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Thursday, March 06, 2003
Senate blames Reyes anew for Davao blast
By Joshua Dancel
FROM a failure of intelligence to the implementation of a national identification system to the urgent demand for the resignation of Defense Sec. Angelo Reyes, senators Wednesday hit everything on the Davao Airport bombing that killed at least 21 persons.
Senators Robert Barbers and Rodolfo Biazon both agreed that the military and police's intelligence network has again failed the people in the bomb attack for failing to at least foresee the incident despite the huge budget allocated for the government's intelligence or confidential fund.
"Evidently there has been a failure of intelligence here," Barbers said.
Biazon, meanwhile, said this intelligence negligence was a product of the military and its leaders' "miscalculations" pertaining to the war the Armed Forces of the Philippines is conducting in Mindanao.
Senate Majority Leader Loren Legarda said it is high time that the Senate, now that the budget is being deliberated, to review the confidential fund amidst the intelligence community's poor performance.
In light with this, Senator Aquilino Pimentel urged the military and police forces to tighten up security around three other Mindanao airports to prevent the bombing incident from recurring.
Senator Ramon Magsaysay said he would personally urge the President to immediately enforce a national ID system in order to weed out terrorists operating under the cloak of anonymity.
"This may be unpopular but this is a necessity. We are now speaking of our welfare here," Magsaysay said.
But if there is anyone to blame for the incident, Pimentel said it would have to be Reyes. "I blame Secretary Reyes for his miscalculations," he said.
Biazon agreed and even warned the President to distance herself from Reyes. "If the man of the President failed she failed too. If he will sink then both of them will sink. Let her decide on the fate of Reyes," he said.
But Senator John Henry Osmena was more combative and demanded the head of Reyes on a silver platter.
He said the Davao bombing was nothing but a plot hatched by Reyes and his United States counterparts in order to pave the way for the entry of US forces in local combat against the Abu Sayyaf and get more funding for the department and "for his ambition to run in 2004 or launch a military coup."
(March 6, 2003 issue)
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