GMA and CJ Corona’s monumental blunders

AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR 

By William M. Esposo
The Philippine Star

At about the time last December 9 when the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) camp was making a big fuss about being transported by chopper to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC), former president (and prisoner) Joseph “Erap” Estrada” scored several points against GMA during a GMA NewsTV interview.

Erap commented that GMA was afraid to ride the PNP (Philippine National Police) choppers because she knows that they sold the police substandard and second hand helicopters. Comparing how he and his son Jinggoy were treated when they were arrested by the GMA administration in 2000, Erap noted how much better GMA is being treated by the President Noynoy Aquino (P-Noy) administration — said in the context of courtesy, better accommodations and leniency.

After listening last December 9 to how GMA Spokesperson Elena B. Horn and clown cum lawyer Ferdie Topacio were trying to squeeze an issue out a non-issue, Erap turned up to be a breath of fresh air. Whether GMA was transported by land or air to the VMMC is solely the decision of the Court that ordered her arrest. Horn and Topacio were clearly huckstering like shysters in trying to make it appear that they have an option on how GMA is to be transported. Maybe they got spoiled by the Rene Corona Supreme Court (SC) that had bended over backwards for GMA in many controversial decisions.

Some folks think that the GMA camp has been resorting to making mountains out of molehills and non-issues to try to reverse public opinion against her. If that’s the objective of the GMA camp, then they have idiots strategizing for them. The truth is — GMA has only succeeded in intensifying the people’s ire against her with these antics of Horn and Topacio. To many, they’re acting like spoiled brats expecting royal treatment in jail.

When Horn told media about OPLAN (Operation Plan) “Put the little girl to sleep” — widely seen as a concocted tale designed to get public sympathy — people didn’t hold their breath in fear or apprehension. They reacted with laughter and the Internet as well as social networks went hyperactive with funny jokes about the so-called assassination plot, essentially underscoring that nobody bought the tall tale.

The admirable manner by which indicted former Comelec Chairman Ben Abalos surrendered himself to the court and accepted the quarters where they detained him shames Horn and Topacio for all their bellyaching. By demonstrating grace under fire, Abalos looked more presidential than the widely regarded fake president.

On deeper introspection, these antics of the GMA camp could be more of an attempt to satisfy GMA’s craving for affection and attention. More than a reversal of negative public opinion — hard to imagine how such a hate figure could realistically hope to change her public image overnight — it could be attention and affection that GMA needs. Presidential power gave her all these, courtesy of the usual sycophants, and now she is suffering the loss of power and all the attention and affection she had enjoyed for nine years.

A good example of the public pulse against GMA — and Chief Justice Rene Corona — is this Facebook posting of Macie F. Imperial, a media executive in charge of foreign film acquisitions.

Macie wrote: “As a mother, I want to be able to inspire my children to continue to have hope and faith in the leaders of their beautiful country. But how can I when we had men of justice like Raul Gonzalez, Merceditas Gutierrez, the Marcoses and Fabian Ver, and oh so many more vile men and women who have turned this mother into a faithless cynic. So now we have Renato Corona, who is fast becoming the most hated person in the Philippines, perhaps second only to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. But I tell my children to continue to have faith, even as I continue to lose mine, that perhaps there are still a few good men left and that there might still be hope after all for our country. That perhaps Renato Corona does have a conscience after all and will eventually do the right and moral thing. Mabuhay ka P-Noy for giving me a bit of hope.”

A STAR blogger using the name ROG wrote this last December 8: “With P-Noy standing up against the Supreme Court and the crooked ways that embodies our judiciary, I become more hopeful of the country’s future. It is common knowledge that the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, is one of the pillars of corruption in this country and it is time that they know that majority of the Filipino people disliked them. This feeling of disdain was mouthed by P-Noy and it is as if the voice of the Filipino people are brought to the justices’ sh_meless faces! What a President. I never really thought P-Noy could do it. Now I’m starting to feel proud to be a Filipino again.”

Also last December 8, another STAR blogger using the name RESPAJ wrote this: “People now have a glimpse of hope in our present President. He has the moral ascendancy to question the appointees of Gloria, top of them all was (Chief Justice) Corona. No president was able to confront the SC face to face. This is only done by a person with inward courage and conviction which GMA doesn’t have at all.”

Corona should realize that his underlings in the Judiciary would always demonstrate support for any Chief Justice under siege. He made a major blunder by delivering that December 14 speech where he warned about a looming P-Noy dictatorship. Corona also made the monumental mistake of leaving his lofty perch as SC Chief Justice and became another rabble-rousing politician seeking to reverse the public mood.

Corona’s sales pitch was wrongly premised by raising the alarm about a looming P-Noy dictatorship. Filipinos see the Aquinos as champions (Cory) and martyrs (Ninoy) of democracy while GMA, the perceived fake president Corona is accused of protecting, is the one whom Filipinos perceive as having created a virtual dictatorship.

You’ll find many other similar sentiments expressed on media and social networks. Note the polarization that’s reflected in these expressions of the public mind and heart. It approximates the GOOD versus EVIL polarization of the 1986 Cory versus Marcos fight. This level of public passion could lead to extreme political developments.

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Chair Wrecker e-mail and website: macesposo@yahoo.com and www.chairwrecker.com