MAX SOLIVEN: DID GMA POSTPONE HER DEPARTURE DUE TO A CBCP MEET?
MANILA, September 12, 2005 (STAR) BY THE WAY By Max V. Soliven - La Presidenta, the Commander-in-Chief, is leaving for United States tonight, leaving the "succession" of command in the SouthCom – the Southern Command in Mindanao – in a great deal of confusion. To begin with, the sudden designation of Lt. Gen. Edilberto Pardo Adan (0-6223), completely unexpectedly, to take over from retiring Southcom chief, Gen. Alberto "Boysie" Braganza, came as a surprise – even to Braganza.The fact is that General Braganza had called me up last Tuesday to say he was retiring and turning over SouthCom command on Friday – the date of his mandatory retirement. (His real date of birth was October 3, 1949, in Mabini, Pangasinan). In any event, Braganza had expected to turn over the flag to the very capable Maj. Gen. Samuel Bagasin, the commander of the 4th Division, who manfully tried to hide his bitter disappointment like a good soldier. But you can bet he’s hurting. The rumor is that he may quit, opting for early retirement.
When it received Malacañang nervously tossed the ball to Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff, General Generoso S. Senga, hinting that he may have handpicked Adan. When I talked to Gene Senga, however, he replied – very cautiously – that Adan had been the President’s choice. (Knowing Gene Senga quite well, I could sense he was itching, but loyally refrained from doing so to say Adan was not his choice).
What gives then? What motivated GMA to suddenly name Adan, when she already knew he was unpopular with many young officers, particularly some of our leading Medal of Valor heroes? Nobody questions Adan’s 12 years of service in Mindanao in the past, even his stand against the Kuratong Baleleng in Ozamiz City. But in the past few years, growing increasingly abrasive, our friend Ed – even while Superintendent of the Philippine Military Academy – clashed unnecessarily with younger officers, then even publicly upbraided and insulted our most admired Medal of Valor holder Col. Arturo Ortiz for having protested, along with others, the award to two they deemed undeserving of that venerated Medal (so revered in the military that, by tradition, even a President of the Republic must stand up to salute a Valor Awardee).
The "feud" grew so bitter that, in anger, Lt. General Adan, as AFP Vice-Chief removed the "reserved parking" space in Camp Aguinaldo maintained as a mark of honor for our 12 Medal of Valor holders still alive – the others died in action and had received the honor posthumously. Was that weird issue about the parking lot petty or not?
Sure, it was out of line for anti-GMA agitators, like, amazingly, Brother Armin Luistro FSC, president of the De La Salle University System, to declare – coincidentally in the wake of the Adan appointment – that there is "disenchantment among young officers in the Armed Forces" which may prompt them to intervene unless President Macapagal-Arroyo steps down. Luistro delivered his anti-GMA sermon before 2,000 students at the Immaculate Conception College in Ozamiz City, by golly, the "hometown" of the dreaded Kuratong Baleleng gang. (Just ask Gen. Ed Adan and Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson).
However, what Luistro warned about is a situation which exists among the captains, majors and colonels (not the generals) in our military – we’ve discussed it often enough in this corner – and President GMA knows it. This is what makes her designation of Adan, out of the blue, surprising. Why provoke possible trouble?
Finally, there’s the strange matter of the calendar. Ed Adan, after all, is retiring on January 27, his next birthday. (He was born in 1949, in Manila, and belongs to PMA ’72 – like Senga, Vice-Admiral Ernesto de Leon, Flag Officer-in-Command (FOIC) of the Philippine Navy, Lt. Gen. Cristolito P. Balaoing (50th Superintendent of the PMA), and PNP Director General Arturo C. Lomibao, as well as former AFP Chief of Staff Efren Abu.
Imagine that – only four months to run the SouthCom, then retirement? As Yul Brynner exclaimed in the old movie classic The King and I: Is a puzzlement.
GMA has been lucky. But "The Guy," our most beloved President, Ramon Magsaysay, was lucky, too. Yet, one day, in Cebu – he ran out of luck.
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The President had the earlier option of leaving last night for San Francisco, enroute to New York and her participation in the Inter-Faith dialogue in the United Nations, then presiding as chairperson over the UN Security Council, then, finally, attending with 170 other heads of state or government the 60th anniversary summit of the world organization.
I understand GMA’s departure was postponed for this evening, instead. Why? Alikabok suspects that La Gloria wants to know, before she goes off, what the Catholic Bishops will say today after a reported emergency meeting. The CBCP is convening to discuss, we hear, the "morality" and implications of bishops and clerics receiving contributions or donations (palimos?) from the Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), the government agency regulating and supervising legal gambling in the country. Money from gambling? That’s, I understand, the major question to be deliberated – but who knows? The bishops may also discuss their position on GMA and her remaining in office after the "impeachment" rejection.
