The Lord Of The Ring

I can not begrudge Manny Pacquiao for wanting to fight Oscar de la Hoya, the Golden Boy of boxing. But for the life of me, I can not understand why a great fighter like de la Hoya would choose to take the easy way out and fight Manny for his swan song.

For Manny, well as they say the man’s got to eat. But for a future Hall of Famer who has given fight fans some of the more memorable fights in the history of boxing, de la Hoya is chickening out by fighting a much much smaller fighter, even if that fighter happens to be the best pound for pound boxer today.

Consider the tale of the tape: Oscar stands 5’10.5’’, Manny, when he’s got his socks on, 5’6.5”. Oscar weighs 150 pounds (as of May 2008 when he fought Steve Forbes) but fights at 154 pounds. Manny, on the other hand, has just had one fight at 135 pounds. And at 73 cm, Oscar enjoys a reach advantage of a kilometric 6 centimeters.

To emerge a winner, Manny Pacquiao needs only to do one thing---show up. He does not need to beat up Oscar, a long shot in any case. He does not need to win. Nor even score a draw, another long shot. If, by the last round, Manny happens to be still standing and trading punches, then he would have won. Again. Even without the rematch.

By contrast, Oscar, just by picking Manny, has already lost. Forget all the talk about Oscar wanting to fight only the best pound for pound fighter. Forget even all his talk about avenging the Mexicans. In fact by picking Manny, Oscar has already done the Mexicans a great disservice. Whichever way you look at it, the match up looks every bit the spectacle of the big bully picking on the smallest kid in the school yard. Even if the smallest kid happens to pack some serious punching power.

In any case there are no Mexicans, Filipinos, or Canadians in boxing. There are only individual fighters, devoid of nationality, devoid of race.

If the fight were in the context of the movie Lord of the Rings, would Aragorn pick on, forgive the comparison, Frodo? I don’t think so. In fact, in the movie as well as the book, Aragorn makes it a habit to stride to the battlefield and look for the biggest, baddest troll. Orcs he leaves to men of lesser stature, to dwarves and elves. And, of course, to Frodo and the Hobbits.

If Oscar were Aragorn, to take the argument further, he would have chosen to fight Margarito, the biggest, baddest troll of his weight class. That would have been boxing. In its purest, most perfect form. But as we have now seen, Oscar is not Aragorn even if he has reigned as the Golden Boy for the longest time.

As for Frodo? The book and the movie tell us he vanquished the Lord of the Ring himself. But then again, that’s just fantasy.

Test Case or Official Policy?

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Sanctioned Madness?

