002.

I was seated with a leading member of P.M. Surayud’s official party, Director-General Anuson Chinvanno of the Department of East Asian Affairs of the Foreign Ministry and the new Government Spokesman, Captain Doctor Yongyuth Mayalarp, among other officials. When dessert was served at 8:20 p.m. (Pinoy Leche Flan and Thai Halo-Halo – there’s politics even in the choice of sweets) I told my new Thai friends: "You’d better eat fast, because you’ll be leaving in ten minutes."

At exactly 8:30 p.m., La Presidenta and P.M. Surayud stood up, and went around shaking hands and saying "goodnight" to everybody. Then the general and his group zipped off to the airport to fly home to Bangkok.

Tomorrow, Thursday, Director-General Anuson told me, they will be going off to Hanoi, Vietnam. He sighed wearily when I asked him about their travel schedule, which is akin to La Gloria’s-on-the-run. He said they had been living out of suitcases as the Prime Minister flew from one ASEAN capital to the other to assure every neighbor that it was "business as usual" and that "democracy" would be restored in Thailand soon. First, they went to Laos, Cambodia, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. Last Monday, Manila – tomorrow, Vietnam.

La Glo and Surayud will meet once again when they go to Nanjing, in the People’s Republic of China, for the ASEAN-China Summit.

The President is flying to Xiamen on Friday aboard a chartered Philippine Airlines flight, our national flag carrier, of course. Incidentally, PAL Chairman Lucio Tan was among the handpicked guests at the Malacañang official dinner.

In China, GMA will motor to Jingjiang, hometown of our national hero’s great grandfather, David Lamco, to lay a wreath at the statue of our hero Dr. Jose Rizal – which is an almost exact replica of the monument in Rizal Park, Luneta. The Chinese who make knock-offs of practically everything from Prada to Giorgio Armani, have "cloned" our Rizal Park in Jingjiang – one hour’s drive from Xiamen (the former Amoy).

By golly, Presidents and Prime Ministers in this day and age must suffer from never-ending jet lag and run their countries by radio, cellphone or computer.

I must say that a democracy Thailand ain’t, but their gains have been terribly impressive. They’ve half-solved their awful traffic problem, their expressways, clover-leafs, sky train and subway are efficient – pollution is under control. And even their new P.M., while the rule of the generals is evident, is a man with an admirable reputation for probity and dignity.

Even my old friend, Chavi Chongkittavorn, who writes an acerbic column in The Nation daily called "Regional Perspective" had high praise for Surayud when he was designated by the putschist Generals and their Council for National Reform.

"With (the) announcement that General Surayud Chulanont had been installed as the country’s 24th prime minister," Chavi wrote, "expectations run extremely high… Surayud possesses integrity and an unquestionably sound record."

I’ve known Chavi over the years not only as fearless – but impudent. Such an encomium from him is rare and therefore credible.

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THE ROVING EYE… Speaker Joe de Venecia called me up yesterday to say that the vote soon to be announced in the Supreme Court on the "People’s Initiative" is very tight – with one Justice’s vote perhaps the deciding factor. He asked me to help convince the High Tribunal to do the "right thing" and recognize the signatures of 6.3 million people in the "initiative." You’ve got to give JDV a medal for effort, but it’s not right to attempt to sway the Supreme Court one way or another. Let our Justices decide based on the law and good judgement… I met our Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes "Jun" Esperon, Navy Flag-Officer-in-Command, Vice-Admiral Mateo Mayuga, and Army Commanding General Romeo Tolentino in an impromptu huddle after the Palace dinner. I asked them how the campaign to bag Jemaah Islamiyah "Bali Bomber" Dulmatin and his terrorist sidekick, Umar Patek, as well as the Abu Sayyaf’s Khaddafy Janjalani was going. General Tolentino said he had just dispatched more troops to Sulu to help pursue insurgents and hopefully get the unholy trio. I don’t pretend to be an armchair strategist, but inundating Sulu with more soldiers and marines won’t be effective – I fear they’ll just stumble over each other. Better a lean, specially-trained force than a massive military show of force, when you’re dealing with those will-o-the-wisps, a guerrilla enemy.