GLORIA’S PRAYER

Source: www.litobanayo.blogspot.com
Composed by the Cha-Cha Plotters (with apologies to the real Platters)

When the Senate is gone and my House reps are singing,
When the Supreme Court is mine, joy comes into my heart.
And in my Palace I will stay … while I pray.

My prayer is to stay in power
At the end of my term, and beyond 2010…

My prayer is a new ten-year term
As your Prime Minister, and for life if I can.

Tonight while the nation’s asleep,
Oh tell me the words that I’m longing to know

My prayer, and the answer you give
May I always be Prez, for as long as I live…

That I will still be here at the end of ma..haayy… term.

Manny Pacquiao and NIKE! GIVE US THIS DAY.

This is from a Nike Campaing Ad.. " GIVE US THIS DAY". Featuring our very own Filipino boxing superstar - no other than Manny Pacquiao. As we all know, Manny will be fighting boxing legend Oscar Dela Hoya this coming December 6 (december 7 in the Philippines). Nike runs this ad in their website where you can submit a conviction or prayer for Manny's coming fight.

Nike is doing a good job in promoting their company thru this campaign.

Fight Manny! for the Philippines, for the Filipinos! Mabuhay tayong lahat!

Show your support.

Post a shoutout for Manny.

‘Cha-cha? There will be blood’

By Aurea Calica
Philstar

Senators warned yesterday that fresh attempts by Malacañang and the House of Representatives to change the Constitution to pave the way for President Arroyo’s rule beyond 2010 could have a “bloody” backlash.

“There will be blood,” Sen. Joker Arroyo warned, borrowing a title of a popular Hollywood movie.
It was an observation shared by most if not all of his colleagues.
“They can pursue it over our dead body. I will oppose it. I am against it,” Arroyo said.“It’s not proper at this time. It’s dead in the water.”

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. also warned that a unilateral House action to amend the Constitution “will be bloody, figuratively speaking.”
“They’ll have to overrun two barriers: Tirad Pass of Constitution and Thermophylae defense line of the opposition,” Pimentel said.

Tirad Pass was where Gen. Gregorio del Pilar’s last stand against the Americans during the Philippine-American War while Thermophylae was where Spartan King Leonidas and his small army died valiantly trying to repulse Persian invaders.

Allies of Malacañang are working to secure more than l78 signatures on a resolution to convene the Senate and the House into a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution jointly and not separately.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Senators Arroyo, Richard Gordon, Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Manuel Roxas II, Francis Escudero, Benigno Aquino III, Francis Pangilinan, Pia and Alan Peter Cayetano, Manuel Villar Jr. and Pimentel said the House could not simply disregard the general public’s disdain for Mrs. Arroyo’s term extension through Charter change.

Roxas and Pimentel said the House strategy could be this: it would go to the Commission on Elections after gathering the required 178 signatures, or three-fourths of the 238-member House, to introduce amendments to the 21-year-old Constitution for a plebiscite.

If it fails, Roxas said they would likely go to the Supreme Court and see if the Palace could flex its muscle on the justices appointed by Mrs. Arroyo to get a favorable decision.

All the senators said it would be unconstitutional for the House to pursue Cha-cha on its own since a constituent assembly would entail Senate action.

“The House is not Congress. Cha-cha is unlikely because even if they have the votes in the House, if the Senate will not vote for it, then nothing will happen. The first step is to convoke two houses, you need the majority in the House and Senate, separate action,” Enrile said.
He said it would be difficult to get the 18 senators to vote for Cha-cha as senators had made their stand against amending the Constitution before 2010.

“They cannot do that because they know that it is not in accordance with the Constitution. And they will be very foolish if they will try to do it,” Pimentel said.

“It is very clear even to freshmen law students on constitutional law that that cannot be done. We have two chambers of Congress, and you cannot have one chamber doing things alone by itself,” he said. “One chamber cannot even pass a new law creating a new barangay or the national budget bill by itself. And more so, it cannot amend the Constitution unilaterally,” he added.

Pimentel said the objective of the Palace was to establish a parliamentary system that would allow Mrs. Arroyo to run for member of parliament in her home province, Pampanga, and later for prime minister.

“They feel cocksure that the Supreme Court will rule in their favor this time, specially with the anticipated appointment of more justices in the tribunal to fill the vacancies that will be created with the impending retirement of seven associate justices next year.”

