ANAKBAYAN party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel was obviously after media mileage when she sought the inhibition of Senator Miriam Santiago, chairperson of the committee on economic affairs, from the investigation on the alleged collusion and corruption for World Bank-financed projects. Baraquel cited Santiago?s ?closeness? with the President and the First Gentlemen as the reason for her call.

Thus, when the acerbic-tongued Senator Santiago quipped that Baraquel was ?an anonymous insect, who is menopausal,? trying to get publicity, the latter deserved it.

First of all, a member of the lower chamber of Congress overstepped her bounds by taking to task a senator? and Miriam at that?who will never back out from a fight. Baraquel violated parliamentary courtesy on proposing something beyond her powers to do so.

Secondly, and more importantly, why accuse Santiago of her closeness to the First Couple and say she should inhibit herself from the World Bank investigation? Can Baraquel prove Miriam?s bias in favor of the First Couple?

Santa Banana, I can think of only one reason?Baraquel wants to gain media mileage thinking that having a sister as an ABS-CBN anchor perhaps will get that for her.

Well, she certainly had it coming.

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If we analyze objectively and dispassionately the Visiting Forces Agreement brouhaha, especially its attendant issue of detaining Cpl. Daniel Smith within the US Embassy premises, it?s actually a very simple case of knowing what the agreement entails.

First of all, while the Supreme Court declared the constitutionality of the VFA, it added that the place of detention of Smith should be renegotiated between the Philippine and American governments. This means that Foreign Affairs Secretary Bert Romulo and US Ambassador Kristie Kenney should renegotiate their agreement that said Smith should remain in the US Embassy.

The ruling of the Supreme Court stated that Smith should be detained inside a Philippine facility, but an agreement must be reached for that purpose. This simply means that the Romulo-Kenney accord must be renegotiated, and according to the ponente himself, retired Justice Adolf Azcuna, we cannot compel the US authorities to abide by the high court ruling.

Thus, when the US ambassador says that she must consult American legal experts on this issue, that means that there?s nothing we can do at the moment but wait for the American signal. It?s as simple as that. It?s an agreement we have to abide with, and no amount of paroxysms and breast-beating on the part of some politicians and self-proclaimed nationalists and anti-Americans can do otherwise.

Thus, Santa Banana, it?s not a question of having inferiority complex, nor being sycophants to the Americans, much less paying obeisance to mighty Uncle Sam by Smith?s non-detention in Muntinlupa. Rather, it?s in complying with an agreement.

My gulay, what else can we do? Declare war against the United States? If it were as easy as that, Smith should have been taken posthaste to Muntinlupa.

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All the noises coming from politicians and those seeking publicity claim that we should now abrogate the VFA or at least suspend it until the case of Smith is ruled on by the Court of Appeals. But that case can still be elevated to the Supreme Court on questions of law.

Abrogate or suspend the VFA? Santa Banana, can the issue of Smith?s continued detention at the US Embassy be reason enough for abrogating or suspending an agreement duly ratified by the Senate, in spite of the fact that Washington wants it only as an executive agreement?

Do the advocates of VFA abrogation or suspension know what it means without American presence in Mindanao since the Americans provide intelligence to track down the Abu Sayyaf Group terrorists and their Jemaah Islamiyah allies, who have sneaked into Muslim territory? It simply means leaving Mindanao at the mercy of terrorists.

More importantly, the VFA is a treaty as far as we are concerned, although flawed and lopsided for the benefit of the Americans. But we signed it and agreed in law by it. Yes, we committed some mistakes in agreeing with the VFA, and that should serve as a lesson for us. But while it?s in effect, Santa Banana, there?s nothing we can do but abide by it even at the expense of losing face. Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile made sense of it all who said that we?ll lose by abrogating the VFA.

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The Supreme Court has given the go-signal for Santiago?s foreign affairs committee to go ahead with the Senate inquiry in connection with the ?euro generals? scandal when retiring PNP generals and their wives went on a junket to Russia complete with millions of pesos in their pockets to go shopping. Retired PNP comptroller Eliseo de la Paz was apprehended at the Moscow International Airport with an excess of euros in their possession, an incident that could rightly cause irritants to Philippine-Russian relations, according to the high court.

Thus, the ballgame is now in the foreign relations committee of Miriam. The PNP itself had found violations of rules and regulations committed by De la Paz and others involved in that scandal and have been inducted to the Ombudsman.

The Miriam committee must now proceed with the ?euro generals? scandal investigation and terminate it as soon as possible, recommending the prosecution of the guilty. And since investigations like these are ?in aid of legislation,? perhaps, some laws should be enacted to prevent this scandal from happening again for the sake of our image as a nation before the international community.

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I know so many of our countrymen, who have gone to the US, and in fact have acquired American citizenship or their dual citizenship, wanting to come home in the wake of the recession in the US and the global financial meltdown.

Many of them have already lost their homes because they have been laid off from work. They see no future anymore in the former ?land of milk and honey? they went to years back.

Their problem, however, is that when they left the Philippines they burned their bridges behind them and sold everything. Now, their dilemma is how to explain their coming back after years in the United States, buying house and expensive BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes. In short, many of them are so ashamed to come back to the Philippines after years of forsaking it.

To them, I say, better come home and retrace your roots rather than go through the food line of America for the unemployed and jobless. Life in the Philippines may not exactly be ?milk and honey? but at least, here a man or woman can still find work if he or she isn?t lazy.

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After watching the movie, Australia set before the Asia-Pacific war of the so-called ?lost generation? of half-breed children with Australian aborigines, with a love story between Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman at the Australian outbacks, I was reminded when I was invited to visit the Down Under continent by the Australian government in 1958. That was the time when the much-despised ?White Australian? policy was still in effect with non-Australian, like the Chinese, getting only menial jobs, like laundry and household help.

My gulay, would you believe that when I got down the plane in Sydney, we were sprayed all over with insecticide perhaps thinking that we Asians were carrying contagious diseases? But being an invited Australian government guest had its advantages. I saw much of Australia much more than many Australians from North in Darwin to down South in Tasmania.

That time, I recall never having drunk so much beer in my life since the Aussies then didn?t know how to drink anything else. Now, Australia exports one of the best wines in the world.

The generation of the ?lost generation,? when half-breeds were sent to far-flung missions to get educated, has long gone. And Australia has joined the Asia-Pacific nations and Apec as a developed nation. I have gone to Australia more than three times since then. ?Hi there, mate.?

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The Clark Development Corp. management and board of directors is reviewing all contracts signed by past CDC president Levi Laus, some of which have been perfected. That puts present president Benny Ricaforte and the CDC board at risk since they can be brought to the Ombudsman for violations of contractual obligations.