'Caller I.D.' phones will identify all crank and bomb-threatcallers

The Police National Capital Region command is having special "Caller I.D." telephones installed in all its 37 police stations (two per station), district offices (three each) and its NCR headquarters in Camp Bagong Diwa and PNP headquarters in Camp Crame.

The 100 telephones, for starters, were donated by Manny Pangilinan, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company. Police Chief Supt. Edgar B. Aglipay, who met with the PLDT officials to work out the enhancement of the PNP's telephone network, said that with the use of these special telephones there would be an instant record in the computer of the name and address of anyone calling in a distress signal, cry for help, or a report, enabling the police to trace the origin of any call so as to "render its response and service more efficient."

What General Aglipay did not say was that the new device would also pinpoint the identity of the telephone utilized in a phoned-in "bomb threat" or "warning." Since the newest, cruel "game" in town -- whether by real terrorists or pranksters -- is to ring up offices and homes to warn individuals or firms of a "bomb" being planted, or a bomb attack being "planned," a "Caller I.D." phone could prove a very useful and even essential instrument.

One newspaper made a big thing out of receiving a phoned-in "bomb threat." This newspaper also received a threat from a heavy-breathing fellow with a coarse Visayan accent (you couldn't tell whether he was a Rightist, a Leftist, an Abu Sayyaf or NPA terrorist from his diction) but our editors shrugged and thought nothing much of it. Nobody was inclined to brag about "eating death threats for breakfast." A Caller I.D. phone would have enabled our STAR commandos to respond with an R.S.V.P.

I can predict that, very shortly, Manny and his PLDT crew will be swamped with "orders" for their new-fangled "Caller I.D." telephones. Even if one is tough enough to cheerfully bite the bullet, it would be reassuring to know where the bullet was coming from.

Another wrinkle was announced yesterday by Egay Aglipay. As everyone (well, almost everyone) knows, the emergency assistance number you have to dial to summon help from the police is "117" -- NOT, as too many are prone to think, owing to all those bang-bang Hollywood movies and TV detective shows, America's 911. Now, if someone in trouble or an eyewitness to a crime in progress, or with a suspicious looking "object" to report wants to reach the police, he or she can rush to the nearest pay phone and dial No. 117 for free, with no fumbling for coins or telephone cards.

In the meantime, while Chief PNP (General) Panfilo Lacson's Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) has taken over the investigation of the "bombings," the 15,000-memberNCR police have been augmented by scores of HQ cops dispatched to pound the pavements, plus 250 military policemen from the Philippine Air Force.

The Chief Philippine Government Negotiator, Secretary Robert Aventajado, is flying back to Sulu today to formally meet with the five top leaders of the Abu Sayyaf in Patikul.

Aventajado was in Patikul the other day, but returned to Manila for further instructions from the President after he was informed at the time that only three of the five Muslim top honchos were available to confer with him. He has been assured that today, when he reaches the area near the hideout where the 21 hostages are being held, all five will be on hand to discuss terms with him.

In any event, Aventajado has decided it is productive to bring the former Libyan Ambassador, Mr. Rajab Azzarouq, along with him in order that the envoy can "witness" and vouch for the proceedings. Let's see if, indeed, all five key Abu Sayyaf chieftains "come down" for the Patikul meeting.

Too many government officials, on the other hand, have been making statements that only confuse the public and embolden the Abu Sayyaf hardliners. The latest was Executive Secretary Ronnie Zamora who stated that as their condition for the release of their 21 captives, the Abu Sayyaf leaders were demanding a pledge that "an Islamic state" would be created in Mindanao.

For his part, Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon, Jr., had intimated to the press that one of the ransom demands was for "$2 million," and there continues to be an increasingly widespread conviction that, without informing Aventajado, Siazon had "approved" the Malaysian Ambassador Mohamad Arshad Manzoor Hossein's unilaterally going to Patikul to parley with an Abu Sayyaf commander for the release of the nine Malaysian hostages.

If too many cooks spoil the broth, too many claiming to be "in the know" will only spook the still uninitiated negotiations. President Estrada would do well to caution his "other men" to shut up and let Aventajado perform his difficult mission without kibitzers and meddlers booby-trapping his every effort.