“It’s a combustible matter,” Gordon said of the new Cha-cha bid. “It will divide the nation when the focus must be on the global financial crisis and what should be done.”
He said many officials have an “insatiable desire to hang on to power and the people are being taken for granted.”

“It will be a distraction and will create trouble,” Roxas said, adding that
“President Arroyo must stop this. This is bad for the economy, I think this is her last card to stay in power.”

Pangilinan cautioned the Palace against testing the patience of a “deeply disappointed and resentful people” or face another people power.

“There is a growing sense of bitterness and deep-seated resentment among our people that, if unleashed by the arrogance of those in power, can lead to the removal from office of President Arroyo in a manner that may not be peaceful and worse, constitutional,” Pangilinan warned.

“The Arroyo government should not take the people for fools who will be willing to swallow the garbage called Cha-cha it is now dishing out,” he said.

“The times are harder than ever, and with the blatant display of personal political ambitions, our people do not trust the national leadership,” Pangilinan said.

Dangerous Senate?

Talks of Cha-cha have been circulating after a coup in the Senate Monday catapulted Enrile to the Senate presidency.

Fueling Cha-cha speculations was Press Secretary Jesus Dureza’s prayer for Mrs. Arroyo’s leadership to go beyond 2010.

“Charter change must be done in the right way and not before 2010 so as to ensure that it will not be used as a tool for term extension and other vested political interests,” Pangilinan said.

“What we see now are politicians lording it over the nation, when it should be the other way around. We are mere servants to the public, and their plight should be the first of our concerns,” he said.

Pangilinan and Pia Cayetano said despite the minority’s apparent handicap, it would do everything in its power to stop any attempt at Cha-cha.

Revilla branded as mere intrigue the talk about the new majority secretly supporting Cha-cha.

Condemnation

An avalanche of condemnation greeted the latest bid of administration politicians to have the Constitution changed.

“I will go out of my way to block Cha-cha. I will block it at all cost, especially since even Press Secretary Jesus Dureza expressed the possibility of extending President Arroyo’s term beyond 2010. It’s a clear indication that she is bent on extending her term,” former President Joseph Estrada told The STAR over the phone.

“He (Enrile) told me that they (senators) will maintain (their) independence. He said that nobody can dictate on him. He has palabra de honor (word of honor) and I think he must live his legacy,” Estrada said.

“There is a confluence of events that belies the latest claims of disinterest on the part of the GMA administration concerning Charter change and its evil twin, term extension,” said Black and White convenor Leah Navarro.

“It was a trial balloon raised to gauge the people’s response,” she said.
“Dureza’s prayer was no slip of the tongue and the imagined lukewarm response was enough to propel the House of Representatives into Cha-cha motion,” Navarro said.

“We continue to warn our people – if we do not show our indignation, if we continue to ignore these moves, if we do not make our loathing known, we could wake up one day finding our freedoms forfeited and our democracy trampled upon,” Navarro said.

“We should be alarmed. Everyone should express their alarm, especially the media, they should inform the public,” said Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Bishop Iniguez, who chairs the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-Public Affairs Committee.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said a “confluence of events” showed the administration was setting the stage for Cha-cha.

He said the events include, among others, Enrile’s being named to the top Senate post and Dureza’s prayer faux pas.

“These are very evident signs that the national leadership is strongly and seriously holding on to power even after 2010,” said Cruz.

“The stand of the CBCP is that this is not the time for a change, specially during the time of this administration because there would be those who have vested interest and it would not be good for the country,” Malolos Bishop Jose Oliveros said.

“Nepotism, which empowered elite rule through clan and patronage politics, is a direct violation of the spirit of the 1987 Philippine Constitution. Abusing it to change the Charter altogether and extend the seven-year rule of the Arroyos in Malacañang and in Congress is crass opportunism,” Anakapawis secretary-general Cherry Clemente said.

The militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said it might launch anti-Cha-cha rallies in December to dramatize its protest, secretary-general Renato Reyes Jr. said.

Palace playing coy

“It’s hard to imagine Mrs. Arroyo not knowing what her son is doing, or her son going against the wishes of his mother. The Con-Ass resolution of Mikey Arroyo is the best confirmation we have that Mrs. Arroyo intends to hold on to power beyond 2010,” Makati City Mayor and leader of the United Opposition Jejomar Binay said.

