Mutualism

EDITORIAL
from Tribune

When it comes to media exposure, First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo definitely hits the headlines more than President Arroyo, his wife, and not for good reasons.

Mrs. Arroyo’s public acceptability is considered to be the worst ever for a president of the country and her poor image is partly the result of her own doing, such as the now infamous conversations she had with a poll commissioner where she told him to make sure her votes would be padded by over a million, for her to win the presidential elections in 2004 through electoral fraud.

But part of her negative image also can be attributed to an almost daily dose of scandals, courtesy of Big Mike.

That Mike is a big liability to Gloria, who is just as much a liability to the Filipino nation, has long been accepted.

A recent report of Pacific Strategies and Assessments (PSA), however, said political backers have suggested that Gloria cut her marital ties with the First Gentleman. This is nothing new since a similar suggestion to Gloria was made by some of her Cabinet members in 2005, after the “Hello Garci” scandal exploded, when they asked her to have her husband go into exile. She did, and he left for the United States, but was back soon enough.

That suggestion for her to cut her marital ties to Big Mike is something that is not expected to happen.

The reason is fairly simple: Gloria needs Big Mike and his soiled image to divert her own scams and scandals and create a “better” image of herself.
This was much the same style then President Ferdinand Marcos adopted. It was his wife Imelda who took the brunt of the Marcos regime’s negative image of greed and power. She was the lavish one, he, the thrifty. People blamed her, not him, for the regime’s excesses, although in the case of the incumbent presidential couple, both are perceived to indulge in excesses and feed their obsession for money and power.

The report also stated that it was a miracle the First Couple maintained a united front through the years.

The institution that conducted the analysis on Big Mike seems way off target when it comes to the First Couple’s mutual dependency.

The resiliency of the duo, so it is surmised, had more to do with political necessity rather than any social or intimate reasons. From the start, Gloria had to contend with political survival after obtaining the presidency outside of the constitutional norm, through a coup d’ etat dressed up as a popular revolt in 2001.

Most Filipinos cannot fathom the fact that a sitting President elected overwhelmingly to the position can be simply booted out by a clique and install Gloria in Joseph Estrada’s stead.

Except for a flash of public acceptance shortly after grabbing the reins of power from Estrada, Gloria was forever grappling with an illegitimate mandate of which she was able to maintain a semblance of “constitutionality” by buying political support at a huge expense.

Years of mismanagement and her exercise of manipulative power made her more disliked by the public.

Maintaining patronage among the most vicious predators in Philippine politics comes with an expensive tag for which Gloria had to constantly pay out.

Imagine a situation where Gloria needed to live in a Palace packed with wolves and vultures and her only way to survive is to constantly feed these creatures with fresh meat.

Big Mike serves his purpose by providing Gloria the endless supply of fresh carcass to allow her tenuous political existence, which he in turn needed to maintain his body of influence.

Disposing one would necessarily lead to the demise of the other.
The suggestion for Gloria to disassociate with FG simply won’t fly since her continued hold on power may depend largely on his next caper.
In terms of political survival, Gloria and Big Mike co-exist and their affliction on the country depends on how strong such a mutation of conjugal relationship lasts.

The only solution, thus, for the nation is not to rid one but both of the parasitic creatures.