The 14 Marines were
chasing a ghost

Now it's official. Fr. Bossi, the Italian missionary kidnapped more than a month ago, never left Lanao. That makes the sacrifice of 14 Marines in Basilan a fruitless gesture.

Here, we have a classic case of intelligence failure. We noticed that there were a lot of reports about Fr. Bossi being transferred from one end of Mindanao to the other.

Ultimately, he was reported to have been smuggled into Basilan where the Abu Sayyaf reportedly held him. And that's what prompted the Marine Battalion to launch their ill-fated search for the missing Italian priest. But Thursday, Fr. Bossi emerged from captivity. And he narrated that he never was transferred far from where he had originally been kept by his abductors.

So, what were the intelligence men of the AFP reporting? Or, better yet, where were they gathering their data? Out of thin air?

Your guess is as good as mine.

***

But there is also the good news. At least, some positive developments in the mysterious disappearance of PR man Bubby Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito. God often writes in mysterious ways. And the latest development in the intriguing abduction and subsequent murder of the two - Dacer and Corbito - was the testimony by both two former police officials Cesar Mangcao and Glenn Dumlao in the espionage trial of Michael Ray Aquino, also a former key PNP officer.

The National Bureau of Investigation is reportedly asking the US government for a copy of the testimonies of the two before the grand jury on March 1 and 2, this year.

Mangcao, according to the NBI, told the government, among others, that he believed that Aquino was involved in the abduction of Dacer and Corbito because he told him (Mangcao) that he had ordered others to hide evidence of the crime.

Dumlao, on the other hand, reportedly narrated how he escaped from police detention in Camp Crame. He even reportedly gave the names of those who had helped him in his escape.

These testimonies may eventually shed light on the still unresolved abduction with murder case.

Dacer, incidentally, was a close friend. He even used to call me "brother" to show how close we were to each other.

Our hope is that the latest development could help the NBI solve the Dacer-Corbito case.

***

Rep. Monico Puentevella (Bacolod City) filed a bill entitled "Act Criminalizing Video and Photo Voyeurism and Penalties Thereof."

This is measure that needs to be passed by Congress to stop once and for all the so-called "sex scandal" CDs and naked photos of private persons on the internet.

House Bill No. 472 states that any camera or video coverage obtained on the activities of a person or group occurring within but limited to the privacy of a private dwelling, dormitory, boarding house and the like - hotel, motel, comfort rooms, spas or sauna baths and dressing rooms, either for the purpose of posterity, display or distribution by an individual or in connivance with a group without the individual or unanimous consent of party or parties involved, shall be held liable for video or photo voyeurism."

Now, all of us are aware of the proliferation since last year of the so-called Dumaguete, Bacolod and Cebu scandals.

These CDs showed sex scenes, purportedly stolen, of couples engaged in the act. One of these resulted in a major scandal in Dumaguete. The Bacolod sex scandal reportedly forced the girl in the CD to flee the city because of shame.

This, pointed out the solon, is a blatant invasion of privacy, a maliciously motivated act and should therefore be criminally prosecuted.

And Newks aptly pointed out that usually those involved in the video are not only humiliated but also scarred for life. It usually results from perversion or motivated by monetary gain, he added.

Well, about time that a law be passed to halt once and for all these voyeuristic shoots and to put at ease the population.

***

One is inclined to believe the United Municipal Agrarian Reform Officers of Negros Occidental in blaming the Task Force Mapalad for agrarian violence in the province.

The UMANO had come up with a detailed recitation of their belief that Task Force Mapalad, since it entered the provincial scene, started the era of agrarian violence.

I do not need to recite what they claimed were indications of involvement by some key DAR officials and the coincidental activities of TFM that gave credence to their contention that TFM had managed to avail of the goodwill of DAR in creating situations.

The MAROs should know. And they cited instances where TFM virtually had immediate projection of local incidents of violence in the metropolitan press even while still ongoing.*

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