“I’m sorry to say this, but all those who have publicly made statements that Mrs. Arroyo will step down in 2010 might have to eat their words. Clearly, Mrs. Arroyo has no plan to leave the Palace,” he said.

Meanwhile, a House leader said Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi), Mrs. Arroyo’s party, is the principal force behind the latest Cha-cha bid.

“This is the play of Kampi,” the House leader, who declined to be named, said. With Jose Rodel Clapano, Michael Punonbayan, Evelyn Macairan, Katherine Adraneda, and Jess Diaz

Cha-Cha train cranking up

By Ellen Tordesillas

A separate resolution on the mode for Charter Change being circulated by Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo (Lakas, Pampanga) was also signed by 150 congressmen, a source from the majority bloc said.

The resolution, which calls for the convening of a Constituent Assembly (Con-ass), is authored by Kampi president and Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte, the source said.

This is what the five bishops warned about just three weeks ago: Gloria Arroyo will ram Charter Change down the people’s throats.

The report from the House of Representatives yesterday said House resolution 737 amending the economic provision of the Constitution has been signed by 163 congressmen. House Speaker Prospero Nograles, who authored the resolution, needs only 15 more signatures to meet the required 175 signatures, representing three-fourth of the House of Representatives to bring the resolution to the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, then to the plenary..
The Cha-Cha train is cranking up and is expected to leave the station in the coming days to a destination beyond 2010.

This is what Press Secretary Jesus Dureza had prayed for last Tuesday at the start of the cabinet meeting: that Gloria Arroyo “have forbearance, good health, and tolerance to lead this nation until 2010, and who knows, perhaps even beyond.”

It was not a slip of the tongue. It was an announcement.
It’s not a surprise. In fact, it’s a confirmation of what Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and Lingayen Archbishop Oscar Cruz said last Oct. 29 in a press conference.

Cruz said, “When congress opens in Nov. 10, charter change will be an open, public and well funded move in the lower house. Whether it will triumph in the Senate is still debatable. But then I repeat, no more camouflage, no more double-talk, no more indirect insinuations, but Charter Change will be an honest-to-goodness agenda for Congress.”
Cruz further said, “that elections in 2010 is a big dream, in short elections in 2010 is a moral impossibility. “

Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, president of the United Opposition, said time is running out for Arroyo and her allies. “By middle of 2009, people will be talking about the 2010 elections. If they (majority congressmen) are going to embark on a last-ditch effort for Charter change for Mrs. Arroyo’s benefit, they have to do it now.”

Binay said pro-Arroyo local executives and her House allies conducted public consultations on the issue of amending the Constitution while Congress was on a month-long recess. He said more than 100 pro-Arroyo congressmen are expected to report an “overwhelming consensus” in favor of Charter change.

“The Cha-Cha express is all set. And we should brace ourselves in the next few weeks for a final attempt to extend Mrs. Arroyo’s stay in Malacañang,” Binay warned.
Arroyo and her allies had attempted several times to amend the Constitution to shift from presidential to parliamentary system so Arroyo could remain in power beyond 2010. In December 2006, the House of Representatives led by then House Speaker Jose de Venecia railroaded a resolution calling for a Senate-less Constitutional Assembly. They had to back off after a few days when the Catholic church including the Iglesia ni Cristo, warned of massive protests against it.

Just two months ago, Arroyo tried to smuggle charter change in the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The Supreme Court declared the MOA unconstitutional.

Pro-chacha advocates are trying another tack with HR 737. Nograles is of the view that Congress can actually amend specific provisions of the Constitution without going through the usual process of charter change.

HR 737 calls for the amendment of Sections 2 and 3 of Article 12 of the Constitution “to allow the acquisition by foreign corporations and associations and the transfer or conveyance thereto, of alienable public and private lands.”

Nograles said that while a mere resolution, even if approved by the majority members of the House of Representatives, does not have the effect of law, it can still serve as the basis of raising a point of constitutional inquiry before the Supreme Court.

“If the Supreme Court says that Congress can enact laws that in effect will repeal specific provisions of the Constitution, then we might be able to avoid this protracted legal and constitutional wrangling on how we can attune the Constitution to the new challenges confronting our country,” he said.