Unless plans miscarry, Aventajado is scheduled to meet all five rebel leaders today or tomorrow, namely: (1) Ghalid Andang, alias Commander "Robot"; (2) Mujid Susukan; (3) Raddulam Sahiron; (4) Doctor Abu; and (5) Nadzmi, alias Commander "Global."

Of the five, two of these commanders -- namely Commander "Robot" and Mujid Susukan -- were the ones who led the daring raid by swift motor-launch which resulted in the abduction of the 21 hostages -- i.e. nine Malaysians, two Filipinos, three Germans, two French, two Finns, two South Africans, and one Lebanese -- from the Malaysian resort of Semporna on Sipadan island (Sabah) last April 23. By the way, Ghalid Andang got his nom de guerre of Commander "Robot" because he is said to enjoy doing the "Robot dance" introduced by American entertainment superstar Michael Jackson, while Mujid Susukan is the son of a well-known commander of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) who was killed at the close of the 1972 to 1975 "Moro War" during the Marcos regime.

Incidentally, the three fundamentalists in the Abu Sayyaf lineup who are insisting on an "Islamic state" are MNLF officers formerly under ex-MNLF Chieftain, now ARMM Governor Nur Misuari. When Misuari forged his controversial "peace" deal with ex-President Ramos, the three bolted his faction and joined the Abu Sayyaf.

These three are not to be confused with the Magic Eight, the original eight MNLF "strike" commanders -- among them Tawi-Tawi Governor Gerry Matba -- who broke with Misuari some years ago over irreconcilable differences, nor with Hashim Salamat's Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which split from the original MNLF over ideological and tribal disagreements.

Can the hostages be "recovered" through negotiation? We'll know soon enough. In the meantime, Aventajado has been in constant contact with the gang and their hostages through emissaries. He has, he told Malacañang and his support staffers, been sending them medicine, food supplies, "even the hamburgers they asked" plus relays of doctors. The medics even taught the Lebanese hostage, Ms. Marie Moabes, how to monitor the "blood pressure" of her fellow captives with the device they delivered.

Nobody knows, of course, how the hostage drama will end. The slow pace of developments is, admittedly, worrisome to the families and friends of the hostages "at home." However, as is increasingly clear, the Abu Sayyaf are in no great hurry. They're basking in the publicity which is, to the relief of many Filipinos, beginning to fade -- overtaken by other kidnappings (in Fiji, in Sierra Leone, etc.), wars in Ethiopia-Eritrea and Sri Lanka, etc. Trouble, heartbreak, hardship, disappointment and death, alas, are an everyday aspect of the human condition.

It's too bad that a succession of explosive events overshadowed the salutary effects of the President's "whirlwind" four-day visit -- as abbreviated -- to the People's Republic of China. It wasn't a waste of time, as some of Erap's usual critics allege, nor was it wrong for the Chief Executive to have left Manila for four days (those bomb incidents would have occurred anyway, and Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen were never more than two to four hours' flight away).

On the other hand, it was correct for the President to have called off his journeys to the far more distant capitals of London and Paris, half a world away. So, nothing lost, as they say: much gained.

The problem with Presidential expeditions (and this was true of former President Fidel V. Ramos's frequent sorties) is that Presidents are expected "to bring home the bacon" and quantify each sally with gains in dollars and cents. And so, the Erap Caravan had to announce, upon its return, that China had pledged us a "soft loan" of $50 million and a $3 million grant for agriculture-related projects. Then there were five bilateral agreements signed with a flourish between the Philippines and China. But these all were merely frosting on the cake.

Agriculture Secretary (and former Senate President) Edgardo Angara, naturally, was jubilant over the blossoming of his earlier spadework into important agreements on greater agricultural cooperation. Angara had visited China last September to begin talks on this sort of bilateral coordination. Now, he enthused, China is going to help us increase our rice production. "While, in the Philippines, we currently harvest three tons of rice per hectare a year," Angara told me, "in China, thanks to its scientific development of strains of hybrid rice, 9 to 12 tons per hectare are produced annually."

The Chinese, Angara pointed out, will not only provide us with agricultural technology, but agricultural machinery (like mechanized hand tractors) suited to Asian conditions. The technology center envisioned, he added, will be located in the Central Luzon State University in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija.