Madness. If there is anything that comes to mind after reading official pronouncements regarding government’s handling of the brewing crisis in Mindanao, it is that---madness.
Instead of bringing calm and sobriety to the people of Mindanao in these times of grave peril, government officials are seeing it fit to add more fuel to the conflagration. Instead of inspiring confidence in the capability of authorities to protect civilians, officials in Manila are encouraging people to turn Dirty Harry.
In a press conference yesterday at Camp Crame, Quezon City, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said government is thinking of tapping civilian volunteer organizations (CVOs) to create police auxiliary groups. Puno told reporters that the idea of creating police auxiliary groups will be presented to local government leaders in the two provinces (North Cotabato and Lanao del Norte) in meetings to be held next week.
Philippine National Police Director General Avelino Razon, in the same press conference, said the auxiliaries will be given the basic task of securing communities and villages in Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato, the same areas raided by the MILF in the past weeks. Razon said local police “will control” the auxiliaries which will be “screened and trained” by the same and which will be given shotguns for “village defense.”
What on earth could be in the minds of these people? Yes local officials will be asked next week if they agree to turning CVOs into police auxiliaries. Do you think they’ll turn the offer down? Of course not. Manny Pinol in fact welcomes the idea.
But is there even an iota of wisdom in raising militias, even if their avowed purpose is to guard their communities against the marauding MILF? Considering that the Army is already going after the groups of Umbra Kato and Commander Bravo thereby freeing the police to guard the communities, why is the government resorting to arming CVOs which are under the control of local politicians?
What makes this emerging policy incomprehensible is the fact that Malacanang, just last Thursday or a day before Friday’s press conference, warned a Mindanao-based armed group calling itself the new Ilaga (Rats) against fighting the MILF.
The Ilaga came to national prominence in the 1970s and 1980s when the government unleashed the military-backed vigilantes to help combat the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) of Nur Misuari. Among the many atrocities attributed to the group was a March 1970 incident in which Feliciano Luces, a.k.a Commander Toothpick, led Tiruray tribesmen in attacking an isolated Moro village in Upi, Cotabato leaving 6 people dead. The group was said to have cut the ears, and nipples and plucked the eyeballs of their victims. Muslims responded in the vigilante tit for tat by forming their own groups, the Barracudas of Lanao and the Blackshirts of North Cotabato, plunging Mindanao then into a virtual civil war.
The Ilaga later turned into a rabid anti-communist vigilante group whose long list of atrocities culminated in the killing of Italian priest Fr. Tullio Favali in North Cotabato.
The folly of this latest government caper even drew concern from the London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International.
“MILF units that targeted villages have engaged in serious violations of international law and should be held to account,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Director.
“But experience from around the world shows that the deployment of civilian militias can set off a chain of reprisals and only increases the danger facing civilians,” Zarifi said. Amnesty International further warned that arming and deputizing civilians could inflame an already tense situation in Mindanao.
Consider this further. Most of the so called CVOs in the areas so far affected by the ongoing conflict are either Christians or controlled by local political warlords, Christians and Muslims. These CVOs are already armed with high caliber weapons.
It is also no secret that these groups are used by local warlords to advance their political interests. What the Puno “idea” proposes to do is to turn these groups into active combatants against the MILF, albeit only within their communities, as well as allow them to recruit new members. And with local realities already characterized by decades-old animosity, cultural biases, and/or conflicting political interests, who can say if these groups can even keep from fighting among themselves in the future?
Is this therefore the beginning of another era of terror in Mindanao? Is Secretary Puno and, by extension, President Arroyo so ignorant of the violent history of Mindanao to even propose arming civilians at this time?
Or are we, the people of Mindanao, just pawns in a sinister, obscene game?

Shoulder to Shoulder

The problem with the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) is that we have allowed politicians and pundits in Manila to transform it to an election issue.

It may have been impossible to skirt the issue of Charter change considering that the MOA-AD necessitates Constitutional amendments. But the manner by which the issue got quickly hijacked by politicians with clear ambitions in 2010 made sober discussion on the MOA-AD impossible.

True, things would not have turned for the worse if only President Arroyo had come out and said, clearly, just what she wants and how she intends to get them. True, it would have helped had the President, in pushing for Charter change, did not equate federalism with a parallel shift to a parliamentary form of government. It would have helped, too, if the President and all her lackeys in the Lower House had not been too eager in pushing for Charter change via Con-Ass.

But as things now stand, the issue of forging a peace agreement with the MILF has become a mere side issue, with Charter change now taking center stage. We all know the issue of Charter change to be highly contentious, with politicians and sectors clearly divided between those favoring Cha-cha now and those who think Charter change should come after GMA. Like oil and water, we know, too, that neither side is willing to give ground. Especially since 2010 is less than two years away.

Meanwhile, conflict with the Moro rebels has again flared up and civilian casualties are mounting.

It is easy for politicians from far away Manila to seize the issue of the MOA-AD and use it for all the political mileage it can serve them. But when push comes to shove, when political posturing turns ugly and ignites a shooting war as it now has, the worst that can happen to them is a temporary political setback, nothing that a good PR can not remedy.

Not so for the people of Mindanao. Here we do not have the privilege of using incendiary language and to hell with the consequences. Here we mind our language. Or we throw caution to the wind and use nasty language as the likes of Manny Pinol has done. But even Manny Pinol lives among us, in Mindanao, not in some comfortable house in a posh village in Manila.