It is feared that with several Supreme Court justices up for retirement next year, Arroyo would be able to pack the high court with justices who would declare as legal a resolution to amend the Constitution without participation of the Senate.

Binay said surveys after surveys have shown that the people are overwhelmingly against charter change that will allow Arroyo to stay in power beyond 2010.
“If Malacañang pushes through with Cha-Cha despite public opinion, this could well be the tipping point for the movement to remove an unpopular pretender to the presidency,” he warned.

It could be just what the country needed.

The morning after

By Lito Banayo

Speculations and spins always fly whenever something takes everyone by surprise. Thus did the Senate “coup” which replaced Manuel Villar as its president with 84-year old Juan Ponce Enrile come to most everyone.

One paper bannered an Erap hand in the coup, banking only on the supposed membership of Enrile in the latter’s party, and the perceived “closeness” of the two, which isn’t exactly true. They are friends, but they are not close. Even when only the two of them survived the Cory juggernaut in the first elections under the 1987 Constitution that re-installed a two-chamber Congress, they were not that close. Estrada, who tries to be friendly with everybody, and forgives anyone and everyone at the drop of a tear, fake or feigned, knew the political value of the wise Ponce Enrile, so that even if the latter did not support his presidential run in 1998, he reached out. He needed the cooperation of the Senate, and so politically, he bedded even with other unlikely political “friends” as Miriam Defensor Santiago. That paper cited an “administration senator” as its source, but the guy, who can easily be identified by any political observer, was also just speculating.

Truth is, Erap never knew until the night before, when his son Jinggoy told him. Did he inform his friend Manny V, the guy he made speaker, also the guy who impeached him with one dramatic bang of his speaker’s gavel? Obviously not.

Our friend and colleague Ellen Tordesillas probably had the closest narration of the events that led to Villar’s fall from the Senate presidency. Even speculations about cha-cha, and Villar’s supposed hand in Jocjoc’s arrest are all drivel, insofar as they are related to the latest Senate golpe.

Uneasy lies the crown, always, of the Senate presidency’s head. My friend Caloy Padilla remembers history when he cites Manuel Roxas’ ouster from the speakership and his quote “fell from the rostrum into the arms of the people”. My friend Caloy insults the memory of Mar’s lolo by making such odious comparison. Manuel Roxas was far more eloquent (the late Speaker Pepito Laurel, Caloy’s mentor as much as mine, described him as such a “great and fiery orator” and a sharp mind) than the head of the Nacionalista Party now. And no historian has ever attributed “conflict of interest” or “self-dealing” or some other such pecuniary peccadilloes to the first elected president of the Republic. Neither his son, Gerardo, who also became a highly respected senator of the realm. And Mar of the third generation does not self-deal either, nor has he ever been accused of dipping his fingers into the “kaban ng bayan”.

With stealth and cunning purpose did Manuel Villar deal with the administration caboodle in the Senate immediately after he was re-elected to the Senate as an adopted candidate of the Genuine Opposition a year and six months ago. He refused to sit down with his GO team-mates, Lacson and Legarda, nor oppositionists Roxas, Madrigal, Biazon, Aquino and Pimentel to discuss the politics of a chamber where they had an inch of a majority, assuming he and fellow “independent” Kiko Pangilinan, and Alan Peter Cayetano’s sister, would go on board. Even after Nene Pimentel, the initial candidate of the oppositionists, was no longer in the running. He chose his boys — Alan Peter and Chiz Escudero, and bedded them with his Wednesday Group led by Joker Arroyo, then talked turkey with JPE, Angara, and Gordon. Then they presented their combination of disparate forces to the stinking palace beside the stinking river, and got imprimatur, along with which came the votes of Lapid, Revilla, Zubiri and Miriam. All along of course, he was briefing Erap, and promised the prestigious if useless role of “President Pro-tempore” to son Jinggoy. It was a brilliant political move — leaving out his perceived presidential competitors out in the cold.

So don’t give the public any of that drivel, Gilbert Remulla, (spokesman of Manny Villar), about your boss’ order of arrest for Jocjoc, and the resumption of the fertilizer scam hearings. Your boss tarried and tarried in doing all these, and only when his indecision became obvious, and some other senators in caucus started challenging such indecision, did he act. Ask your Joker. He knows.

