No more big brother role

So there really were reports that the recycled fugitive and former military officer and senator Gregorio Honasan, a.k.a. "Gringo" was in Negros Occidental, even in Bacolod City. Well, nobody saw him here, and maybe those who did are not telling. I bet Gringo is enjoying himself, leading his fellow civil and military officers in a merry chase. But why has Malacañang been telling him that it would "safer for him to come out?" Does the order to get him (with the P5 million reward) carry the phrase "DEAD OR ALIVE"?

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But Honasan is not the only fugitive on whom much media attention is being focused these days. There are five others who are not "on the lam" as the underworld would call it, but are right now staying in a place known to everybody. These are the so-called "Batasan Five", the five members of the House of Representatives, all of them representing Party List groups, who cannot go out of the portals of the hallowed halls of Congress because of threats that they will be arrested.

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But the sessions will not go on forever, and that is the only reason why they cannot be fingered by any arresting officers. The five are now enjoying lodgings in the Batasan, with no less than the Speaker of the House as their landlord or "encargado". The speaker, however, may not have the patience or the authority to keep them there all through the year. As he himself has told the media, he will surrender them all when the appropriate warrants are served. Seems he has no intention of playing their "Pinoy Big Brother" any longer.

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The report released by Agence France Presse about what Justice Secretary allegedly said that only one of the three American Gis charged with rape is possibly being answerable for it, raised quite a howl yesterday, not only from the family of the victim, but from various quarters. Of course many were shocked. Were the four not earlier reported to be liable, being all together when the alleged rape was committed? We don't know the thinking of a Justice Secretary, but, honestly, I myself thought that that one had an element of conspiracy where, they say, the crime of one is the crime of all.

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What we first saw in the news yesterday was the mother of the victim crying out to Justice secretary Raul Gonzalez to listen to them, and give her daughter real justice. She even called out to the secretary "Ilang taon nalang kayo sa mundo (You have only a few years left in this world)" and added that she was praying for him to see the light and not to listen to the devils around him. Who told her about "demons" having a place near a secretary of justice?

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Anyway, Gonzalez himself came out on TV last night, explaining that there was no resolution yet to clear the three other suspects, but stressed that he needs more evidence to include all. And he must have been affected by the mother's appeals, he didn't look very well, either. I hope somebody will advise the mother to bring her appeal to the new American ambassador of the U.S. who is a woman, though I don't know if she is also a mother. Who knows, she may get help there.

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In the meantime, can we expect a Battle Royale between the Senate and the House of Representatives soon? Seems the members of the so-called Lower House, which has about ten times those of the upper one, or the Senate, want both of the bodies to vote together in the charter change affair. The Senators, naturally are up in arms, knowing their voices will surely be drowned out by those of the congressmen. The articulate Senadora from Iloilo, the irrepressible Miriam Defensor Santiago, her now rather plump cheeks quivering, declared that if that happens, "We'll consider it war, and we'll go to the trenches!" Wow! At least not to the hills.

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I was jolted by the title of Amando Doronila's column in the Inquirer yesterday. It said that ours is now the "Most endangered democracy in Asia". Amando, a veteran and survivor of Martial Law, Marcos edition, surely knows what he is talking about. That Martial Law was openly declared, and it sent him and many of his colleagues to detention in military prisons, and even to exile later. What is happening now must be giving him a sense of déjà vu, even if we have not heard any formal declaration of Martial Law.*

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