From Somalia to Sulu, kidnap-for-ransom has become a lucrative business and a potent weapon. It is the preferred tactic of organized crime syndicates like the Abu Sayyaf and the Somali pirates to extort not only millions in ransom, but to propagandize for an alleged cause whose inherent unattainability justifies both the last and the next kidnapping-for-ransom operation. Hundreds of Pinoy sailors have already been kidnapped and held for ransom by Somali pirates and the whole nation terrorized by the Abu Sayyaf’s daring kidnappings and beheadings, from Sipadan to Dos Palmas to Basilan to Jolo.

The young and dashing ALBADER PARAD has been portrayed as the leader of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom gang still holding two Red Cross workers hostage on the island of Jolo in Sulu province. But this made-for-TV jihadi is not really the most dangerous terrorist personality involved here, for there are also several high value Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist leaders with multimillion dollar bounties on their heads who are believed to be running with and controlling the Parad gang and who may now be bottled up in a tightly watched and guarded area along with their two hostages, and fifty heavily armed gun men:

[GMA TV News] Jemaah Islamiyah militants led by Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir also known as Marwan is believed to be among the Abu Sayyaf holding the hostages. Twos, more JI terrorists Dulmatin and Umar Patek are also said to be hiding in Sulu.

Zulkifli, who also heads the Kumpulun Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM), was believed to be involved in multiple deadly bomb attacks in the Philippines and has been added to most-wanted list of the U.S. Rewards for Justice Program.

The U.S. offered as much as $5-million bounty for the capture of Zulkifli and other known Abu Sayyaf leaders, while Dulmatin carries a $10-million reward on his head and $1-million for Patek. Manila also put aside P100-million bounties for the capture of Abu Sayyaf leaders dead or alive.

The one-armed bandit, Radulan Sahiron is also reportedly part of this motley crew of murderers. I think this may explain recent reports of heavy US and Australian support for Philippine forces dealing with the hostaging crisis, which has gained high profile international attention. Not only is this ongoing hostaging of Red Cross workers a violation of Philippine and International Humanitarian Law, there is every reason to hope these dangerous mass murderers and sociopaths will be brought to justice for their dastardly crimes against humanity.

Because no ransom has been forthcoming from the ICRC, including a purported demand for $5 million, the fear is that, today or tomorrow, the bandits could saw off the heads of Andreas Notter and Eugenio Vagni and put the video on the Abu Sayyaf’s YouTube fundraising channel. But could the gang and its internationally wanted terrorist leaders then just disappear and escape?

That remains to be seen, but I think the only thing now keeping the two hostages alive must be the uncertainty of escape in the minds of the Abu Sayyaf leaders should they behead them. They must know that they are now being tracked not only by Philippine police and military authorities, but also by the US and Australia, who’ve been after these particular JI leaders for years. Hopefully every high tech intelligence means to watch their every move in real time

The Door of Observation is momentarily ajar on a classic Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom situation, but with one difference–no ransom appears to be forthcoming. In such a situation, where the hostage takers are threatening to behead their captives, what ought the authorities to do? Surely it is NOT to comply with the demand to open up a path for escape [sic!] On the contrary I think the authorities must make escape impossible and make it crystal clear that AS SOON AS the terrorists make a move to kill or harm their hostages, an attempt to defend and rescue those hostages will instantly be launched and measures taken to prevent such action, including the forceful neutralization of any suspect who does not immediately surrender.

There is a lesson in both principles and tactics that we can learn from the US Navy Seals in the successful rescue of an American sea captain from Somali pirates. In that instance, the ability to know in real time what the kidnappers were doing or intending to do was essential to taking the action that freed that hostage. He could just as easily have ended up dead of course, but for the skill and good luck of those three snipers. However, it also sends an important message to future pirate-kidnappers of a kind of “mutually assured destruction” should they they decide to kill their hostages. The authority to act in defense of hostages that are adjudged to be in imminent danger of being seriously harmed or killed, had been given to the commander on the ground by President Barack Obama, and the successful outcome has been credited to his leadership as well as to the professionalism of the US Navy personnel involved.

I think this is applicable to the Sulu hostage crisis.

Cross posted under a separate title at Philippine Commentary and The Rizalist Press.

