Don’t push your luck.
This seems to be the message Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is telegraphing to her erstwhile political allies, the Ampatuan clan, in the face of unmitigated public anger over the November 23 massacre in Maguindanao’s Ampatuan town that left 57 civilians dead.
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde and former Surigao Del Norte congressman Prosper Pichay (now head of the Lowal EWster Utilities Administration) came to their boss’s defense after a lawyer of the Ampatuans chided the Palace for “forgetting” how his clients delivered bloc votes to the Arroyo cause in the 2004 and 2007 elections:
Atty: Philip Pantojan:
Malacañang has turned its back on my clients even backed the filing of charges against them in an attempt to save face. The Ampatuans delivered crucial votes for Ms Arroyo that ensured her victory in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in the 2004 presidential election. In their bailiwick of Maguindanao, the Ampatuans produced a zero vote for Ms Arroyo’s then opponent, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr.
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde:
It’s a good thing that they’re being dropped like a hot potato and that a neutron bomb wasn’t dropped on them after what some members of the family have been accused of doing.
Responsibility for a crime as heinous as the Maguindanao massacre cannot be bound by any utang na loob (debt of gratitude).
We still assure them that due process is being conducted. But if their lawyers expect that they can get away with it just because they supported the President in the last elections, then they must be dreaming. But their dream will be the country’s nightmare.
We support a President because we believe in the President’s programs. But it’s wrong to assume that this same President will tolerate any wrongdoing. What kind of a President is that? It’s not only the vote of the Ampatuans in Maguindanao that made the President win. If we speak of any group voting, I claim that it is the Cebuano vote that really made her win. You cannot cheat in a place like Cebu.
LWUA chairman Prospero Pichay:
No one is above the law. The President is letting the wheels of justice turn. Even if [one] is the brother of the President and he violates the law, I’m sure the President will let the wheels of justice turn. How many of our colleagues in the media died [on Nov. 23]? Debt of gratitude is out of the question here.
It’s surely hurting for Pres. Arroyo to be called an ingrate.
But her talking heads are tipping her hand.
In so many words, Secretary Remonde (whom this writer still considers a friend) and Mr. Pichay have essentially conceded that the politically notorious Ampatuans and Mrs. Arroyo would still be BFFs had they not become too hot to handle.
Secretary Cerge’s attempt at a play of words, using a neutron bomb on the Ampatuans, is particularly in very bad taste no matter how guilty the accused are perceived to be.
By saying that “you cannot cheat in Cebu,” Remonde is telling us Maguindanao is cheating capital!
He thus reminds us that in the 2007 election, for example, that the last minute victory-clinching vote tranches for the administration came from Maguindanao.
It shoulkd also not be forgotten the weapons the Ampatuans amassed came from the national arsenal on authority of the defense department.
If the Ampatuans became a ‘monste’ , then who was their Dr. Frankenstein?
Malacanang’s message team needs to pick its words, and messages better.
Update 1:
The good Press Secretary has honored us with areaction via my FaceBook account here:
http://www.facebook.com//note.php?note_id=295099123451&comments=
Cerge M. Remonde
Thank you for the unsolicited advise, Ding. The Ampatuans were already lording it over in Maguindanao during your administration with President Estrada. They did not grow up overnight. In fact, the Ampatuans first beca,e local government officials when Nene Pimentel appointed them as OIC during the Aquino administration.
Ding Gagelonia replies:
Klasmayt, thank you for pointing out where Erap certainly failed and what GM improved on :)
There is no escaping the fact that when Erap was ousted, thanks to GMA’s plotting at Lindemere Hotel ( you weren’t there were you, my friend) the assumed intent was to bring better government and better governance, right?
Well, what do you know, from Hello Garci, to NBN-ZTE, to the Maguindanao massacre GMA HAS INDEED CHALKED UP A LEGACY IN CORRUPTION-TAINTED GOVERNANCE THAT’S A HARD ACT TO FOLLOW
Here’s a screenshot of the convertion as it appears online:
Postscript:
Putting our exchange in context, I address Cerge as ‘klasmayt’ because back in 1991 we were Fellows in the US State Department International Visitor Program. At that time, Mr. Remonde was with Cebu’s DYLA radio station operated by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Ding,
I always appreciate your real-world perspectives. I think many deeds become political footballs, kicked about for political gain. In the US, even the latest airplane bombing attempt gets leveraged by Republicans and Democrats for gain; there is no unified patriotic condemnation as the parties attack one another over what has been done, or not been done, to improve security. Haiti is different; it is so tragic it cannot be made political. The Mindanao massacre is the same; so tragic, it should be played straight. I think that is the way Ms. Arroyo is playing it. I hope so.
