Less talk, less mistake

One thing the Philippine armed forces will probably learn from the United States special forces operating with the Southern Command against the bandit group Abu Sayyaf is to rein in those motor mouths and let their performance do the talking. Some military officers have the tendency to unload their speculations about the Abu Sayyaf on the public to draw attention to themselves. Whatever happened to the secrecy of military operations?

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Take the military campaign to rescue the American couple kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf. No less than Lt. Gen. Roy Cimatu, Southcom chief, led the drumbeat that the Burnhams would be rescued by Christmas Day, at the latest. Well, Christmas Day, 2001 has come and gone, but the two American missionaries are still prisoners of the Abu Sayyaf in some God-forsaken corner of the Basilan wilderness. Or did Gen. Cimatu mean Christmas Day, 2002?

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Why Cimatu telegraphed his punches to the Abu Sayyaf on the Burnham rescue is beyond me. Upon learning of Cimatu’s declaration, the first thought that crossed my mind was that the Burnhams may actually be with the military already, and after a few days of debriefing, they would march out of a room for the usual media fest that accompanies such events. Or at the very least, the kidnappers were cornered and all that remained to be done was to pick up the kidnap victims, free the bandits, weapons and all and escort them out of harm’s way. Yes, just like the way Misuari’s beaming partisans were allowed by Southcom to leave the scene of the bloody battle against government troopers and escorted to safety by soldiers.

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Cimatu’s declaration on the rescue of the Burnhams is one of those miscues that inflicts an open wound on the credibility of Southcom, not to mention the whole military organization. It does not help efforts to refurbish the image of South after the battering it got over allegations that certain field officers concerted with the enemy over ransom deals.

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Cimatu is no foot soldier, and his declaration was no idle chatter. It had the weight of a three-star general behind it. Until he came up with his prediction about the rescue of the Burnhams by Christmas Day, the military grapevine was rife with speculation that he would be the next AFP chief of staff. That’s just three months down the road.

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Gen. Diomedio Villanueva is retiring in March 2002. Only time will tell whether Cimatu’s brisk march to four-stardoom was slowed somewhat by his failure to deliver on his promise to rescue the Burnhams by Christmas Day.

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With the US special forces, blabbing about military operations should be the least of the AFP’s worries. The American military specialists usually do not lead with their mouths. They prefer to operate in the shadow, and blend with the surroundings. In the few months that they have been operating with the Southcom in Mindanao, the US soldiers have very rarely consented to media interviews. When they do open up a bit, it’s just a wee bit. They talk very little about what they are doing, or what they are up to. No grandstanding, no public statements about operational deadlines, nothing but business.

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It is too simplistic to say that the country’s peace and order problem is a matter of perception. The problem is real as uncollected garbage and traffic jams. The peace and order situation has gone out of whack, and it is not mere perception. Perceptions come after the fact, not before. Otherwise, it would only be mere rumor.

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Any and all efforts to stanch the tide of kidnappings and other organized crimes must proceed from the premise that these problems do exist. No Potemkin solutions and "feel good" propaganda can cover up the festering gangrene which the peace and order problem has become.

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President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s declaration that she will address the peace and order problem as a matter of highest priority brings hope and encouragement to a nation fed up with criminals. But she will have to recreate, as it were, the people and agencies that will tackle the problem. The police, badly tainted as it is by the involvement of some of its members in all sorts of both high and petty crimes, is struggling to regain its credibility as a law-enforcement agency. The purging process goes on, but at this stage, the Philippine National Police has a long way to go before it can regain its pre-war image as the police.

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A special law-enforcement group may have to be formed with the exclusive task of going after organized crimes. Such a special group will probably draw its personnel from the police, the National Bureau of Investigaton, and other land enforcement agencies, but it will have to operate outside the ambit but in close cooperation with the PNP, NBI and others.

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Notwithstanding the public disgust aversion to special law-enforcement agencies, Malacañang may have to form one. The police is so unwieldy and controversial it cannot even solve the high-profile crime involving the death of actress Nida Blanca. Like the PNP, the NBI is a lumbering giant inhabited by pretty faces and sleek briefers on crimes, and criminality, in general.

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Inevitably, the President will have to lean on somebody to take charge of any new initiative against organized crime. That somebody will have to have a track record as a no-nonsense, effective and efficient law-enforcement personality. Nobody fits that description better than former Manila Mayor Fred S. Lim. In fact, Malacañang wants to engage Fred Lim’s services. The only problem is that, having run for an elective position in last year’s election, he cannot accept a government post until after the one-year prohibition. That ban runs out in May 2002.

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Thoughts For Today:

People may be unkind, just be kind.
They may cheat you, just be honest.
They may forget your good deeds,
just continue doing good.
In the end, it’s between you and God,
not you and them.

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Whenever you share your goodness,
your passion for life and your heart,
you always end up winning
because what you give to others
will come back to you.

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My e-mail addresses: <[email protected]>. and [email protected]