But how is it really, that a small bandit group can hold at bay all the forces of the Republic of the Philippines and can even demand that troops and police withdraw from practically the entire island of Jolo? Any reasonable observer would have to conclude that Philippine sovereignty has been seriously challenged and degraded. It has been attacked at the very root of sovereignty, which is the ability to enforce the Law. For what we have here in the Red Cross hostage crisis is an ongoing terrorist crime as defined in the Human Security Act of the Philippines, in the face of which the Government has appeared to be not only helpless but even clueless about what to do. There appear to be several major violations of International Humanitarian Law and the Geneva Conventions involved in this protracted hostage crisis.

And yet where are all the usual Defenders of Philippine Sovereignty? I have a theory. After the Subic Bay Rape Case blew up in the faces of the anti-VFA Lynch Mobs–what with Nicole marrying and leaving for America and recanting her rape story– it seems they are busy crucifying Chip Tsao whilst tearfully and or angrily demanding apologies for being called dense and pikon.

If these reports are true, then, this is just a sad flashback into 2000 when the ASG killed their hostages just to flee from attacks. It shows how poorly government handled this international concern considering that it has all the resources and all the personnel to avert such a disaster.

Yet, it is most distressing, even appalling, that the ASG has resorted to this killing. This act is most violative of the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the Noble Qu’ran. Innocents should never be harmed during a war under the Banner of Islam. With this purported killing, this is most atrocious and serve not just a reminder of how brutal this group is, but highlights the true nature of the group as purely bandits, instead of Noble and Pious Slaves of Allah SWT under the Banner of Islam. The purity of the Bangsamoro struggle has been tainted by the precious blood of the innocents.

And if these Muslims think that their deeds have been accepted by Allah SWT, I call their attention to Sunah 18: 103-104 of the Noble Qu’ran which states that good deeds shall only be accepted if it follows two basic conditions: acts should be for the glory and fame of Allah SWT, not for self-glorification; and two, it follows the acts of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Beyond these, says the Sahih Bukhari, are innovations.

Having said that, let me urge all Muslims around the world and People of the Book (Christians) to pray that this distressing news is not true. Pray for the safety of these innocents, who dedicated their entire lives for the welfare of the poor, the orphans and the widows in their affliction; yet, is now being punished for their pious deeds. Pray for their families. Invoke the Name of God and make solidarity marches to ask God to allow the release of these hostages. Never ask for mercy to these bandits. They are not gods. And if they think they are gods, they are not Muslims. Appeal to God for intercession. And God will give us what our hearts desire.

I glanced on the display before me. Safari pointed to Curfew imposed by Government, regarding Red Cross.

I mumbled to no one, “Here we go again.” Then a sip of Latte.

People have been kidnapped down south before. Still, the government wouldn’t crush these terrorists or at least mount an unrelenting campaign against them. Yes, I understand that there is an economic component associated with this problem. That poverty plays a role but indecision is the bigger problem. They kidnap, we send in troops. Sometimes people die. And things are forgotten, buried under the next news cycle.

“Damn.”

The past few days has been this unknown, Chip Tsao.  So is the guy a school yard bully and does it hit a raw nerve? Chips’ publisher has apologized, sort of.  Should we close the book on racial slur? Of course the government is onion skinned, and over the top when it shouldn’t: HK journalist on RP immigration blacklist. Another Claire Danes, I thought bitterly.

Seriously, should we be Outraged?

Ricky Carandang wrote:

And now we’re all outraged when some wise ass in Hong Kong claims that Spratlys are theirs?  What the fuck did you expect? Everything we’ve done these past few years has served to undermine our claim to the Spratlys.  Maybe not legally, but certainly politically. So isn’t this guy just    calling it like he sees it? And now we’re going to get ourselves into a huff and I can bet you some politician is going to write the HK Magazine to demand a retraction and/or an apology.  And I can bet you some other politician is going to make noise about filing a formal protest.

We are so easily offended by the most casual insult towards our country by outsiders and yet we cultivate a blind indifference towards the daily rape of our country by our own citizens.  There’s nothing wrong about being a maid in Hong Kong. Its honest and dignified work.  What’s sad is that the only reason they have to be there is because they can’t find decent well paying work here at home.  And who’s fault is that? Is it the same people who are so angry about this latest slur to our dignity?

Its much easier to pretend to be a nationalist then it is to actually be one.

I agree.

Scrolling down Google Reader, I saw @mlq3’s post on Problematic “Nicole” which was still unread. So I clicked on it. On Nicole, he wrote:

“From the start and to the bitter end, the whole case has revealed to us, much more about ourselves, individually and collectively, than perhaps we’re prepared to accept.”

