Fourteen Soldiers Are Hostages of ISAFP

And so are (at least) fourteen families. Gloriagate is almost finished, believe it or not. If only the Senate can secure their lives and their damning testimony of how, in the year 2004, they were forced to desecrate their sacred oaths as Soldiers of the Republic and were prostituted by person or persons yet unknown, to execrable acts against the Constitution and the sovereign People. They must now tell the story of how the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) has been wantonly violating RA 4200, the Anti-Wiretapping Law. They should now tell how they were ordered to illegally spy and record the conversations of their Commander-in-Chief, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and a member of the Commision on Elections, Virgilio Garcillano. Now that that high crime has come to light, -- a high treason against the Military Code of Honor and against the sovereignty of the Filipino people, justice must be done in the name of National Security.

HOSTAGES OF OMERTA But it is a frightening and inescapable conclusion that those men and their families must be HOSTAGES of their handlers at this very moment. At this very moment, there are 14 SOLDIERS of the Armed Forces that are being kept in ILLEGAL DETENTION, and 14 WIVES and LOVERS, and 14 families of innocent children and loved ones. I think their lives are in danger should any bit of patriotism move their hearts in a visible way. I think they are being blackmailed and controlled with their families' welfare and safety under constant and deadly threat. They should be rescued by the People because it is the bravery and valor of their comrades -- past and present --that have so often rescued them. It is time for the people to prove that they appreciate the Military men and women, whose service and sacrifices have for so long been maligned and treated like dirt. Hidden Hands used them for insane and selfish purposes and thus criminally used them as lackeys. But young men do not join the Armed Forces to gain the status of lackeys. I am sure they pledge their service to a higher purpose. It is the political and military Mafias which control the Military that forces such men into the prostitution of their vows. It is the greed and ambition of unworthy leaders who have turned them from soldiers and defenders of the people into organized traitors and spies.

THE RIGHT CONCEPTION I think that the lives of those Soldiers and their families are now in GRAVE DANGER. Before this week's Senate hearings into the serious allegation of ILLEGAL WIRETAPPING against the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), I think they were merely being kept quiet. But I think they instantly became HOSTAGES of ISAFP as soon as Senate President Franklin M. Drilon uttered the words "NATIONAL SECURITY" as a reason for pursuing the investigation -- NOT stopping it -- which is absolutely the right conception. That is the simple but stunning break in the Gloriagate controversy, a sea change in the conception of NATIONAL SECURITY that has occurred in the Senate in just the last two days -- that the testimony of these Soldiers CANNOT be prevented in the name of NATIONAL SECURITY. Indeed it is now in the name of NATIONAL SECURITY that the testimonies of those fourteen soldiers -- and their wives and lovers -- must be brought to light, for those testimonies are EVIDENCE of grave violations of national security. And it is thanks to the valor of one simple young woman, one more simple heroine...
MARIETA "MAYET" SANTOS is a heroine of love you know, love for her man, T/Sgt. Vidal "Jeff" Doble, and love for her country. (This subject was explored yesterday on the comment thread Ellen Tordesillas) For what would possess a woman to admit to being someone else’s NO. 3 in a Senate committee hearing? Imagine how lovely Doble feels seeing her standing up for her man on nationwide TV, saying he was just ordered to do this, that he is having twinges of conscience, still supports his families. She says their contact now is limited to cell phone text messages and an occasional phone call from Sgt Doble. So WHY did she do all this? Why has she risked her very life. For what? For fame? For money. I do not think so. I think she has done this courageous act for the desperate hope that once in a while Vidal Doble will text her those few precious syllables she wants to hear, to sustain her through many a lonely year to come, and to thrill him with a message broadcast to the whole world: I LOVE YOU TOO JEFF! Someone else on the thread said, "As to Doble’s 3rd [2nd] mistress, she’s just one of those stupid little girls from a parochial background who was blinded by some kind of macho power… Doble probably pranced around like an idiot immitating James Bond." But I disagree! Maybe she is a “stupid little girl from a parochial background” but I think it is such simple folks who will break this case wide open! And Ellen Tordesillas agreed, "My impression of Mayet is , she still loves Doble. I was told Doble also loves her but under the circumstances, he can’t do anything but stay with his wife, whom he has left sometime ago. It looks like Mayet was telling the truth."

SGT. VIDAL "JEFF" DOBLE: What I know of Vidal Doble is this. He is an expert in electronics and the arcane art of microwave antennae tuning and deployment. People who testified to his character to the Media and the Five Committees of the Lower House, said he was perfectionist as a technician and dedicated to his work with a maniacal passion (a quality Mayet no doubt enjoyed in him too.) Granted he might better be called Agent Triple, but the trail up to the ultimate criminal begins right with him and those 13 other men. I focus on Mayet only because I think those fourteen ISAFP soliders are mostly like SUBMARINERS in the navies of the world — a very special breed of men who exist in the netherworld between ordinary society and the caverns of state secrecy. Such men attract a very special breed of women, fiercely loyal, peculiarly resilient and immensely patient. I say there are at least 13 other women of possibly great value to the ongoing investigation of the Senate. For the men are naturally under omerta, both enforced by their handlers, and from a deep sense of loyalty to the group. But the women, (if they are like most Filipinas) talked among themselves, kept each other company while their men were busy at work of surveillance and wiretapping; they compared notes about their men and what they were doing; the gossiped excitedly about bits and pieces heard in unguarded moments between a man and woman. That group probably has the most comprehensive understanding of the wiretapping operation outside its command and control structure. Their collective voice would be a powerful antidote to the mass confusion sown by Garci the Judas Goat and his handlers. People should focus on this crime against the lovers and husbands of women like Mayet. The Military has been raped by person or persons unknown who prostituted them all to an evil and insane purpose. WE must CHERISH these men and women of OUR Armed Forces, for they are not only our protectors. I predict they will be our liberators from this Archipelago of Lies which we now endure.

