Foolhardy
ventures remembered

Well, I am supposed to focus my attention on the State of the Nation Address by President Benigno Aquino III. But that remains to be suspended pending the full assessment of what is and what the contents are insofar as the public welfare is concerned.

Off hand, one can predict that those who are against the President will dish out critical comments about it and even denounce it as unrealistic and untrue. Similarly, the supporters of the Chief Executive will sing paeans about the SONA and how it truthfully reflects the true state of the national affairs.

In short, we will be presented the same picture as we had seen in the past years I have been covering SONA of various Presidents and have heard almost similar reactions to it.

I don’t expect any departure from the usual reaction to it.

But yesterday, while contemplating what is going to happen, I found myself reminiscing about what I would consider were foolhardy adventures of my younger days as a journalist.

When we are still young, we tend to engage in what we end up on our older days considering as foolhardy adventures. Usually, it’s not much that one really seeks it, but one can suddenly get entangled in something which later turn to be foolhardy.

I was once a close adviser of the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos. That was when he was also concurrently holding the portfolio of defense secretary.

One day, I got called by Undersecretary Manuel Syjuco to Malacañang. The President wanted to talk to me.

I was surprised to see only a handful of close presidential advisers inside the Presidential study. Very strange, I mused to myself.

There was conspicuously the late Speaker Pro Tempore Salipada Pendatun, then governor of Cotabato. And with him were Presidents Salih Ututalum of Sulu and Rasid Luca of Lanao del Sur.

Immediately I realized that the meeting was supposed to address the tensions generated by the shooting of the son of former Cotabato Governor Udtong Matalam in the town of Nuling.

The gunman was an NBI man. He had shot Matalam right in the forehead and killed himself instantly he had surrendered.

But it was with troubled air when I heard the President summarized what was the impact as Matalam, the father, was the head of the Moro Independence Movement.

So what was supposed to have been done?

The President then turned to me – “I am sending you down to Cotabato to talk to Matalam and convince him to decelerate the tensions in the provinces. The stakes are high, as I had learned, a widescale rido against the Christians of the province. So is a different decision I have given to you” was the message from Marcos.

“Mr. President,” I riposted, “if there is anyone who can talk directly to Gov. Matalam, it is Speaker Pro Tempore Pendatun, his brother-in-law.”

I forgot the tension between the two – Matalam and Pendatun.

“Mr. President, I have not been on speaking terms with my in-law for the last six months. That is the reason why I had suggested that you send Rollie down to talk to him,” was Pendatun’s reply.

That put me in a quandary. But Reps. Utalaum and Lucman joined Pendatun in telling the President that I was one of the Christians whom Matalam was going to listen to.

I foolishly consented to handle the delicate mission. But I asked the President one favor – for him to give me 12 trusted men to serve as my security. Promptly, the President gave the orders. He knew who they are.

Amazing, I told myself. How did he know whom I was going to pick up as my trusted allies in the AFP.

I flew down with Pendatun aboard a Filipinas Airway plane to Cotabato. We immediately proceeded to Pendatun’s place where I stayed. Pendatun immediately sent emissaries to Udtog to arrange for a meeting. But for more than two weeks, every time, one was scheduled, this were suddenly cancelled. That included the change of place for the meeting.

I enlisted then journalist Pabling Mangulaban as my aide. He was a personal friend of Udtog and knew his idiosyncrasies and tastes.

For more than a week, we were on tenterhooks. One cancelled meeting after another. Eventually, the setting was made – Datu Paing, but the moment we reached the site where the supposed dialog was supposed to take place, we met only an emissary offered to escort us – including Pendatun – to the place Udtog had suddenly decided to reschedule the meeting.

It was a rough ride. We passed through two high hills. Udtog was the perfect ambush position.

Eventually, we reached a glen with several huts around. In the middle was a circular hut. Around it, I saw guns trained on us. And, of course, I noticed and Hasim Salamat, at the time lieutenant of Udtog.

I was shivering, but I thought, there was nothing anymore I could do but to go ahead. I offered the peace offering, the fish of Rio Grande – pigue which Pabling knew was the favorite dish of Udtog.

When the old man embraced me, I knew that I had only to get the letter from the President. I read it to him and on my own I assured Udtog that the President had already ordered the NBI agent charged in court.

Then, I espied Pendatun make his way to us from a far corner of the hut. Then I realized that there was also the reconciliation between the in-laws.

After that fateful meeting, I returned to Manila blaming myself for having been so foolhardy to have accepted the mission assigned to me. But Udtog agreed. There was going to be no war of secession. And he agreed to meet with the president later in Zamboanga.

I only earned from Marcos a big thank you. Nothing else. Since I was a newsman entrusted with a delicate mission, it would have been improper for him to acknowledge my role in the peace-meeting.

I gained nothing by that experience but just a pat on the back.*

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