The rather overzealous move of Malacanang, Inc. to push for charter change in a scheme fraudulent of the Senate’s corporate if proprietary existence should be read as a desperate act of a presidency under siege largely on account of recurring reports of corruption traced at the doorstep of the seat of power.
Senator Mar Roxas, as if to confirm suspicion, knew that RP is no longer getting the financial package it gets from US except by another round of negotiation in what would be the same dog with a different collar. If that little attempt will find fruition, then maybe RP can again, get a shot in the arm from Uncle Sam but Roxas shares strong misgiving that US will grant this country another loan package. Reason is a government tainted with corruption. Call to mind how Mar uttered the words – ‘P…. ina. Ano ba to?’ – in a crowd?
The way things are, the ruling cliché in Congress can have their cake and eat it too. After all, the rule of majority in this country has long been distorted to actually mean, mere numbers game and its tyranny. And Congress keeps on growing as more bills – to divide a province into two, to divide a town or city into two, to divide a barangay into two – come as vicious practice. It is still gerrymandering by any other name – to spread the loot – doesn’t it?
PGMA felt rather reassured though when the Chief of Staff of the AFP emphatically pointed out on the occasion of the AFP’s 73rd Anniversary that ‘politics in the AFP is dead’. But is it really dead? Would it
be correct to say that EDSA 2 were a mistake? Where signs indicate, the reason Senator Trillanes will never be allowed to function as a regular member of the Senate is born out of that fear that the AFP is, after all, reasonably politicized.
The menu in the charter change proposal is one that claims not to include term extension as officially advocated by GMA’s political operatives in Congress. But there are tricks in the book later on. There is no barrier big enough not to be confronted in favor of what Congress wills it to be since – voting is a vicious malpractice – whenever an issue has to be settled even without debate. That is what may be called as ‘summary execution’ – they kill anti-GMA bills in Congress, don’t they?
Suppose that indeed charter change will push through even before 2010? What will happen to us all? Central to the original charter change proposal is for foreigners to own the lands under some concessionaire
agreement. In other words, they can’t take away the lands they own out of the country – only that they will control production and all that Marxist stuff to the possible peril of the Filipinos given the chronic rapacity of a capitalist system. The more conservative segments of body polity equate that as tacit commercialization of our sovereignty, or is it?
Elections 2010 is far more exciting than charter change, it’s fiesta. It seems that it is only GMA who is interested in charter change knowing pretty well that it is the only vehicle she can hold on to power if she
cannot be possibly elected sans the props of ‘Hello Garci’. But all other politicians would rather opt that an election be held in 2010 since that would not be violative of the Constitution. So necessarily, no-el scenario is not to come about.
The GMA administration is probably the luckiest presidency we ever had. At least three coups failed to dismantle it. And just as how many impeachment moves have already been registered in the failure chart? Even People Power attempts fail to invade Malacanang when it is virtually made as a container yard whenever rallyists gather around its radius. The AFP and PNP are too in tact to disintegrate as other sub-centers of power are like the House of Representatives, the Supreme Court, et cetera.
There is no way to boot out GMA, just no way at the moment. Serious observers of trends knew too well that in spite of net satisfaction and trust ratings of GMA gliding down to historic negative ebbs (if there be a
word), she still will finish term and the post-GMA scenario may be such that she will not follow the fate of Marcos or of Erap when she leaves Malacanang.
Contributing Writer: PRIMER C. PAGUNURAN
UP Diliman, Quezon City
(Email: nielsky_2003@yahoo.com)
Popularity: 1% [?]
You do not know your history?
During Cory’s administration, there were more and there were casualties.
Read and be informed.
The first five of the attempts were either crushed before they were put in operation, or repelled with minimal or no violence. The sixth attempt, staged on August 28, 1987, left 53 people dead and over 200 wounded, including Aquino’s son, Noynoy.[25] The seventh and final attempt, which occurred throughout the first week of January, 1989, ended with 99 dead (including 50 civilians) and 570 wounded.
source
I believe that fortituous events are still unfolding. History has shown us of ordinary men seizing the moment to become great leaders.
Like any leader, President Arroyo is also contemplating on her legacy, good and bad, of her ascendancy. She may run out of time to redeem herself, but until May 2010, the choice is still hers.
To quote from victor Hugo’s Les Miserables:
“What you fellows call progress moves by two springs, men and events. But sad to say, from time to time the exceptional is necessary…”
Don’t credit luck to much. I understand why President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo PhD is quite “lucky” as you say. She has read her Machiavelli as like any good academic should! (I myself read Machiavelli but I am no good at that business)
I think she would make Ateneo de Manila proud when she goes back to teaching after 2010. I don’t think she will teach at UP Diliman.
ca 1:
You were the first to react, uncharacteristically too quick, I guess.
Well, exactly, what you just said validates how indeed possibly the luckiest presidency GMA’s is unlike that of Cory – with more coups than her with casualties at that.
The operative word used in my article isn’t really quantitative but qualitative. Your comment doesn’t sound like it refutes mine. And that is just ‘historical’. Maybe indeed you know your history but analysis is another.
blackshama:
I have no quarrel with your cue that GMA, if she gets back to the academe, will make Ateneo proud. That is racist alright. But indeed, how can you expect her to even land her foot on UP without expect more shoes to land on her face. It’s UP – the activists den!
Marcos let the military genie out of the bottle…
Putting it back in the bottle will take time…
They are now part and parcel of the political aristocracy.
General Yano made it succinctly clear that they are part of the political equation by declaring that the military has won the war over politics.
Was it or was it not a signal for GMA to make sure the succession issue is decided by the
coming hopefully credible election?
Till when is Gen. Yano the Chief of Staff?
when was president arroyo ever NOT “under siege’? what else is new? if i can blame the oust-gloria club, it’s not for lack of trying.
Karlpopper
It wasn’t meant to be racist. The Jesuits know their Machiavelli better than anyone else (As we can read in their attempts to bring back Father Gregorio Aglipay back to the Catholic fold). How else could they get their historical reputation?
We need revolutionaries in the best tradition of Lasswell.
Our politicians are like rubber bands, raging angry like a bull at one turn, smiling like clown at another.
When approached with an envelope, they forget about their standpoint and this is where Skinnerian GMA does best.
Who isn’t for sale in this country? The two senators – Chiz and Allan – I don’t know!?
If only people know people, they know we all operate in a vacuum. There is nothing in there.