'Sanamagan'

 For a once unknown bureaucrat, a Malacañang Palace official gained instant fame — or rather infamy — after his vehicle figured in an accident in Quezon City that led to discovery of his private armory. Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs Ronald Llamas conceded yesterday he least wanted to earn this sudden celebrity status on a negative note.

Llamas is currently under fire from the public and especially from the political opposition for owning a Czech-made AK-47. The deadly AK-47, along with an M16 rifle were discovered inside the Montero sports utility vehicle (SUV) when it got into an accident while being driven by his security aide in Quezon City last Friday. The guns were said to be registered under the name of Llamas who had permission to carry them outside residence.

As subsequently explained to the media after the incident, Llamas claimed his security aides had just escorted him to the airport when he left for Geneva, Switzerland where he attended the executive meeting of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Whether he likes it not, Llamas has consequently dragged into this controversy President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. Because they obviously share the common passion for guns, administration critics now include Llamas in the list of members of the exclusive club of P-Noy they dubbed as “K.K.K.”, short for Kaibigan, Kaklase, Kabarilan (friends, classmates, and shooting buddies).

P-Noy’s worst critics have even come up with more stinging attacks on his administration’s campaign against public officials with “wang-wang” mentality, or abuses by those in government. “No to wang-wang but yes to bang-bang” (to connote guns). Even former left-leaning party-list colleagues of Llamas in Congress scored him for this change of lifestyle he now flaunts as a Cabinet-rank official. 

Llamas’s excuse for owning at least five firearms are the alleged death threats and feared danger to his life and family members because of his Palace job. Long before he assumed the presidency last year, P-Noy has more than 20 pieces of registered firearms, both short and long, in his personal collection. Like P-Noy, Llamas said he, too, is a gun enthusiast and is a responsible gun owner.

As I gathered, P-Noy’s love for guns started after his near-death experience of being seriously injured in an ambush during one of the bloodiest coups d’etat in August 1987. Military rebels who breached the Palace security phalanx ambushed the convoy bearing the young Noy. From then on, Noy decided to learn how to shoot guns for self-defense.

In the case of Llamas, the public does not know much about his background. All we know about Llamas is that he is a former lawmaker associated with the left-leaning Akbayan party-list. Thus, when he admitted owning an Ak-47, a favorite weapon used by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels, this raised valid concern from security authorities. The NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines ((CPP).

Is P-Noy’s political adviser related to the slain communist peace panel adviser Sotero “Ka Teroy” Llamas? Sotero Llamas was gunned down on May 29, 2006 in Tabaco City, Albay. Sotero Llamas, 54, was a former head of the Bicol CPP-NPA regional committee. In 2001, Sotero Llamas helped form the left-wing political party Bayan Muna. He served as a consultant during peace talks between the communist umbrella group National Democratic Front (NDF) — the CPP’s political wing — and the government during the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Several attempts by government to forge peace agreement with the CPP-NPA-NDF have collapsed. From the first time it was initiated during the administration of former President Corazon Aquino, the late mother of P-Noy, government has been trying to engage the CPP-NPA-NDF in peace negotiations but all ended in vain. Under his 15-month old administration, P-Noy is also trying to revive the peace talks with the communist insurgents. However, it has been met with continuing NPA attacks, the latest ones included mining sites in Surigao.

Whether he is related or not to the slain ex-communist leader, Llamas as a Cabinet official has a lot of explaining to do before the public. It’s not enough that he announced he had already fired his two erring security aides and let the police investigate and file the proper charges against them.

A day after he arrived from Geneva, Llamas appeared in a press conference at the Palace where he justified acquisition of high-powered firearms. But it was only yesterday that Llamas personally reported back to P-Noy.

Llamas told Palace reporters he expressed to the Chief Executive his willingness to resign after this incident caused much negative publicity for the Aquino administration.

“All of us serve at the pleasure of the President. So it’s up to him whether he would ask us to resign or not,” Llamas said.

 By public declaration of Llamas, he only has five registered firearms, consisting of three handguns plus the AK-47 and the M-16 rifle. Sanamagan! As the favorite expression our late publisher Maximo V. Soliven always wrote in his widely read and influential “By The Way” column at The STAR. It is actually a Tagalog spelling for the American expression “son of a gun” which Soliven loved to use commenting on issues and controversies that irritated public sensibilities.

The expression is actually American slang chiefly used to mean a rogue or rascal. It is a jocular form of address used to express annoyance, disappointment, or surprise. It is sometimes claimed that the saying has its origin in the supposed practice of women traveling on board ship and giving birth on a sectioned off portion of the gun deck. Hence, the expression “son of a gun.”

 Speaking of our late publisher, his widow, former UNESCO ambassador Preciosa Soliven, and daughter, my fellow columnist Sara Soliven, are hosting tomorrow a preview of the biography book launching set to coincide with his fifth death anniversary on November 10. The biography, Maximo V. Soliven: The Man and The Journalist, was written for the Soliven family by former STAR columnist Nelson Navarro.

If Soliven were still alive, he would shower Llamas with a lot of “sanamagan” expletives to appropriately skewer this kind of public official.