Joe
Well no, Joe. Try reading this :
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20100117-247925/Televise-it
deQuiros does make the point that to make the Ampatuan trials political is create a platform muckrake against GMA. DeQuiros seems to be suggesting says that the end justifies the means. deQuiros seems to say that all possibilities and repercussions are not as important as having more anti-GMA-allegations getting broadcast on television.
What happens though if the allegations are just that, allegations? It seems to me that there are no new court-admissible evidence that can be produced, so what is the next action item — relax court rules of evidence so that guaranteed the rich accused get convicted?
I’m sorry I’m at a loss here UPn. What exactly are the important “possibilities and repercussions” of a televised Ampatuan trial?
And what are the “court-admissible evidence” that cannot anymore be produced?
UP n is right. Those fake and not fake COCs and other relevant election documents during the sham Magindanao presidential election even if the Ampatuans have them can’t be considered ‘admissible evidence’ in the murder trials. Just my 2-cents.
Should they televise the Ampatuan trial proceedings? Hmm, why not, makes for prime-time TV hours to be filled with content, not dancing, but I’ll leave it up to the trial judge to decide, and if Pinas Supreme Court needs to get into the discussions, then they can decide. If deQuiros wants to parade in front of the Pinas Supreme Court to sway their thinking, hey, that’s legitimate and cool, too.
Do I want rules of evidence to be relaxed? Nope, not at all.
Can deQuiros or even the Honorable Walden Bello speak to the TV cameras? They can do that now. Can the Ampatuan defense lawyer speak to the TV cameras now? He can do that now, too, he can arrange an ambush interview, get ambushed, and then blurt out what’s in his mine and yes, he can mention Garci and Maguindanao vote-counts, of course he can. Can the Ampatuan defense lawyer while under oath during the Ampatuan court proceedings say something about May2004 elections? He can say if he wants to that the Ampatuan mayor was tuna fishing during the hours of the crime — his job is to get acquittal for the accused. Can deQuiros ghost-write the closing statements of the defense?! If there is a restriction against that, then that restriction should be lifted.
Also what I believe to be minimum requirements — tne transcripts to be made available. There are many Pinoys-in-Pinas already eager to read those.
Can the Ampatuan defense team show YouTube videos? Do the YouTube videos have to be certifiably-true?
Can the Ampatuan defense team replay tapes of cellphone conversations? Do the conversations have to be certifiably-true? Well, do they?
Can the Ampatuan defense lawyer say these and have them published by a Pinas newspaper? Of course, he can:
Raw Maguindanao video
http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?tid=1296780950506#/video/video.php?v=1256276741355&ref=nf
UPn,
Hindi naman kaya ang ibig mong sabihin ng “important possibilities and repercusions” ay baka kumanta si Andal ng My Way?
Hmmm…shiver, shiver, shivering…
Ampatuan Junior or Ampatuan Senior can go before a television camera today, next week, next month and then sing the song that their lawyer already sings — that
If there is street violence, such is life, things happen. It will be traffic jams and jammed telephone lines, not violence, that is more likely to affect me, I’m a distance away from Malacanang. If the riots and street violence somehow pollute the proceedings so that the case against the Ampatuans get tossed out, that won’t be nice, but such is life, things happen. If the Ampatuans were to produce evidence about Maguindanao 2004, hey, then that is good stuff!! It is called forward progress. The country must be willing to pay some price to get to Truth. If the Ampatuans have nothing new to add and still street violence happens, hey, such is life, too. As the Nike advertisement says — Just Do It!! Yup, Ampatuan Junior or Ampatuan Senior can have television time so they can sing the song about
Hmmm…too late the villain.
There’s less than 6 months in Arroyo’s stolen term, she will answer once the fake strap of immunity is gone.
Prospero Pichay’s from Suriagao Del Sur.