CORNERED?: The military has announced that four battalions with air support have cornered rebel Commander Ameril Umbra Kato and his MILF fighters in the outskirts of Datu Piang in Maguindanao.

Kato is one of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front commanders being hunted for going on a rampage in Cotabato days ago to dramatize the MILF’s displeasure over the suspension of the Memorandum of Agreement on the Moro ancestral domain.

An excited officer had told the media that Kato has run out of tactical options. Either he stands his ground and fights his pursuers or retreats to the Liguasan marsh into the hands of another MILF commander itching to settle a score with him.

Maybe I have seen too many reruns of this old moro-moro, but I can almost see the next major news report — that Kato and his men had slipped through the tight military cordon.

* * *

PUNO PAUSE: Ah, but suddenly there is now a third option for Kato, courtesy of Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno.

After meeting Cotabato officials and religious and civic leaders yesterday, Puno said that government forces would suspend operations by Sept. 1, the start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.

Who would benefit more from the “Puno Pause” – the hunters or the hunted?

On the government side, the Ramadan will be a convenient excuse for giving rest and relief to the tired troops. It will also allow logistics managers a chance to audit the drain on the military’s limited resources. And the government will save face for not catching Kato.

But what if Kato escapes during the lull? Never mind, nobody believes anyway that he would be caught and made to pay for his crimes.

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P8-B QUESTION: Talking of scant resources — especially in light of the crash of one of the two C-130 Hercules planes of the air force — one question being asked again is what happened to the P8 billion from the sale of Fort Bonifacio for the “modernization” of the armed forces.

Way back in June 2001, former President Fidel V. Ramos — needled by my nagging — invited me to his office to answer the P8-billion question.

The question should be directed to his successor Erap Estrada, he said, to whom Ramos said he left some P5.484 billion of the P8-billion.

The 240-hectare Fort Bonifacio was sold during Ramos’ term for P34,000 per square meter. Under RA 7898, the money should go to a trust fund for the armed forces.

* * *

RAMOS COMPUTATION: I remember that Ramos showed me some blurred (unreadable in parts) copies of treasury documents. Annotating them, he told me that:

• The P7.817 billion from the sale (rounded to P8 billion in the media) had shrunk to P5.484 billion, because (1) some expenses had to be deducted and (2) the buyer had refused to pay for one section taken over by squatters.

• Although the P5.484 billion was collected by his administration, he did not put it in a trust account because he decided to leave its management to the incoming Estrada administration.

But Estrada failed to use the money for the armed forces because his term was suddenly cut after 2-1/2 years. Also, then Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno reportedly gave “modernization” low priority.

* * *

SPECIAl ACCOUNT: With both Ramos and Estrada out of Malacanang, President Gloria Arroyo may be able to fill in the blanks by ordering her budget secretary to publish an audit report.

A possible starting point is Special Account No. A5514-170, where P5,484,705,000 of the proceeds has been allegedly placed. The account number appeared in the blurred copy of the Bureau of Treasury Journal Voucher that Ramos showed me.

Is the money still in that Special Account? If it is not, where is it?

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LESS EXPENSES: From 1995 to 1997, the Ramos administration actually collected not just P5.484 billion but a total of P30,359,605,589 for the sale of Fort Bonifacio.

In the handwritten computation given me by Ramos, he deducted from the P30-billion collection some expenses amounting to P14.698 billion (almost half of the total), leaving a balance of P15.67 billion.

The P14.698-billion expenses mentioned by Ramos included money given to contiguous cities, such as Taguig and Makati, as their share.

Of the P15.67 billion left after these expenses were deducted, only 35 percent of the balance (or P5.484 billion) went to Special Account No. A5514-170 for the modernization of the armed forces.

* * *

SQUATTERS: In most communications between Malacañang and the armed forces, the working figure for the trust fund from the Fort Bonifacio sale has been P7.817 billion, not the P5.484 billion cited by Ramos.

One explanation given for the 30-percent discrepancy is that the Fort Bonifacio Development Corp. (the original buyers’ group organized by Metro Pacific) held back P2.333 billion because the government failed to remove squatters from the remaining 64 hectares.

Asked about this price reduction granted AFTER the bidding, Ramos said the 64 hectares should have been delivered clean to the buyer to enable the government to collect the P2.333-billion balance.

He said that he had relocated the squatters and left the area free and  ready for delivery when the Estrada administration took over. He deplored that squatters were allowed to return.

To be able to collect the P2.333 billion, the government should have spent part of that receivable to relocate the squatters. Why was P2.333 billion thrown away?