I wish the Church, as I’ve always said, would stay out of politics. It’s not enough, I guess, for Jesus Christ to have stated, "My Kingdom is not of this world." Does this require a nihil obstat from the CBCP, or the Vatican?
When all is said and done, a President’s conscience and sense of duty must be her guide. Not what either Cardinals, Bishops, priests, nuns, or sinners say. Nor what political convenience or political "survival" may dictate.
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With the cost of oil surging unabated, pushing towards $70 a barrel, and oncoming winter promising a further upwards spiral in demand and price in the "cold" countries (the unrepealable "law of supply and demand"), my other wish is that we could drop politics and concentrate on economic problems, including the inevitable increase in our cost of living.
There are so many things left neglected. Forgotten, alas, is the public welfare, buried under tons of speeches and pontificating.
In the case of transportation, while gas-guzzlers and diesel-burning vehicles clog our gridlocked avenues and highways, like EDSA, the natural alternative to fossil-fuel burning cars, jeepneys, buses and trucks, the railroad is pathetically neglected.
For instance, what’s happening with North Rail?
The Northern line looked, after years of niggardly support and outright neglect from the government, like it was going to undergo a massive rehabilitation and modernization. The line had received a $400 million credit facility from the People’s Republic of China for the 32.13 kilometer route from Caloocan City to Malolos, Bulacan – a streamlining process that would eventually extend up to San Fernando, La Union, where tracks still exist although they are not operational.
I remember the good old days when you could take a comfortable train ride, air-conditioned, from Tutuban Station in Divisoria to San Fernando-U, so-called so as to distinguish it from San Fernando, Pampanga. The train would stop at Damortis, in those days, so the Baguio-bound vacationers or business travelers could board Benguet Autoline (BAL) Transit buses or special BAL taxicabs for the 30-minute ride up Naguilian road to the Pines City, or the Kennon Zigzag to Baguio. That’s all in the past.
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The project, alas, became entangled in a politically-motivated sideshow, wrongly utilized by Senate President Franklin Drilon and some of his Liberal Partymates to project a scandal-issue against the GMA Government. Chinese Ambassador Wu Hongbo, who’s leaving for Beijing before mid-October (for promotion in the Ministry, I’ve heard) was plumb disgusted and complained in TV interviews and in the newspapers about the People’s Republic of China having been dragged into our local political squabbles.
Northrail President Jose Cortez, Jr., vehemently denied the Drilon allegations and ably justified the costs, citing the very low 3 percent interest rate China gave us in its concessional loan and the long 20-year repayment period. s
I spoke with Ambassador Hu last night, and he revealed that, woefully, the project is behind schedule. The projected path of the North Rail should have been cleared by last December, but only 20 kilometers of it have been more-or-less readied thus far.
Even that stretch is being hampered by the fact, the Chinese engineers and technicians complain, that heavy equipment being used cannot operate and move around effectively since the neighborhood is hemmed in by squatter shanties and houses. Every six kilometers, the contract is for a railway station to be constructed – meaning the Chinese will have to build six stations. The sites have, as yet, not been made available by our government.
The fact is that the 50 Chinese ex-pats, all railway building experts, shouldn’t have arrived until the way had been cleared by our government, but when they came on schedule, they discovered even the first few kilometers not yet been prepared. Moreover, of the 20 kms, some ten kilometers were found, after testing, to be "soft," i.e. the foundations of the roadbed had to be reinforced 20 meters deep. This entails additional expense.
What’s more, unlike South Rail, the Chinese – whose railway engineering techniques have long been demonstrated in their homeland – insist that road-crossings have to be bypassed, for safety’s sake, by getting trains to run over the crossing (on flyover bridges), or underground. Once more, added costs.
They have, on site, 50 Filipino engineers and employees, but eventually, they will be employing 3,000. Yet, the stretch has not been cleared of squatters.
Whose responsibility is this? Ambassador Wu diplomatically demurred, but I checked. It is the National Housing Authority (NHA) which operates, by gosh, under no less than Vice-President Noli de Castro. I trust Noli will pay more personal attention to this matter, the relocation of the scores of thousands of squatters – for otherwise, we cannot build a railroad benefiting millions of people.
Alas, the Veep is busy trying to demonstrate his "loyalty" to GMA, and denying he was part of the plot.
Whatta country! Politics, politics, and more politics. What about people, people, people being uppermost in our minds for a change? That would be real people power.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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