Wake Up, Kababayan!

PerryScope
By Perry Diaz

Amidst the uproar against appointing the next Chief Justice during the constitutional ban on “midnight appointments,” the Supreme Court by a 9-1 vote authorized President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to make her appointment. The seemingly illegal decision by nine members of the high tribunal to grant Arroyo her wish bespeaks of the violation of the supreme fiduciary entrusted upon the highest magistrates of the land to defend the constitution of the land.

Day of Ignominy

March 17, 2010 marks the transition of the Supreme Court from independent branch of government to an adjunct of the executive branch; from a bastion of enlightened minds to a dungeon of mindless misfits; and from selfless defenders of the constitution to selfish stooges who trample on the law of the land so their master will rule supreme.

What we’re seeing unfold in our country is tyranny that would make the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos look like a Boy Scout. What we’re about to experience within the next three months is the shredding of the covenant of the 1986 “people power” revolution embodied in the 1987 constitution. And what would most likely to happen after that is the imposition of a “new order” — a plutocratic oligarchy — that would transform the government into the exclusive domain of kleptocrats and greedy oligarchs.

“Hello Garci” Scandal

And what is very sad is that the people didn’t do well enough to stop Arroyo when they had a chance during the “Hello Garci” election cheating scandal that erupted in May 2005. However, they almost succeeded in removing her from office on July 8, 2005.

At 5:00 on that fateful Friday afternoon, with Arroyo getting ready to flee Malacañang to follow her husband and son into exile in San Francisco, California, former President Fidel V. Ramos came to her rescue. He made Arroyo an offer she couldn’t refuse: to step down in 10 months after a charter change is achieved that would replace the government with a parliamentary system. Arroyo agreed and her government was given a new breath of life.

But as soon as things settled down, Mike and Mikey Arroyo came back from exile and Arroyo maneuvered to consolidate her power. She knew too well that if Ramos can save her presidency, he can bring it down as well. It didn’t take her too long to strip Ramos of any influence in her government and her party. Ramos probably rue it to this day what he did for Arroyo.

However, Arroyo pursued Ramos’ plan to amend the constitution but with one goal in mind: she’ll be the Prime Minister. She launched a petition drive for a people’s initiative to amend the constitution to adopt a parliamentary form of government. She succeeded in gathering the required number of signatures. All that was needed was the Supreme Court’s approval of the petition.

In November 2006, the Supreme Court, in a 8-7 majority vote, dismissed Arroyo’s petition for a people’s initiative. It was a major defeat for Arroyo. She was back to square one. But her setback didn’t stop her from pursuing her goal; she just had to work harder to achieve it. And achieve it she did. With the subsequent retirement of six Supreme Court justices due to mandatory retirement age, Arroyo appointed new justices who are, without a shadow of doubt, unquestionably loyal to her.

Then Arroyo made the next step that would allow her to stay in the political power game: she filed her candidacy to run for a congressional seat representing a district in her home province which she is expected to win. She made it known that her intent was to work for a Charter change. And then her party leaders announced that they’re fielding her as their candidate for Speaker of the House of Representatives next July. And if her plan would materialize, she would be in a good position to become Prime Minister under the new parliamentary system. Machiavellian, indeed!

And to buttress her position and provide her with firepower should she need it, Arroyo appointed Lt. Gen. Delfin Bangit as the new Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Bangit was Arroyo’s former spy master and commander of her Praetorian guard. Would anyone question where his loyalty is?

The Supreme Court’s “midnight Chief Justice” ruling would put into place the final element necessary to implement — with a semblance of “legitimacy” — Arroyo’s plan to remain in power beyond her soon-to-end presidency.

Failure of Elections

Two days after the “midnight Chief Justice” ruling, Malacañang spokesperson Charito Planas told the media that there would be no failure of elections in the May 10 elections. However, she warned of the possibility of a military takeover should a failure of elections happened. When Planas was asked if Arroyo was prepared to remain in office while waiting for the new president to be proclaimed, she responded, “Let’s look at the Constitution… It’s not the President who will say, ‘I want to remain here.’ It’s the situation and the Constitution that will dictate what will happen.”

It seems to me that Arroyo’s spin meisters are conditioning the people’s minds of “things to come.” Planas’ reference to the “situation,” provides an inkling of what could happen should there be a failure of elections. Needless to say, the next Chief Justice — whom many believe would be Justice Ranato Corona, an Arroyo “loyalist” — would play a pivotal role in seeing to it that Arroyo’s “game plan” would be within the realm allowed by the constitution.

At about the same time that the “midnight Chief Justice” ruling was made, Comelec Chairman Jose Melo announced that the printing of manual ballots has been stopped and that the automated Elections System (AES) will proceed without any manual system backup. Out of 50 million ballots needed, 17 million have already been printed… and put to waste.

Recently, “Halalang Marangal,” a non-partisan group issued a press release which says, “We sat down to discuss the [Smartmatic] ad and realized that all the information contained there, analyzed carefully and taken together, actually meant that as of March 8, the AES probability of success had become unacceptably low. We even tried to be generous in our assessment, and gave the company some benefit of the doubt (where it was possible to do so!), but the numbers still led to a low probability of success.” The group concluded that “the May 10 automated election has 25% probability of success as of March 8.” That’s abysmally dangerous! And there is no manual system to fall back to.

What would happen then?

A few days ago, I received a cryptic email message from one of my readers in Manila which says, “FYI recent construction in progress of new gates on Mendiola and the perimeter of Malacañang is work in progress to protect Malacañang palace? What for if she is stepping down?” Makes one wonder if Arroyo is preparing for a long siege to defend Fortress Malacañang in the event the elections failed?

Wake up, kababayan!

(PerryDiaz@gmail.com)