We do not mind the likes of Senators Mar Roxas, Chiz Escudero, and other Manila-based politicians using the issue of peace in Mindanao to gain political points. We do not mind anybody from far away Manila to talk about solving the Mindanao problem using language that ignite the tempers of Muslims, Lumads, and Christians alike.

We do not mind them at all, even if they muddle issues and feed decades-old animosity between the peoples of Mindanao. So long as when the shit hits the fan, as it now has, they come here with their families, in the war-torn areas of Mindanao, and stand with us shoulder to shoulder, and face the consequences of all their off-the-cuff talking.

Losing Sight Of Peace For Mindanao

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo finally went out and said it. Federalism, the President said Monday, is “the way to move forward.”

But instead clearing up issues, the admission that her administration is once again seeking charter change to accommodate a peace pact with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has only resurrected old and nagging fears that she wants to stay beyond 2010. And the President has only herself to blame if people are suspicious.

A constitutional amendment is needed before any peace deal with the MILF can be consummated, that much is obvious. By all intents and purposes, the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) is federal in nature, thus the need for, to use Secretary Jesus Dureza’s term, a “surgical amendment.”

But there lies the problem. Instead of coming out and saying unequivocally just what it wants, the President is giving the impression that everything is still up in the air. Instead of laying all her cards on the table, the President is giving the impression that she is keeping an ace up her sullied sleeve.

Secretary Dureza was quoted in The Daily Tribune as saying that “the best way in resolving the conflict in Mindanao is to go through a Constituent Assembly.” He went on to clarify the statement saying this “is not yet the official position of government.”

But of all people, Secretary Dureza must know that everything he says reflects, if not official policy, at least what is in the mind of the President. He is afterall, the alter ego of the President. The concept of convening Congress into a Constituent Assembly to amend the Constitution ran into stiff opposition two years ago because, among other things, politicians can not be trusted to forego vested interests. Just imagine, if you were a congressman into your last term and, by a sudden stroke of luck, you were allowed to change the Constitution, wouldn’t you lift term limits so you can again run for office? Turning Congress into a Constituent Assembly was discredited then as it is now. So why is Secretary Dureza again sounding out the concept?

To make matters worse, Secretary Dureza seems to be enlisting support for Charter change by implying that government has the backing of noted constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin Bernas, SJ. Secretary Dureza said government negotiators had sought the advice of Fr. Bernas on how to implement the initialed memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) with the MILF.

True, Fr. Bernas had said publicly that there is nothing to worry about with regard to the MOA-AD. But what the good Secretary failed to mention is that Fr. Bernas has been consistent in saying that the way to Charter change is through a Constitutional Convention in which delegates are elected.

Critics of the MOA-AD between the government and the MILF therefore can not be faulted for suspecting that something sinister must be in the works especially since government seems determined to ink a deal with the MILF, even with the use of discredited methods, before 2010.

But we must also put these criticisms into perspective. The MOA-AD is by itself a breakthrough document in that it recognizes the aspirations of the Bangsamoro and at the same time attempts to rectify past wrongs done to the Bangsamoro people.

Listening, however, to politicians such as Senators Mar Roxas, Chiz Escudero, and the rest of the United Opposition, you get the drift that the be all, end all of the document is Charter change and not the crafting of a lasting peace in Mindanao. Which is painting a skewed picture. Let us remember that these politicians all have designs for higher office in 2010 and it seems they are rabidly opposing charter change now because, let’s face it, charter change will put all their political plans into disarray.

So now, what? Fighting has again flared between the government and the MILF; local politicians are again fanning the flames of conflict; thousands and thousands of internal refugees are again streaming into areas as yet unaffected by war.

Meanwhile, our politicians can not rise above their selfish interests and look beyond their parochial concerns. Shame, shame.

Pitfalls of Communication

A couple of years back I read an interesting article in the Men’s Journal about the pitfalls of communication. I can not recall the author of the article but I remember the author illustrated his point by relating a particular incident in the many adventures of the Lone Ranger and his trusted sidekick, Tonto. My apologies to the original storyteller but begging his permission, I shall now attempt to recreate his Lone Ranger story.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto, in one of their many forays to what was then the hostile plains of the Wild Wild West, were said to have been captured one day by hostile Indians. Surrounded and with nowhere to go, Tonto, in an attempt to wriggle out of a tight situation, immediatedly pointed to the Lone Ranger and said, “Kemosabi, Kemosabi.”

