Islamabad -At the Jinnah shopping mall, where we made a stop after a series of interviews and a visit to the historic site of Taxila outside the capital city, we heard three young boys horsing around, speaking Tagalog.
We were glad to see Filipinos as we needed tips and directions in our effort to contribute to Philippine –Pakistan economic relations.
Karachi – I have always thought of camels as desert animals. It was therefore a surreal sight seeing colorfully bedecked camels strolling on Clifton beach against the backdrop of the Arabian sea.
Camels on the beach is just one of the delightful surprises of Karachi that I and five other Filipino journalists (Gemma Cruz -Araneta of Manila Bulletin, Tals Diaz of Inquirer, Fatima Parel of People Asia, Lyn Resurreccion of Business Mirror, and Dante Francis Ang of Manila Times) are discovering about Pakistan this week on the invitation of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute.
As he prepares for his much-delayed exit from active service, outgoing AFP Chief Hermogenes Esperon is frantically trying to negotiate with the officers he has persecuted that they won’t do to him what he did to them.
Esperon’s message was delivered by Maj. Dennis Eclarin to the junior Scout Ranger officers detained in Camp Capinpin two weeks ago.
A member of the Army’s elite Scout Rangers, Eclarin ( West Point ’93), widely- written for his microfinancing initiative, told the detainees that the outgoing chief- of- staff is offering them (junior officers) liberty in exchange for a commitment that they won’t retaliate against him.
Eclarin, who is known to be close Esperon, told the detained officers that in his conversations with the chief of staff, it was discussed that it’s wrong to look at the case of the 28 officers as one, single offense. “Why don’t you look at each case individually,” he reportedly suggested to Esperon. He added that retired Gen. Jose Almonte, national security adviser during the Ramos administration, shares his view.
The Constitution gives the President the power to nominate and, with the consent of the Commission on Appointments, appoint the heads of the executive department, ambassadors, other public ministers, consuls, or officers of the armed forces from the rank of colonel or naval captain and other officials provided by law.
It’s clear in this provision that the intervention of the CA, a legislative body, in a primarily executive function is for the purpose of check and balance, an important feature in a democracy.
But like many of the democratic institutions that have been perverted by politicians, the CA has been reduced to an extortion gang with members willing to sell their votes in exchange for favors from the nominee and the nominating authority.
The way the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police is handling the case of former Corporal Walter Francisco shows the danger of giving power to incompetent and insecure people. To cover up their inadequacies, they resort to wickedness.
The Q.C. Regional Trial Court has approved the release of Francisco on bail, who has been in detention for more almost four months. Until his transfer to the Quezon City jail last March 11, Francisco was held in solitary confinement at the ISAFP compound in Camp Aguinaldo.
There are two items in the April 23, 2008 letter of Sen. Miriam Santiago, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,to House Speaker Prospero Nograles unsettling.
The first one is her saying that she was shelving Senate Bill 1467 and House Bill 1202 defining the country’s archipelagic baselines “”Pursuant to President Arroyo’s directive.” The other one is her furnishing a copy of her letter the Chinese Ambassador Song Tao.
Santiago is known as “an administration senator”. It’s not surprising for her to toe the administration line. But she is a member of the Legislative Department, co-equal with the Executive and Judicial branches of government. Senators are not supposed to get orders from the executive department, even from the president.
In our discussion of the current rice crisis, Commodore (ret) Rex Robles tells us of the three legs of the national security tripod: food, fuel, fertilizer.
We are now burdened with the rising prices of food and fuel. Here comes the information of a looming fertilizer shortage.
The info was shared with us by a businessman who subscribes to assessments of a Hongkong-based risk consultancy firm.
Three weeks to the end of his extended term, Gloria Arroyo’s favorite general, AFP Chief Hermogenes Esperon is still at it with his “divide and conquer” strategy on the 28 officers he imprisoned for refusing to allow themselves in to be used in thwarting the will of the people in the 2004 elections.
Last week, Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda and 20 other detained officers were brought back to Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal more than two months after they were brought against their will to the ill-ventilated ISAFP detention quarters in Camp Aguinaldo. (Col. Ariel Querubin and Major Leomar Jose Doctolero are in Camp Aguinaldo hospital. Brig. Gen. Danny Lim is in Camp Crame with the Magdalo officers.)
Update on broken rice or binlid
The heart-rending scene of poor people, including children and the physically disabled, lining up for six hours every day for two kilos of rice is a warning of a simmering social volcano.
But the worst is yet to come, says Duncan Macintosh, spokesman of the International Rice Research Institute in a media interview shared with us by a friend.
Macintosh said, “Our concern is for October and November. Were very concerned that the rice production and supply situation in the Philippines may get worse in October and November. “
Spare us, please, the lie that the guilty plea of Captains Gerardo Gambala and Milo Maestrocampo and seven other officers was not the beginning of the devious script that will end with Gloria Arroyo pardoning them.
Gambala and company were a pitiable sight in that presscon last Friday arranged by the military at the Philippine Army Officers Club. It was heartbreaking.
AFP Chief Hermogenes Esperon could have executed the script without subjecting the nine to further indignity with a public plea for pardon. The officers could have just written the fake president a letter. But no, Arroyo and Esperon get their high from torturing people.