Going back to my friend Caloy’s recollection of the first Manuel A. Roxas, he eventually became Senate President as an ally of Manuel Luis Quezon, president of the Commonwealth when the Pacific war broke out. After the war and a brief interregnum before the elections that pitted him against MLQ’s successor, the taciturn Sergio Osmena Sr. of Cebu, Roxas was yet technically the Senate President. So was the great MLQ when he was elected president. So was Ferdinand Marcos, who stole the senate presidency from Amang Rodriguez past an unsuspecting Diosdado Macapagal, and from that perch, challenged the latter and won. But someone who fell from his perch, Senate President Jose Avelino of Samar and Bulacan, challenged his president, Elpidio Quirino, put up his own Avelino wing of the Liberal Party, and lost miserably in 1949. Why did Avelino place a miserable third, after Quirino and Laurel of the Nacionalistas, even if he was representing the Roxas loyalists of the Liberal Party, as he claimed? “What are we in power for?”, his famous quote. In truth, even Avelino did not do anything the likes of which Manny Villar is accused of these days. His only fault was political candor, spoken in Castillian, “Para que estamos en poder?” to party-mates, but an intrepid journalist scooped him. And in those days, you couldn’t buy reporters off.

The presidency of the Senate was no longer as important a vantage point from which to aim at the presidency after Cory Aquino was installed by people power. Salonga fell from his rostrum, and a year later, also lost his presidential bid. Maceda lost his senate crown, and later lost his bid for the mayoralty of Manila. Angara, who also lost the senate presidency, likewise lost his vice-presidential bid to then Sen. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Truth is, the senators compared Villar with his immediate predecessor, Frank Drilon, who steered the chamber in far better manner. Villar’s leadership begins and ends in a caucus, eschewing floor debates, very boardroom, very “tayo-tayo”. And the minority, as well as those in the majority with whom he was not too hunky-dory, always felt left out. The resentments already seethed in the second quarter of 2008.

Then the C-5 double insertion came up, which Ping Lacson thought was a DBM trick to impound savings for the Dona and/or Andaya to toy with. It turned out to be a smoking gun that led to the mystery of the road called C-5. When Jamby Madrigal got hold of documents from the DPWH, the mystery unravelled, and out came Villar’s self-dealing. In the wake of such devious manipulations, the Republic lost at least 1.2 billion pesos in consummated road right-of-way payments to Bro. Mike Velarde , because Manny Villar wanted the C-5 re-routed to another longer, more snake-like thoroughfare, each bend designed to pass through his corporation’s properties. And got paid for it too, again from the kaban ng bayan, more than another legislator, Ompong Plaza of Agusan del Sur, whose family properties were paid 4,000 per square meter versus 15,000 for Villar’s. And who negotiated with the DPWH, for and in behalf of the other property owners? Why, according to the documents, Manny Villar and his spouse, Cynthia, congresswoman of Las Pinas!

At that point, Villar’s numbers started to cave in. A senator from his side observed to a cabinet member in the Senate when the JPEPA was ratified after waiting for Jamby Madrigal’s expose in a privilege speech — “open and shut”. To which the cabinet member replied, “Masyadong reckless”. (I heard it. This is a first person account. And they didn’t mind sharing their conversation with me in the gallery.)

“C-5 at Taga” was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It gave reason to the senators increasingly disenchanted with Villar’s “leadership” style to plot and count numbers. The wonder of it all is how they managed to keep it a secret from Manny Villar and his staunch allies until the last minute. Probably that explains why the numbers were deliberately kept at just nine senators when the Senate resumed session on November 10. And after the bolantic encounter last week, the nine senators started to talk in earnest to the “soft-core” supporters of Villar, treading very carefully, practicing the same stealth with which Villar blacked them out in June of 2007.

Which is why Erap found out last. And the last 13th vote was ascertained only in the morning of the putsch. Lito Lapid was never “consulted”. Baka malaman pa ng Malacanang, and a monkey wrench is thrown. Kanya pala bumoto muna kay JPE, tapos binawi. Tulak nang puso, kabig ng Malacanang?

Now Villar’s media friends ascribe baser motives to the new majority. Par for the course. Squabbling daw over committee chairs. Perhaps a little wrangling here and there, because unlike in 2007, where the administration-opposition coalition was cobbled by Villar through chair-dealing, this was not, because there was a common purpose, and there was a need for absolute secrecy. Naturally, the spoils come after. In 2007, the spoils were partitioned before the presidency. Note that Allan Peter Cayetano was given the Blue Ribbon, plus education. Wow! And Pia Cayetano had Health, plus Environment, plus Accounts, plus Ethics. Wow again!