NATIONAL SECURITY The Senate can still save the nation from perdition if it moves swiftly to own the Principle of National Security before the Supreme Court, can make a move to bury the Garci Tapes forever and make another putschist ruling that "national security" demands an end to even the Senate wiretapping investigations. Davide et al cannot make a move until the House submits its comments to Garci's Second Petition. That Garci's First Petition (to void the House's arrest warrant against him) was loudly rejected by the Supreme Court, was what immediately convinced me of its intentions on the Second Petition: Supreme Court Will Now Rule In Garci's Favor. But Senate President Franklin Drilon, Senator Rodolfo Biazon and Sen. Alfredo Lim have already seized the moral and legal high ground on the issue. They must hold that sacred ground of National Security and defend it as if it were the very Redoubt of Liberty, for that is what "national security" actually means. Let the People rally to their cause of Truth and Justice and National Security -- for it is their cause that now demands a full accounting of how the Armed Forces have been illegitimately used, how lives and human freedoms of us all have been imperiled by unjust and deceitful persons; how corruption of a despicable and treasonous nature has once more debased the honor of our Soldiers, and our Souls, on the altar of avarice and ambition.

TO THE PHILIPPINE SENATE: PLEASE SECURE THE LIVES AND PERSONS OF THOSE TWENTY EIGHT WITNESSES that can set us free. Please organize a grand hearing of their tales before Christmas. Please call for a grand TOWN HALL MEETING of all Filipinos, in the Upper House of their burning and dishonored liberties, to hear these FOURTEEN BRIDES and their FOURTEEN SOLDIERS turn into TWENTY EIGHT HEROES by the simple narration of the truth, as MS. MARIETA SANTOS has already done.

ONLY BEAR IN MIND that heroes and heroines are but simple human beings touched by a greater Being, not to sainthood necessarily, but nobility, certainly. Not all will attain that lofty status vouchsafed to so few. But I hope they all do even as all sorts of ugly lies and ugly truths are already being said against their persons and their circumstances and the accidents of their individual histories as human beings, as soldiers and the lovers of soldiers, not as Saints or Generals or Presidents. These men and women are NOT YET heroes, still -- GOD KNOWS THE TRUTH BUT WAITS.

COULD GLORIAGATE END BEFORE CHRISTMAS? Oh Lord God in Heaven, I humbly pray you grant us now in this coming joyous season, one Holy Night of truth-telling, one awesome dawn of peace and freedom and national security.

BULLET UPDATES:

(1100) 20 PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTERS KILLED IN CHINA: Via GatewayPundit this New York Times article --

SHANGHAI, Dec. 9 - Residents of a fishing village near Hong Kong said that as many as 20 people had been killed by paramilitary police in an unusually violent clash that marked an escalation in the widespread social protests that have roiled the Chinese countryside. Villagers said that as many as 50 other residents remain unaccounted for since the shooting. It is the largest known use of force by security forces against ordinary citizens since the killings around Tiananmen Square in 1989. That death toll remains unknown, but is estimated to be in the hundreds.

There are pictures of this event at Gateway Pundit, including maps and more links to Chinese and global sites covering it.

(1500) MEMEORANDUM links to Philippine Commentary about this grave anti-democracy incident in China. Please follow above link for full coverage of this evolving story.

(2200) THE BLOGGING BISHOP OSCAR V. CRUZ reflects some sweeping changes occuring within the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines. He reserves some choice words for you know who --

TRUTH: The CBCP no less than twice called upon the people to continue their search for the truth about the reality or falsity of the presidential election. The search can now be considered finished. The country has long wanted a closure of the issue. That closure can now be said as done. Again: the truth is found. The closure is made. Now, the next move belongs to the holder of the highest office of the land. Would that it be according to the constitution. Otherwise, there could be either an extra-constitutional or anti-constitutional event. And this would be much worst for her--because she would be totally divested of the immunity attached to her official person by force and not according to her decision. Lesser and lesser comes the respect of the citizens for the person of the president. Lower and lower is her approval rating. More and more ineffective leadership she exercises. Meantime poorer and poorer the people have become. And how much more should the people suffer by her tenacity to power.Once again, according to the CBCP, resignation remains an option for the Malacañang occupant. And this appears to be the better option.

For those unfamiliar with the Blogging Bishop, (whom I've had blogrolled from nearly the inception of this blog) he is the anti-jueteng crusader trying to rid the Philippines of the vice of gambling, and much else besides that needs getting rid of...

(0740 Dec. 11) ABSCBN News reports on the gagging of nine ISAFP servicemen--

The refusal by the military to allow members of its intelligence arm to testify at the Senate investigation into the wiretapping controversy threatens to bring the senators and the Armed Forces on a collision course.

The military has made it clear it will bar Tech. Sgt. Vidal Doble and nine other men of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) from appearing in the Senate inquiry.

"The Armed Forces will continue to invoke EO (Executive Order) 464," Col. Tristan Kison, the AFP Public Information chief, said in a telephone interview Saturday. "No military personnel will appear without a permit from the chain of command," Kison said.

UNICAMERALISM IS DEAD, I tell you!