WARNING of a repeat of the historic “Battle of Mactan,” militants were unfazed by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez’s threats that they will be fed to the sharks if they tried to disrupt the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit next month.

“Gonzalez’s statement further incites resistance from activists here and abroad,” said Representative Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis. “People’s movements around the world are steeled in the struggle and cannot be cowed by Gonzalez’s ridiculous remarks.”

Mariano, along with Representatives Joel Virador of Bayan Muna and Liza Maza of Gabriela, said the justice secretary’s statement reminded progressive groups of the resistance mounted by chieftain Lapulapu against the Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan on Mactan’s shores in 1521.

“If the Battle of Mactan less than five centuries ago was directed against foreign domination, its upcoming repeat in December is also against US imperialist plunder and militarism,” Mariano said.

He said he expected President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, “as the US proxy in the ASEAN region, to advance her imperialist master’s agenda during the summit to further strengthen US hegemony in the region.”

Gonzalez said over the weekend that a contingent of 15,000 riot police would throw up an “iron curtain” when ASEAN leaders gather in Cebu City for their 12^th summit on Dec. 10-13. He said protesters trying to disrupt the meeting would be thrown “into the Mactan Straits and let the sharks eat them there.”

Virador said Gonzalez’s statement was “devoid of any legal prudence” and put the country “deeper into shame in the international arena.”

Maza said she hoped that the secretary was just kidding, “but of course, it’s not only a sound bite, I would think that that would be the tenor of their approach to protesters.”

 ‘Small town thug’

Renato Reyes, secretary general of the leftist Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), accused Gonzalez of “acting like a small town thug in threatening protesters and international delegations and observers with repression and deportation.”

Also yesterday, Gonzalez said four airlines had been identified as possible carriers of suspected operatives of Arab terrorist Osama bin Laden. He said the Department of Justice was considering calling on the airlines’ executives to discuss the report.

However, Gonzalez told the Inquirer in a telephone interview that the government was not too keen on coming down hard on these carriers, which he did not identify, fearing the move could hurt tourism.

He also said he did not think the airlines were part of the reported syndicates made up of Bureau of Immigration personnel who had facilitated the entry of Pakistani, Afghan and Indian nationals without travel documents.

“I don’t think that the airlines here are in cahoots (with BI men),” Gonzalez said, adding that the suspected terrorists might just have taken the airlines to enter the country, knowing that there would be people aiding their illegal entry.

 Strict monitoring ordered

“They are bold to come here undocumented because they know that if they arrive here, somebody will take care of them,” he said.

On Friday, Gonzalez directed immigration and airport officials to strictly monitor and conduct surveillance of all arriving Pakistanis, Afghans and Indians amid intelligence reports that Bin Laden’s operatives had entered the country recently.

Ferdinand Sampol, BI head supervisor at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), said the bureau would be on the lookout for foreigners arriving to participate in the Cebu protests.

To do that, immigration officers will conduct a “profiling” of “excludable aliens,” said Sampol. The BI-NAIA will send immigration officers who have had “intensive training in passenger profiling” to augment the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.

He added that the bureau would be on the “highest alert level at the Mactan airport” starting next month, with the expected increase in passenger arrival there.