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Hostages of insecurity
TEN BILLION pesos was President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's 54th
anniversary gift to the Armed Forces. The main part of it will be
used to upgrade the salaries of the men in uniform, who are paid
lower than the shabbily paid public school teachers. She had also
won the commitment of the U.S. government to beef up the country's
scant military hardware with a donation of one C-130 and and five
upgraded Huey helicopters.
Is Arroyo paying a political debt to the military establishment
for its crucial shift of allegiance in People Power II?
Has she finally woken up to the futility of waging war on the bare
against better-equipped lawless elements?
One can read all of the above plus more motives in the president's
mind. With the peso dipping to its five-month low, and investors
shying away from the country, the president has urgent reasons to
prop up what is widely perceived outside as a crumbling security
situation in the country.
That she made the announcement during a high-profile celebration
was apparently meant to counter the spine-tingling statement of
the Abu Sayyaf that American hostage Guillermo Sobero's head would
be their Independence Day gift to the president.
But as far as the U.S. is concerned, the daily news broadcast on
the extended war in Basilan, with the fate of three of its nationals
still in limbo, is the grim Philippine reality.
The U.K. government echoes the same sentiment with its advisory
against travel to the Philippines in the wake of the kidnapping
of a Briton whose gruesomeness was captured in a video footage taken
by the kidnappers themselves.
Unless this perception changes, the country will continue to suffer
from lack of new investments and capital flight, threatening a downward
economic spiral. Obviously, one can't change the perception unless
the reality changes as well.
The reality seems just as chilling--ordinary Filipinos fear more
unsafe as criminality rises. Government line has always been that
common, random crimes such as theft, rape, and murder are committed
in any society, and that statistics show that on average, Manila's
no worse than New York.
However, recent allegations by former kidnap gang members suggest
that many of the crimes committed in our society are organized in
nature, with the complicity of top uniformed men. These allegations
still have to be proven in court. But they consistently echo what
have been reported in the print media a long time ago that were
apparently hushed in the process.
The allegations against senator-elect Panfilo Lacson are particularly
disturbing because of the consistency by which he has been implicated
in organized crimes. In the chaotic prelude to Estrada's ouster,
even Arroyo accused Lacson of scheming against her during the ex-police
chief's brief stint in the U.S. Having been elected into the Senate,
he now conveniently claims that the allegations are a "demolition
job" on him by the opposition.
The increased brazenness by which the Abu Sayyaf pulled off their
latest kidnapping also revives interest in the claim raised by a
respected German magazine that government negotiators received commission
from ransom payments made by Libya to the bandits.
Investigation has not inched forward since the issue was raised.
But in the light of excesses that have since been exposed in the
Estrada administration, for which the ousted president is indicted,
that claim constitutes a perfect piece of the jigsaw puzzle.
Unless Arroyo deals with crime from its very source, the country's
security will continue to crumble from inside. If she deals only
with kid's gloves on Crime Incorporated, where the CEO's are tied
to those tasked with public security, perpetrators will only be
emboldened to commit more serious crimes. Upgrading the salary and
welfare of the uniformed men is certainly an important step. But
clearly, she has to follow up with a resolute move to drive home
the point that crime does not pay.*
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