Marcoleta, a useless Kuribayashi

In my high school days, there was a United States Information System (USIS) library located at Jones Avenue this city. I would always find time to go there and enjoy reading books which were not easy to find somewhere else. It is sad to note that it no longer exists.

Among the books that I remember having read there was about the Battle of Iwo Jima. The specific title of the book escapes my memory now but I still remember that it was considered among the last defense lines of Japan in the Second World War. A brilliant Japanese general named Tadamichi Kuribayashi, was the commanding officer of the Imperial Japanese Army forces of more than 20,000 soldiers. Kuribayashi expected the Americans to overwhelm his forces so he resorted to a highly effective, innovative defense by constructing extensive tunnel systems and bunkers, designed to inflict maximum casualties on U.S. forces rather than stopping the landing on the beaches. As the battle unfolded, Lieutenant General Holland Smith led an amphibious assault of the United States Marine Corps, called Expeditionary Troops, Task Force 56. For purposes of this article I like to name it the Kuribayashi (Japan) versus Smith (America) chess duel.

I remember the heroics of General Kuribayashi, holding the last Japanese defensive line in Iwo Jima, when I heard reports that Senator Rodante Marcoleta issued a challenge to retired Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio to a debate over our claim of the West Philippine Sea (WPS). I like to believe that, despite an absence of verbal acknowledgement that he is aligned with former president Rodrigo Duterte, Senator Marcoleta is a diehard Duterte ally. There is no doubt that this debate is going to be a war between DDS and the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. While former justice Carpio is nary a known henchman of President Marcos, I anticipate that he will promote the president’s assertiveness of the Philippine sovereignty over the WPS. So, as an analogy, this upcoming debate is DDS Marcoleta-Pro China vs. BBM Carpio-Pro Philippines.

I draw a parallel between Iwo Jima and DDS as last defensive lines. The political firepower of BBM was, earlier on, directed against Vice President Sara Duterte Carpio through the first impeachment. When it passed the House of Representatives, the first defensive line of DDS was the Senate. We saw how a Senate President Chiz Escudero disregarded the constitutional mandate to hear the impeachment forthwith. Oh my goodness! The DDS defensive line was even strengthened when the Supreme Court declared the impeachment articles unconstitutional.

With the passing of the one year prescriptive period within which to file another impeachment articles, the vice president is facing another bunch of impeachment charges. If we were to base our forecast of what await these new complaints against the vice president on the way the House of Representatives threw out of its window the impeachment complaint versus BBM, we look at the sending of the articles to the Senate by the Lower House as certain as the sun rises in the east. The next DDS defensive line again is in the Senate. But, since the latest Senate organization of its leadership does not seem to favor DDS, the Dutertes have to be as innovative as Kuribayashi. The Japanese tunnel system in Iwo Jima is as novel as a debate proposed by the lawmaker. Senator Marcoleta is expected to draw the attention of the Filipinos to his impertinence while the DDS will try to mend its disintegrating Senate forces.

DDS is planning a wrong defensive line. Even if the debate has a tendency to cloud out the impeachment, BBM has in former justice Carpio a General Smith who used flamethrowers to ferret our Japanese soldiers hiding inside the tunnels. Carpio will be BBM’s flamethrower ready to scourge Marcoleta out of his impertinence.