The political pot boils. Some are boiled, some are merely scalded.

* * *

The morning after, Manny Villar pushed through with a campaign stump. He invited the barangay chairpersons of the City of Manila to an eatery called Tramway in Quezon City. (One barangay chairman from the third district refused to go — “Bakit, wala bang kainan sa Maynila?”, asked he.) Of Manila’s 900 barangay chairs, some 370 came, but the place overflowed with former barangay chairmen and kagawads who made sabit to their chairmen. In all, there must have been 800, packing the place, and many had to leave because the place had become an oven. Cynthia sobbed, recounting the fall of her husband from the Senate presidency. But Manny forced a smile, and preened about his latest survey numbers.

The chairmen chatted throughout, and favourite topic was C-5 at Taga! In the end, they waited for the envelope, but none was forthcoming. I guess that’s the problem when you’re filthy rich. Everyone comes expecting — the envelope please!

O tempora, O mores!, the Romans would have rued. Such is the Philippine political system. No money, no honey, as the GI Joe’s would say. Ah, but Manny has plenty.

Change We Do Not Know

GLIMPSES
Jose Ma. Montelibano

You can sense it, like the quiet before the storm, the emergence of factors
and forces that usually converge to create change, big change. Their
domination of the status quo seems unchallenged, even gathering more power.
It has no reason to anticipate disturbance in the political field, and has
managed so far to handle an unfolding economic debacle better than the more
developed countries in the world. Still, you sense it.

Perhaps, it is the Obama wave of change. There is no evidence that an Obama
presidency will be unduly critical of Gloria. In fact, it was always a
belligerent Bush and a no-nonsense Condoleezza Rice that seemed very
dangerous for someone who pulled out from the Coalition of the Willing. But
Gloria survived them by being a political gymnast, and did not have to
completely desert the Chinese as well. Still, there is the Obama wave of
change.

Or, there is still a rapidly unfolding economic disaster that has not yet
revealed the depth of its bankruptcy. Like receiving medical results
confirming that one has cancer, the usual first reaction is denial where
many Americans, corporate and individual, find themselves in. Whatever
Philippine monetary officials may say, the grim reality is that the peso is
tied to the dollar and does not know how to free itself from that bondage.
It is not meaningful to watch the peso’s strength, only the dollar’s
weakness because the peso will fall with it.

And, there is Archbishop Angel Lagdameo. Almost from nowhere, the president
of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) threatens to be
a contrary voice to the dominant political force. It is not the first time
that Lagdameo has indicated a personal uneasiness with the level of
corruption that pervades in Philippine society. But he had been either
tentative or greatly influenced by the fact that his fellow bishops were not
solidly behind his critical stand. The archbishop today appears to have
reached a certain resolve that can catapult him to a platform of singular
distinction.

Poverty and corruption have been around a long time. Because of that
familiarity, Filipinos have developed a tolerant coping mechanism. Sadly, we
have lowered the bar of our own ethics to accommodate that. It is the worst
surrender of the Filipino people, and our greatest shame is the lack of
grave concern for the millions who go hungry. Tolerance of evil because of
its extended presence has kept revolution at bay, and it has not helped
either that no revolutionary ideology has caught the natural empathy of
Filipinos.

But poverty and corruption are not passive evils. They march forward and
gain new territory whenever they can, whenever the forces of good weaken or
withdraw. The nature of poverty and corruption, though, is that they create
victims and more misery as they expand, and their temporary victory is the
very poison pill that brings them closer to their own defeat. Man, after
all, can tolerate wrongdoing but cannot tolerate the pain it brings
indefinitely. A rebellion against evil is a matter of when, not if.

Hunger is one serious pain that triggers revolution faster than most other
causes. In human history, it has mostly been hunger and violence at a
certain level that have been the most popular reasons for radical responses
by a population against its rulers. The administration would do well to go
all out against hunger, not just on the ground where the hunger is but also
in the dimension of public opinion where apathy is.

