Damaged Control

by Antonio C. Abaya
from Standard Today
21 July 2009

Malacañang went on damage control mode after the clumsy handling by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita of the inputs of a reader to my blog, that she heard from some relatives of Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno that Puno “had a devious plan to be president of our disoriented countrymen and become someone like (North Korean “Beloved Leader”) Kim Jong il…” (Puno’s ‘Devious Plan’? July 06, 2009)

After Puno left for the US on June 27, DILG assistant secretary Brian Yamsuan said Sec. Puno had gone to the US to attend the wedding of her daughter Tami in San Francisco on July 04. Sec. Ermita said Puno had gone on medical leave. Yamsun said Sec. Puno had no medical problem and would be back in Manila on July 13.

Sec Ermita said Sec. Puno’s leave was “open-ended” and would last “for weeks.” In anticipation if this “open-ended leave” that would last “for weeks,” Ermita appointed an officer-in-charge (OIC), none other than one of President Gloria’s favorites, Public Works Secretary (and former general) Hermogenes Ebdane.

Well, Puno came back, as per his schedule, on July 13 and forthwith resumed his duties at the DILG, making Ermita’s OIC superfluous.

The score in this soft-shoe confrontation is: Puno 3, Ermita 0.

But it was not a minor flap. Ermita was obviously protecting the Queen from the “devious plan” of one of her own Knights to unseat her, soon. But Ermita’s ham-fisted defense has made the Queen even more fatally vulnerable.

A second reader, who claimed to have known Puno for years, had emailed me on May 28, that he would not be surprised if Puno, who has helped make three other persons (Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada, Gloria Arroyo) president, in 1992, 1998 and 2004 respectively, would now concentrate on making himself (Puno) president. Even if it means betraying Gloria Arroyo, he emphasized.

And why not? According to a third reader, Puno, at 19 years, promised his bride of 18 that he would make her First Lady one day. And that day may be approaching soon.

Puno, who has declared for the vice-presidency in 2010, with Gilbert Teodoro (Gloria’s choice) as his presidential partner, knows his life-long ambition to become president is being blocked by Gloria’s maneuvers to remain in power as Prime Minister for Life.

(She intends to run for congresswoman for the 2nd district of Pampanga in the May 2010 elections while she is the sitting president. The Vladimir Putin scenario, as I predicted as early as September 2007). ChaCha through a constituent assembly in June 2010 would make her Prime Minister for Life)

By the time the Arroyos (Gloria and one of her sons) and the Teodoros (husband and wife) decide to step down from power, if ever, Puno, who is now 61, would be 80 to 90 years old. And his wife would be a 79 to 89 year-old First Lady.

Puno is not likely to take that sitting down (in a geriatric wheelchair).

While Malacañang goes on damage control mode and tries to figure out what to do, Puno held a press conference on July 16, showing off a VIP (Very Important Pooch) that he said he picked up near Washington DC. This was an oblique and subtle way of saying that he met with Very Important Persons in DC, perhaps as part of his “devious plan.”

Puno’s relaxed demeanor during the July 16 press con was that of somebody who knows that he has won or is about to win..

It is in this light that I interpret the sudden 12-hour visit of newly appointed CIA director Leon Panetta in Manila, and the sudden announcement that President Obama will meet with President Arroyo in Washington, not “before the end of the year,” as US Ambassador Kenney had announced only two weeks ago, but next week, on July 30.

Whether it will be a state visit or a working visit is immaterial. President Arroyo is being summoned by the Great Black Father, and she is being summoned to read to her the Riot Act. .

She may be told, or I am hoping that she will be told, to forget about running for the congressional seat of the 2nd district of Pampanga, to forget about amending the Constitution so that she can remain in power as Prime Minister for Life, to forget about declaring emergency rule or martial law, and to forget about putting into play Oplan August Moon. (Two Women: Gloria, July 13, 2009)

Oplan August Moon is said to be the game plan, scheduled for August 06, of generals from PMA Class ’78 allegedly loyal to her, for a self-coup or auto golpe, by which she declares emergency rule (using the bombing incidents in Mindanao as rationale), cancels the 2010 elections, and remains in power as ‘transition revolutionary president’ preparatory to becoming Prime Minister for Life.

(This was more or less the scenario floated twice in recent months by National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales).

Which would explain the sudden arrival of Panetta, and the sudden summons to the White House, only days before August 06.. Was this the handiwork of Puno as part of his ‘devious plan’?

(The recent bombing of two five-star hotels in Jakarta is much more serious than the Mindanao incidents. Yet President Susilo Bambang Yodhyono, who recently won a landslide electoral victory for a second presidential term, has not been summoned to the White House and is not on the verge of declaring emergency rule or martial law.)

What this boils down to is this. The legendary ability of Gloria Arroyo to control people and events may have been severely damaged, perhaps beyond repair. Hence, damaged control.

Simultaneous with the decline of Gloria Arroyo will be the rise of Ronaldo Puno. I would not be surprised if Puno were soon to declare himself available for the presidency and take with him a breakaway faction of Lakas-Kampi-CMD, the Palaka Alliance. He would most likely be supported by two of his former clients: Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada.

As devout and practicing opportunists, the bulk of the Palaka Alliance trapos, seeing that the vastly unpopular Gloria Arroyo would now be a lame duck, even a dead duck, would come running to Puno’s side. That is the disgusting nature of Philippine politics. *****

Reactions to tonyabaya@gmail.com. Other articles in acabaya.blogspot.com and www.tapatt.org.


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Tony on YouTube: I was interviewed by Harry Tambuatco on July 9, on Ronnie Puno, and the trapo and non-trapo presidential contenders. The interview can be watched at the following URLs:

part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZrkqgZ8wTA
part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtzSUC3FRw0
part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-oNs5cVEDI
part 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDJWJtzEggM

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