Didn’t I tell you that the jihadist was here?

For our special presentation on our talk show tonight, we bring you a discussion on the question, “Should Filipino a.k.a. Tagalog be taught in College?” This TV interview stemmed from the Public Consultation on the proposal by the Commission on Higher Education to use Filipino in teaching the General Education courses and the addition of Filipino as a Core Course in Higher Education, which was held in Parklane Hotel last Tuesday.

Our guest tonight is Philip Khalid, who is a professor in Philosophy and an accomplished violin teacher and a member of the Save Our Languages through Federalism an organization that I helped create years ago. We both attended that CHED public consultation and I would like to believe that it was the first time for most of the teachers in attendance realized that in the United States of America, there is no national language. Yet there are still many Filipinos, including Cebuanos who believe that we should have a national language called Filipino. That is a waste of time because the Philippines has so many languages. We should accept our diversity as one nation.

Few people realize that there are no natural born Filipino speakers. All of us are born speaking in Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Bicolano, Waray, Ilocano, Tausug, Chavacano or Tagalog… but no one is born speaking in Filipino as Filipino is an invented language. So watch this interesting discussion on language issues with Philip Khalid on SkyCable’s channel 61 at 8:00PM with replays on Wednesday and Saturday and replays on MyTV M-W-F.

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I was still having my vacation in the US when I read a Rappler report through my Facebook page that Philippine and Australian authorities confirmed the Melbourne-born Robert Edward “Musa” Cerantonio who is considered one of the two top most influential Jihadist “Inspirators” notably for the fighters in Syria and Iraq was found to be living in the Philippines! I then checked our mainstream newspapers, including (except for Rappler.com) the social media network and there was nothing in their headlines on this case.

So I interrupted my writings on my US vacation and on June 24th we wrote a column entitled “A Terrorist Jihadist in Cebu?” Apparently there was no reaction from anyone with the column we wrote… not from the officials of Cebu City or the Philippine National Police  or the Military. A follow-up column resulted to nothing. I mean, there was no interest in a jihadist.

A week later on my return flight, we made a stopover in Narita, Tokyo and guess who I bumped into… Maria Reesa of Rappler.com who was also waiting for our return flight to Manila. I asked her why there was no headline news about Cerantonio and she merely shrugged her shoulders in disbelief that no one was interested in the Rappler report. She suggested that perhaps there was a news blackout for fear that people may panic knowing that there was a jihadist in their midst.

Well, what do you know — Robert Edward “Musa” Cerantonio was finally apprehended in a rented apartment right here in Cebu, in Barangay Pajac, Lapu-Lapu City last Friday morning. For the record this joint police operation was led by my good friend, Senior Superintendent Conrado Capa, PRO-Central Visayas Deputy Regional Director for Operations.

If you don’t remember him, Supt. Capa was the same police officer who led the Task Force that arrested the fugitive Globe Asiatique president Delfin Lee and for doing so…he was promo—, err, demoted to Cebu by no less than Pres. Benigno Aquino III. Delfin Lee no doubt had friends in high places in the Aquino gov’t. I hope this time PNP chief Alan Purisima would give Supt. Capa his coveted rank of police general; after all he really deserves this promotion! 

Apparently, the PNP raiding team didn’t find any explosives or anything that would link Cerantonio to acts of terrorism. But then, they haven’t really completed their investigation yet. For all we know, he could be a point man who could direct or prepare terror operations for the up and coming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in 2015 or like what I wrote last June —  he could be part of another Bojinka type of operation like what Ramzi Ahmed did also in Cebu in preparation for the assassination of Pope John Paul II and his eventual bombing of the World Trade Center.

That Musa Cerantonio was calling for jihad and giving lectures to Muslim Filipinos to support the Islamic State in Iraq sends shivers to my spine. He may look or sound harmless but many hardcore jihadists believe in him and if he was lecturing to Muslims in Sulu and Basilan, it would mean that he probably disturbed or put a monkey wrench on what little peace that the Philippine government panel may have arrived at with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. So it is time we got rid of people like Cerantonio!

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