Indeed.

I glanced at the onboard clock and it was nearly 8 o’clock and the remains of my sandwich and half empty latte sat on the table. Time for the Explainer?

Interesting conversation on Darwin, right?

I click back to Google Reader and browse through The Warrior Lawyer’s Will Murder Raps Against Senator Lacson, stick? Perhaps, I’m turning into a cynic to think, that all this is just drama.

Then I see Smoke who says, “we topped eh“. It reminds me of benign0′s post, “Earth Hour is bullshit.” Both reminded me of Batman & Son. In chapter two of that book by Grant Morrison, Jezebel Jet says to Bruce Wayne, “It’s easy to wear a t-shirt that says, ‘Make poverty History’, until it fades in the wash” Bruce Wayne responds “I’m all for it. And while we’re at it, let’s make wealth compulsory. It would solve so many of the world’s problems if everyone were a millionaire, don’t you think?”

Same banana, don’t you think?

Earth Hour, I joined but let’s all do our bit for Planet Earth: be more energy efficient. Also, let’s get cleaner technology out the door and support it! That’s one bit we can do for tomorrow.

On the table were the remains of breakfast. That meant, time to go. Makati was next on my list to do. I packed my things and started to walk. MRT time. I’d be lying if I said that MRT is my favorite means of transportation. I echo Arbet’s most apt description of the whole MRT experience:

Pero sa totoo lang, walang tatalo sa mga babae pagdating sa singitan. Pagdating sa MRT, ang mga babae nagiging Amasona. Pramis.

Tulad nung nangyari kahapon. Madalas akong naka iPod pag nasa MRT kasi naiirita ako sa nakakairitang paalala na palagi mo na lang maririnig sa mga istasyon ng MRT. Wala namang sumusunod. Tulad ng “huwag umapak sa dilaw na lines.” Goodluck. Ako lang yata ang di umaapak sa dilaw na lines eh.

Anyway, so kahapon maswerte ako at nakapwesto agad ako sa platform, pero syempre di ako nakatapak sa dilaw na lines. Makakapasok agad ako ng tren, sabi ko sa sarili. Pero ilang segundo lang, may nakatayo nang babae sa harap ko. (doh)

Isang example pa lang yan. Dapat yata magsuot ako ng sumbrero na may video camera, para marecord ko lahat ng mga pagsingit na ginagawa ng mga babae sa MRT. Hay naku, dapat wala nang segregation scheme kung ganyan din lang naman mangyayari.

Ayala station and as I walk out of the train, phone in hand, I start to send out a text message. Driver responds that he is waiting for me as scheduled by Glorietta 4. Brisk walking, I see a familiar black Expedition, heavily tinted. I climbed onboard and at the backseat, my change of clothing is there, all pressed.

Transformation time.

I exchanged my plain clothes for a deep-blue necktie and my favorite red, long sleeved shirt. Fifteen minutes later, I sat at Makati Shangri-la’s lobby lounge. I was always early for a meeting.

Of course, I’m not doomed to leisure as Sparks is. Not when I’m reading Rochelle’s Bloggers Night Out by Playboy Philippines then Atheista’s The Twelve Best Pinoy Bands of All Time According to S Magazine before I came across @momblogger advertising her daughter’s new enterprise. We need more enterpreneurs, imho even as I’m reading How a Modern Depression Might Look — If the U.S. Gets There.

I put the machine to sleep. Meeting time.

This is how it used to go down, after all the preliminary talk is set aside. I give my song and dance. Numbers are solid. I know it by heart. The guy sitting across me is 30 years my senior and in a barong tagalog (formal Filipino suit). I never meet people my age.

There were always two lines of script that they follow. If the guy sitting across me is a fellow contractor, he’d lament at how much for the boys commission needs to get out. He’ll give you a sob story about how he funds this trip to some Gentlemen’s club for the boys. It’s the same old story you hear everyday that common people lament and suspect but there is never any proof. The second line is if it is some official of the government that is right in front of me. His speech starts off like “You need to give a more formal presentation and send in some paper work. Make sure it is received at the office. Paper work matters so when we deliberate, we can back it up with paper work.” This is followed most certainly by, ”Yes, we need to have your gear, but you know how it is. We need funding. Can you get Cong to finance this equipment purchase? ”

In other words, what strings can you pull? Real or not, that’s up to you to decide. Of course that is a different world.