The Church, too, has no choice but to lead in the drive to mitigate and
eliminate hunger by lending its powerful voice and influence. Continued
silence or absence of manifest religious indignation against hunger will be
a fatal mistake for a Catholic Church which has not only stopped growing but
steadily losing its flock to rival groups. Feeding the hungry is not just a
favorite religious work of mercy but a primary condition for salvation. The
nuance of a silent or inactive Church in the face of hunger will show a
hypocrisy that will have deadly consequences.

It has to come to be that change is coming in a manner and form that will
defy conventional parameters dictated by Philippine history. Just as Obama
could not have possibly defined in detail the change he promised because the
change he represents has yet no precedent in America’s history, so will the
change that Filipinos will witness and participate in.

Strangely, the change will not be about Gloria although it will most
definitely affect her; the change will be bigger than any personality, any
issue. When the dominant convention will be threatened by a fresh gust of
air full of nobility and higher aspirations, it will dig in for dear life.
Its historical and current strength is not a pushover, and change itself, if
it were not the nature of evolution, will have no chance in the Philippines.

The sustained unpopularity of Gloria, the sustained unacceptability of the
Opposition, these are indicators that the Filipino is caught in between a
rock and hard place. If the rock and the hard place were not locked in
aggressive combat, then the Filipino has much more time to stay in between
them. But they push hard against each other and will force the trapped
Filipino to react in a way that is just as difficult to predict.

Filipino politicians will have little idea of what’s coming and the older
ones nothing at all. Despite their intimacy with technology, McCain’s
advisers and handlers did not even anticipate, and could not copy, what
Obama did. And those who seek the kind of change they already know, like a
change of leadership or exchange of positions, they, too, will be harshly
surprised.

A friend told me how baffled he was at convergence of change, how many
things get disrupted at the same time even though they do not seem related.
I told him that great change cannot happen without an unusual amount of
serendipity. Great change must have not only a deep impact but a wide one at
that. Remember People Power, the Berlin Wall, Solidarity of Poland and the
collapse of communism in Russia – these happened in the same moment of
historical time.

Are we in that zone again? Is Obama a signal, just as the collapse of an
economic system? What else is about to erupt? Pray, then, and wish for the
best because life may just have a special surprise for all of us.

Responses may be sent to jlmglimpses@gmail.com

–
“In bayanihan, we will be our brother’s keeper and forever shut the door to
hunger among ourselves.”

‘Coup de Chambre’

By Antonio C. Abaya

Was it a coup engineered by Malacanang to pave the way for Charter Change that would allow President Arroyo to remain in power beyond 2010?

Or was it an internal coup crafted by the potential rivals of Sen. Manny Villar for the presidency in 2010 who wanted to cut him down to size by removing him from the Senate presidency and thus level the playing field?

I am inclined to believe that the coup de chamber was purely an exercise in partisan politics. But it does have the unintended consequence of giving an unforeseen boost to maneuvers to change the Constitution for the benefit of President Arroyo.

In the previous attempt by then Speaker Jose de Venecia in 2006 to convene Congress into a constituent assembly in which to railroad ChaCha, the strategy was to exclude the oppositionist Senate from the deliberations, on the reading that the Senate would block any attempt at Charter Change.

This shameless maneuver was rightly condemned by public opinion and tagged JdV as a lapdog of President Arroyo. That he now leads in the efforts to impeach Mrs. Arroyo merely underlines the opportunist and unprincipled character of Filipino politicians..

With Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, a staunch ally of President Arroyo, now Senate President, the Senate ceases to be a bulwark of opposition to ChaCha and can now be expected to play along with the majority Lakas-Kampi juggernaut.

Unless Sen. Enrile, now 84 years old, rediscovers his moral roots and redefines himself in what must be considered his Last Hurrah.

With his vast experience in government service – he was at time or another, secretary of finance, secretary of justice, secretary of national defense, collector of customs – he was regarded by many as the best president we never had. Of course, contrapuntal to that was his role in Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law regime.

As he was to admit later, he faked his own ambush, which Marcos used as one of several excuses to declare martial law in 1972, and he himself became the administrator of that martial law regime.

While he was minister of defense in the early 1980s, he started plotting the downfall of Marcos with his protégés in the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) led by then Col. Gringo Honasan.
The RAM were poised to strike at Malacanang sometime in November 1985, with Honasan leading an assault force that was going to paddle down the Pasig River in rubber boats and enter the Malacanang grounds through its undefended riverside underbelly, while other RAM colonels were to lead armored units across the Nagtahan and Ayala bridges in a pincer movement that would have left Malacanang isolated from any reinforcements.