Upon hearing this, the Indians burst out laughing. The Lone Ranger could not understand why the Indians were laughing, apparently at his expense, and why Tonto was too.

Perplexed, the Lone Ranger asked the nearest Indian who happen to know a little English why they were falling all over themselves laughing. And the Indian said,”Kemosabi mean dim-witted, jackass fool.”

And so the Lone Ranger, sans Tonto, was bound and brought to the village chief to await his fate. With the day almost done and after spending hours and hours under the pitiless sun, the Chief finally appeared and told the Lone Ranger,” We will grant you three wishes. On the third day, we burn you at the stake.”

But the Lone Ranger, being, well, the Lone Ranger, showed nary a twitch in his countenance for he knew that Indians respected courage at the face of grave danger. And all who witnessed the Lone Ranger’s reaction were duly impressed.

“What is your first wish,” asked the Chief.

The Lone Ranger asked that his hands be unbound and he whistled. His loyal steed, Silver, came galloping from nowhere and, stopping only to listen to the whispered instructions of his master, immediately took off before the Indians could react.

About on hour later, Silver appeared bearing a beautiful, desirable maiden on his back and the Indians, seeing this, were even more impressed.

“The Lone Ranger very brave,” the Chief said, “He thinks nothing of certain death.”

And so they gave the Lone Ranger use of the grandest wigwam for the night, second only to the chief’s of course, and left him to his own devices.

Next morning, the Chief came and asked the Lone Ranger his second wish. Again, the Lone Ranger whistled. Silver once again appeared just as before, and again took off after hearing his master’s orders. After several hours, the horse appeared with, just as before, an even more desirable woman on his back and the Indians were even more impressed.

“Lone Ranger really brave,” the Chief said,”but tomorrow evening, after your last wish, we still burn you at the stake.

Again the Lone Ranger was left to do his thing, in the second-only-to-the-Chief’s grand wigwam.

At first light the next morning, the Chief again came to grant the Lone Ranger his last wish and again the Lone Ranger did as he has done for the past two days. He whistled and he gripped Silver’s long mane as the horse stood before him and said, ever so carefully lest the Indians hear, “I said POSSE.”

Charting A Just Peace

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His Own Soldier

Bribery, because of its very nature, is always difficult to prove or disprove. Hence the raging word war between Court of Appeals Justice Jose Sabio, Jr. and businessman Francis Roa de Borja, both of whom have deep roots in this city, will only get worse as both sides hurl innuendos in an attempt to chip at the other’s credibility.
To be fair, Justice Sabio stands to lose more in this proxy war. I say proxy war because ultimately, both are waging but a small battle, a skirmish even, in the bigger war between the government, through the GSIS, and the Lopezes for control of MERALCO.
Justice Sabio’s coming out with guns blazing is understandable. He can not, after all, afford to have somebody question his integrity, and by extension, the Court’s.
Because, make no mistake, what is at stake here is the Court’s integrity and independence even more than Justice Sabio’s.
By coming out with the alleged bribe offer Justice Sabio is in effect saying that in this country even court decisions can be bought for the right price. Justice Sabio is in effect saying that not even the Judiciary, which among the three co-equal branches of government have so far remained above the rough and tumble, transactional politics of both the legislative and executive departments, is immune to corruption.
Various sectors have been quick to call on the Supreme Court to investigate the bribe try and the Supreme Court has in fact scheduled to tackle the matter on Tuesday en banc.
But the damage has been done. While previously the Judiciary, courtesy of the perceived independence of current Chief Justice Reynato Puno, has been relatively unassailable, Justice Sabio’s coming out in the open has cast doubts on the integrity of the remaining institution that the people trust.
Let us only hope that in going to battle, Justice Sabio is soldiering only for himself.