Tony writes about another side of the Philippines:

What do the Alabang, Paranaque and Quezon City incidents, the Kuratong Baleleng rubout, the suspicious slays of crusading journalists and the murders of nearly a thousand activists have in common?
They are all arguably extrajudicial or extralegal killings — deliberate murders of individuals by elements or agents of the state, with approval or sanction by superiors, without due process or outside of the law, and most of them are politically-motivated.

So, is the Philippines, ‘poster child of impunity’?

The drive back Greenhills would rarely take a long time. The sight of course is typical. There are bridges in Manila where people live in shanty houses at top a stagnant creak or river. The urban poor, with their feces, their garbage and their food mixing. The sight of children, half naked and playing outside can be heart wrenching. We’re used to it, right?

Still, sometimes, don’t you wish it could make you sick in the stomach?

Have you ever seen Manila high above and at night? Have you taken the time to admire the points of light that look like jewels sparkling in the dark? I do that at night watching cars zip past my office window. Even at midnight you could hear them zoom at EDSA. Between midnight and six o’ clock in the morning it takes about fifteen minutes from Quezon City to Makati. That’s about an hour, to two hours, on a regular rush hour day.

At night, Manila hides all the grime and dirt the city has. Everything is the stuff of legend and myth. There are no shanty town eyesores. There is no hodgepodge architecture. There is no sense of corruption. There are no mindless trivialities  about the most minute aspect of daily life. There are no gun carrying husbands shooting their tired, abused wives nor of children digging in the dump, eating fast food leftovers. Don’t you sometimes wish we were fighting Magiks and Demons, Monsters and Aliens, psychopaths and megalomanic dictators just to keep life interesting?

Then there was this time, I remember nurturing a half empty glass of white wine as I looked out an RCBC tower looking out the city. It was one of those social events that I used to go to. OK, more like required to go. It was business and I hated it because, I’d be the youngest person in the room and everyone was a good 40 years my senior. So there I was thinking how breathtaking the city was. I knew no matter where I was in the world that this was my home town.

I think about the the Arithmetic Problem of Partylist and how in a comment to my post, “The Folly of Good Intensions,” DJB had ask me to read John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice:

the two principles that would be reached through an agreement in an original position of fairness and equality are 1) each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others and 2) social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both a) reasonably expected to be to everyone’s advantage; and b) attached to positions and offices open to all

How I wish that those who want to craft a New Constitution or those who would seek to amend the current one would put Rawls’ idea on their head as they write. Maybe they’ll design and paint the future brighter. A man can dream, can’t he?

That’s how all this started, right? Someone dreamed.

About a year ago, Nick sent this email. “We cordially invite you to contribute for Filipino Voices.” Of course, Nick’s invite wasn’t exactly constructed that way. Nick’s not that formal. That was the gist of invite. No one says “no” when something like that comes along.

A collaborative, political blog was an experiment. The people I’ve met over the past year have all been awesome and no words are enough to describe the phenomenal effort put out by Nick, by our tech team and our contributors to get FilipinoVoices online. In a larger sense, Filipino Voices is a more than an idea to raise discussion to a higher level. It is more than a collaboration of myriad opinion and diverse thinking. It is more than a community, it should grow beyond crowdsourcing and “Ask Not What Your Community Can Do For You — Ask What You Can Do For Your Community.” Filipino Voices is an ideal that should surpass us all.

[April 1st is Filipino Voices' 1st year. Happy 1st Anniversary to my fellow contributors, to our tech crew, our editors, to Nick. Here's to many more years!]

Manila / Geneva (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is appealing to the Abu Sayyaf Group, which is holding Mary Jean Lacaba, Eugenio Vagni and Andreas Notter in the southern Philippines, to ensure that the three remain unharmed and to let them go immediately.

The appeal is in response to threats made by the abductors that they will kill one of the ICRC employees on 30 March if their demand for a pull back of troops goes unmet.

“I am very concerned by the threats of the kidnappers,” said the ICRC’s president, Jakob Kellenberger. “I am asking for their safe, unconditional and immediate release.”

“The sole purpose of Mary Jean, Eugenio and Andreas’ work is to give help to those in need. It is impossible to understand what the kidnappers could possibly achieve by hurting them. Harming a humanitarian aid worker cannot be justified under any ideology or religious law.”