On the evening before their D-Day, Col. Honasan made a clandestine last-minute inspection of Festung Malacanang and found, to his horror, that defenses had been doubled at all their intended points of entry. Marcos and his Gen. Fabian Ver knew what the RAM were planning to do, and were waiting for them to make their move.

How? It was later revealed that the RAM boys had blabber-mouthed about their plans to their friends in the CIA, in particular to a US Air Force colonel who had been ninong or godfather to the son of one of the RAM colonels. The CIA, following the dictates of US national interests – i.e. their bases in Clark and Subic – passed the information to Marcos and Ver who thus foiled the RAMs’ coup attempt even before it got rolling.

Several lower level officers were arrested, but, surprisingly, Enrile and the RAM colonels were left alone. But when they felt the noose tightening in February 1986, they staged their mutiny in Camp Aguinaldo, together with then Philippine Constabulary chief, Gen. Fidel Ramos, and the rest, as they say, is history.

A personal note. When Sec. Enrile was conducting his mutinous press conference that Friday evening, Feb. 22, 1986, my son Hochi and I decided to drive to Camp Aguinaldo out of curiosity, taking a short cut through Fort Bonifacio.

The Bonifacio sentry would not let us through because, he said, they were on red alert. But, for some reason, he asked me my name, which I gave him. Then he asked if I was related to Brig. Gen. Antonio Abaya, chief then of the Constabulary Highway Patrol Group, and I replied that we were cousins. (We really aren’t.)

Without asking for my ID to verify my identity, the sentry saluted smartly and waved us in. What we saw in Fort Bonifacio were about a dozen military trucks loaded with Marines in full battle gear and several jeeps mounted with .50 caliber machineguns. We presumed they were going to assault Camp Aguinaldo and end Enrile’s mutiny.

We, foolishly, proceeded to Camp Aguinaldo, expecting to see some bang-bang action. From the outside, the camp looked deserted and undefended, except for a few soldiers at the Santolan gate. We drove around the camp several times, but nothing was stirring, not even a tramp. The same in the adjoining Camp Crame.

And the dozen truckloads of Marines that we had seen in Fort Bonifacio never arrived. We got bored and went home. We found out the next day that the Marines had gone instead to reinforce Festung Malacanang. There is a lesson in military tactics here: if you don’t strike while you have the upper hand, you strike out.

The plan of Enrile and the RAMs - if they had succeeded in toppling Marcos - was to hold elections after six months of a civilian-military junta headed by Enrile. As the victor over Marcos, Enrile would have been elected president hands down.

But they were upstaged by the unexpected rise of Cory Aquino, who declared herself winner in the snap elections – the Comelec declared Marcos the winner - and formed a revolutionary government in which Sec. Enrile was retained as defense secretary.

But the inexperienced Mrs. Aquino ruled with an unsure hand and was pulled and pushed in different directions. Several months into her revolutionary government, I wrote identical letters to Cardinal Sin and Secretary Enrile that Mrs. Aquino was appointing known and suspected communists and pro-communists into her government, apparently without even realizing it, since she was not aware of ideological nuances.

Cardinal Sin did not reply to my letter. Sec. Enrile did, inviting me to a meeting in Camp Aguinaldo, where I met Col. Honasan, Col. Tito Legaspi and Col. Red Kapunan.

Enrile was subsequently fired from the Cabinet in November 1986 for his alleged involvement in “God Save the Queen,” said to be a plot to overthrow Mrs. Aquino. Col. Honasan led a coup attempt against her in August 1987, and another one in December 1989, both of which failed.

There is no doubt that if either coup attempt had succeeded, Enrile would have been appointed head of junta, then elected president. But, for better or for worse, the cards were stacked against him.

Now, in the twilight of his years, he is suddenly foisted to the Senate presidency. He has protested to his peers that “I am an old man who has acquired some bad habits of sometimes being arrogant, rude, harsh with my words, insensitive and impatient .”

But all will be forgiven, Senator, if in this your Last Hurrah you resist all pressure to prostitute your Office for the greater glory of unscrupulous and insatiable politicians. *****

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