All these "quantified" achievements are fine, but it was the intangible things that matter. It sounds corny and may even attract snorts of scorn, but it didn't hurt that Erap and China's President Jiang Zemin hit it off quite cordially. At a gala banquet in Beijing's Great Hall of the People (where, in years past, in 1965, this writer had interviewed first Premier Zhou Enlai, then, in 1986, the late Chairman Deng Xiaoping), Messrs. Estrada and Jiang engaged in a singing competition. Naturally, everyone who covers the international scene remembers that a "songfest" has always been Jiang's folksy, favorite weapon of diplomacy.

The two heads of state duelled in high spirits, and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) orchestra, obviously well-rehearsed, knew every Filipino tune, and was, without doubt, experienced in coping with President Jiang's forceful but sometimes charmingly off-key exertions. (One forgot in the friendly glow engendered by those musical exchange, that Jiang and company were a tough, give-no-quarter bunch, who routinely ordered the bludgeoning of the Falung Gong and all considered dissidents or detractors.)

Jiang, in his singing, was backstopped by two pretty young things in white military uniforms and a sober-sided PLA officer who threw out a wicked basso profundo. A businessman at the table inquired why Mr. Jiang's back-up singers were all in uniform, and somebody quipped that this was to demonstrate that he has "the all-out support of the military."

Mr. Jiang ventured his popular Once When We Were Young, and O Sole Mio, rendered con brio in slightly fractured Italian for which he apologized, smiling that "I haven't sung that song since my college days." Somehow one couldn't imagine him belting out, as a young cadre, anything but martial songs, like The Long March, and The East is Red, or the Internationale. But you live and learn.

One can go on and on retailing the pluses and minuses of the Erap Expedition. But it was President Erap who profited most, on a personal basis, from that four-day excursion.

When his plane took off from Manila's NAIA airport Tuesday morning last week, Mr. Estrada was visibly glum, weary and dispirited-looking. All through the flight he conferred, without a smile, with his "First Team" of economic managers, i.e. Finance Secretary Jose "Titoy" Pardo (who, in order not to offend Ronnie Zamora I won't describe as primus inter pares), his ever-smiling cheerleader; Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas; and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor (and Classmate) Rafael "Paeng" Buenaventura.

Hovering nearby, naturally, was Foreign Affairs Secretary (also Classmate) Domingo "Jun" Siazon. Further down the aisle were Interior and Local Government Secretary Alfredo Lim, always circumspect and dignified, and "Freshman" Press Secretary cum Spokesman Dong Puno, plus, of course, Agriculture Secretary Edong Angara.

The Chinese proved, as usual, to be consummate hosts -- genial, brimming with smiles -- and, indeed, hospitable to the point of flattery. Hundreds of uniformed military policemen lined every corner from the airport down to the Diaoyutai National Guesthouse (a former "fishing" country palace of the Emperors along a restful lake). Traffic in Beijing was held at bay while the Erap motorcade sped from airport to Guest House flags flying.

At the Great Hall of the People later, President Jiang gave the Philippine President a ceremonial "trooping of the line", followed by a subsequent march-past of a composite battalion of PLA Army, Navy and Air Force, with a 21-gun salute booming mightily over the strains of a regimental band.

All through the visit, at each meeting with Jiang, Premier Zhu Rongji, former Premier Li Peng now chairman of the assembly, etc., observers could see Erap responding to the pomp, pageantry and bonhommie. By the time he had gone through Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen and our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal's ancestral hearth in the village of Siongque, Jinjiang City (Fujian province), Estrada was visibly glowing.

The trip home to face the "bombings" was undertaken with far more optimism and good cheer than when the pilgrimage started. This does not mean that Erap has suddenly re-emerged without his temper, suffused with beatific virtues and disposed to be angelic, but the China trip was a much-needed and timely shot-in-the-arm for him.

Perhaps it was not much more than a Chinese conjurers' trick that all clashes, disputes (like the Spratlys issue), suspicions and so forth appeared to have been swept away in a tidal wave of happy harmony: but Erap and his troop leaders lapped it up, and, at many odd moments, Mr. Estrada relished what it meant to feel Presidential.

And that's why the Chinese, with millenniums of tradition, upheavals, and skills behind them, are a major force to be reckoned with on this spinning planet.