Since the abduction on 15 January, the ICRC and the Philippine National Red Cross have been working vigorously to resolve this ordeal. On 27 March, Mr Kellenberger spoke with Philippine Executive Secretary, Eduardo Ermita, the country’s second-highest ranking official, and asked him to ensure that the authorities do everything in their power to save the lives of the hostages, while avoiding any action that could put the ICRC staff at risk.

“The ICRC’s priority is that Mary Jean, Eugenio and Andreas remain safe and that they be able to return to their families, who miss them desperately. Their children, parents, siblings, spouses, friends and colleagues will not give up hope of seeing them again soon,” added Mr Kellenberger.

The threat to kill one of their three captives soon,  unless their impossible demands are met, is not an empty one.  Who can forget the six summer students beheaded by the same Al Bader Parad ASG gang in 2006, or the 2007 ambush-beheadings of 14 Marines?  We are all Abu Sayyaf, now!

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

It was painful to watch Sen. Dick Gordon on Strictly Politics with Pia Hontiveros tonight, with Sen. Rodolfo Biazon discussing this subject mater.

Just as in the time of Kumander Robot we are all hostages. Again!

Thanks a lot, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, habibi. May you be incarnated as 72 raisins and be given to Albader Parad in a vat of Ebola Reston Virus-infected pork rinds when you both go to Paradise.

Her government is utterly helpless because she has never done anything but hurriedly paid ransom for such hostages, unless of course they are no-account unknowns like those six summer students kidnapped and beheaded by the same bunch of head-hunting, blood thirsty savages posing as liberators of the Muslim people. This bad run of karma began way, way back when she ransomed her billionaire pal and campaign contributor, Reghis Romero, from the clutches of Kumander Robot, but left missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham, Guillermo Sobero (later beheaded for consorting with an ASG “princess”), and dozens of non-VIP hostages who were kidnapped from Dos Palmas, robbed, killed, raped and “wedded” by the bandit terrorists in a year long spree during which the whole nation was hostaged.

The high points of GMA’s career of sponsoring and aiding terrorists through the payment of bribes continued through the Angelo de la Cruz affair in Iraq during which she memorably repositioned the Philippine Humanitarian Forces into a humvee and high-tailed it back to Pampanga after paying a fabulous $2 million ransom; the hostaging and ransoming (through the payment of 500,000 pesos room and board for the clueless General Benjamin Muhammad Dolorfino who still has a major post in the Southern Command; the hostaging of Fr. Giancarlo Bossi, who was ransomed by the Catholic Church and Ronnie Puno after the Abu Sayyaf ambushed, killed, beheaded and robbed 14 Marines looking for the Catholic priest and architect of that hare-brained MOA-AD Rodolofo Garcia saved the MILF/ASG gang responsible for it from arrest warrants handed down by the Basilan RTC by calling an independent investigation and just forgetting the supreme sacrifice made by those Marines; on through to Ces Drilon and eight or nine separate KFRs that have occurred just since that 20 to 40 million peso ransom was paid; culminating in the present thrombosis of principle, policy and will on the part of the government.

Over lunch political science profs from this university has an animated discussion on how people power has evolved outside the Pinoy context.  One of the UP Visayas academics is a known student of liberation and terrorist movements. She observed that the Thai version seems to have mutated that airports are now the venues that could bring down the government or at least force it to the negotiating table. On Aljazeera, I saw how the Thais have practically ground Thailand to a halt (stranding tourists as a consequence).

Perhaps, Pinoys should be as imaginative as the Thais. But methinks Queen Gloria has more imagination and brains than the CBCP. The bishops can lay themselves on NAIA’s runways and shut the airport. Shutting down Ayala Avenue is “laos”. Jojobama’s past antics of bringing in the lumpen proletariat is passe. Also the Trillanes and like minded Peemayers idiotic stunt of occupying 5 star hotels is also “gasgas”

We think that the Thai show should give proponents of a Pinoy cabinet system a rethink. Any group can stage a sit in and shut down the country.  Do we really want that?

What is more serious we thought is what has happened in Mumbai. The Terrorist’s War  has moved from bombings to a well planned military assault on the financial capital and its luxury hotels. No Trillanes like papogi showbiz stunt here and neither is there staged “assaults” by government troops here! The terrorists have got the Indian and even the Pakistani government attention and likely bring them to the bargaining table.

The Bangkok and Mumbai spectacles have changed the political environment in Asia and we still debate on impeachment. We sure lack sophistication.

My weapon of choice, mister.

Or in case he’s unavailable …

LOL!