LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza
Cabinet meditations; marijuana promotions

Press secretary Jesus G. Dureza claimed he was praying to God when he asked forbearance in his prayer in Malacanang that President Gloria Arroyo survive 2010 and even rule beyond it.

PGMA requested the Malacanang press to forget about Dureza's prayer, but then these are the kind of stories that are newsworthy and highly readable as far as a critical Filipino reading public is concerned.

But there is no blame to put on Dureza because prayers are personal. And it is good to discover by way of a slip in prayer that there are still cabinet members who speak the truth.

With that, no one from among those who heard Dureza’s prayer would ever say that he was lying in his prayer because everybody speaks the truth in praying – whether you are talking to Jesus, to Allah, to Kabunian, to the Sun God, to a river, a mountain or to a Pine tree.

Some say that Sec. Dureza had a slip of the tongue. But I say “no” because he was in meditation to the Almighty and was concentrating in prayer at that moment, believing so much in PGMA as being the solution to all the problems of the Filipinos.

Apparently, her body language revealed that she “found objectionable” part of Dureza’s prayer, but she did not say she hated it. Instead, she seemed to respect his prayer, maybe knowing all along that although it is delivered loudly so that all the saints along the Pasig River will hear it, a prayer is something very personal to the one who says it.

In fact it is good that he spoke the truth in prayer. But whether he wished for PGMA to stay beyond 2010 or that it was already part of the plan that she will have to stay beyond 2010 no longer matters. From any angle, it is the same banana because both Gloria and Dureza are part of the gang who plan things for this country anyway.

And so, for Malacanang to gain back its credibility, it is time that GMA appoints more men in her cabinet – the likes of Dureza who pray the truth.
***
Every time I come across news reports about the infamous marijuana (cannabis sativa), my mind drifts back more than three decades back when it was more popular among teen-agers.

There was no shabu to speak of so that marijuana was the “in” thing. Way back when law enforcement was still lenient (or loose?), younger boys and girls smoked away the joint with young professionals, lawyers and even policemen.

There were also a few funny marijuana stories that I heard from friends. One story was about a popular guy here who stuck his fingers in his asshole to escape the sensitive noses of Philippine Constabulary (PC) soldiers who were there to arrest them for smoking marijuana in public.

The PC men came sniffing for evidences and arrested a group of hippies in a rock concert at the
former Baguio Military Institute at Irisan except for the wise guy. He successfully dodged an arrest but he drew the ire of the PC soldiers who sniffed on his aromatic fingers.

Another story was told of a man who denied in court that he was a marijuana pusher. Of course, he was not what he was charged for because what he had been selling to his foreign customers were dried sayote leaves, not marijuana. One has to hire the worst lawyer in town so the guy can be charged for “pushing sayote.”

The hemp that grew in Benguet was said to be of a quality comparable to, if not better, than the Maui kind in Hawaii or the Colombia Green in Latin America .
Marijuana or “MJ” users in the 60s and 70s called it by so many names such as grass, pot, damo, omads, modams, buds, Aunt Mary, dope, Ganja, hash, herb, Mary Jane, sinsemilla, weeds, juts, pedped and many other names.

Smokers then also described it as “five fingers,” maybe because the artistic and natural design of the marijuana leaf had nine blades but five were bigger than the other four located near the petiole. Marijuana was the original “green gold” long before the same name was used for green highland vegetable harvest.

It was also called “susup” in Baguio or “balitok” because some of the stuff had the golden brown color. I wonder if US Judge Clarence Thomas, former US President Bill Clinton, The Beatles and several top British ministers had ever tried the “buntut pusa” in their pot sessions.

These facts about the golden bud’s past have to be related in order to portray a picture for present-day drug enforcement agents that the marijuana problem in the Cordillera is as old as, or even older than their police bosses who got the promotions every time plantations were raided.

If the total volume of marijuana that were raided and harvested from the plantations were laid out over the region, it would practically cover the whole Cordillera like a blanket.

The drug problem is believable but unbelievable at the same time. It is a problem that must be “nipped in the bud.” Raiding teams have been promoted, some already retired. New drug enforcement cops occupy vacant positions and also get the chance to be promoted – the cycle does not end.

As a newsman, I have seen that the storylines that included the names of the towns involved in the problem were the same ever since the police started raiding, and only the volume, area, street value of the drug, identities of the raiding teams and ranks of their members are the facts that change.

For decades, the police and military have raided MJ plantations in the region. With an activity that has been going on yearly in the presence of media and as recorded in newspapers and in their operations reports, there is no more doubt that the drug enforcement operatives are familiar with the town, location of plantation area and other facts.

The raiding teams know when the marijuana plants are still seedlings, and they know
when a plantation is ready for harvest. They have these facts which make it possible for them to plan ahead of time and schedule an operation when the MJ boys are busy harvesting.

But surprisingly, no cultivator or farmer is arrested. Not even the lot owner or tax payer of the property is investigated. But I wonder if the authorities go as far as finding out from the municipal assessors and treasurers the owners of lands where MJ plantations are found.

With all the men and logistics at their control, an honest to goodness surveillance of the plantation area can be conducted in order to have a more successful operation. It would also be logical and practical to post at least one DEA man in suspected MJ plantation barangays and have him submit pictures of the area, including farmers.

But as far as the marijuana eradication campaign is concerned, that time will not come as long as the authorities with their big budget from taxpayers do not have a more comprehensive and practical approach.

The marijuana problem can not be nipped in the bud for as long as the men in the field are more concerned with their rank and promotions. There will always be plantations, raids, ceremonial burning of marijuana for photo ops and pogi points – but no arrests of cultivators. Do we see any form of connivance of law enforcers with cultivators or drug syndicates?

By the way, the easiest way to have an arrest is to collar any bystander in the street and call him a drug pusher, just like the way they nabbed cultural activist James Balao. I have seen that done to three young boys during Martial Law. Those arrested were locked at the Baguio City Jail just because the cop reported them as drug pushers. The police officer got his promotion. ozram.666@gmail.com