The kill

There were several point men used, of course. Errand boys, one might call them. Boying Remulla and Bingbong Crisologo for the Nacionalistas of Manuel Villar. Danny Suarez for the Lito Atienza Liberals, and wonder why, Erin Tañada for Mar Roxas’ group of the same party. Kampi was a done deal from Day One, with Louie Villafuerte and his side-kick Jose Solis of Sorsogon manning the counters and reporting each night to the brothers Arroyo. The neophyte brother is the "godfather" of the so-called "Young Turks", though nothing distinguishes them from the older trapos except their physical looks. Most after all, are sons and daughters of trapos. On Thursday night, the neophytes delivered the coup de grace, and the Roxas Liberals, fearing that they would fail to get any seats on the train, hopped in before the killing engines roared.

All that mattered was the golf game scheduled Sunday. The site was Malacañang Park and its practice 9-hole course. The main players were to have been the founding fathers of Lakas, principally FVR and JDV, and of course, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, whom Joe de V made his running mate in 1998 when he faced the formidable Erap. He lost, but she won. From there she conspired with her husband Mike and Cardinal Sin and a cabal of the military to take over from the hapless Erap. She succeeded.

Now JDV and his erstwhile running mate were estranged. Estranged because his son Joey III opened his heart and his mouth, and told what he knew about the stink of the decade. His father begged son to reconsider because of the expected political repercussions. But Joey III could not be made to lie nor to remain silent. He had crossed his Rubicon, and Joe felt like a helpless Pompeii.

The Boss Woman and her husband were boiling mad, and so were their children. One little lady couldn’t even resist degrading her "noble" origins when she in anger stooped to name-calling.

Showdown came when in September, a sham impeachment complaint was filed by one Roel Pulido and endorsed by one Edgar San Luis. The Boss Woman wanted Jose de Venecia to immediately submit bogus "impeach-me" documents to that paper-shredder called the Committee on Justice, chaired by the father of her beloved Mike Defensor, the same lawyer who engineered the anomalous sale of a Quezon City golf course years back to a housing conglomerate for a song, and plenty besides.

Jose de Venecia could not and would not. He should have gone down fighting then. But he bided his time. He asked the Boss Woman to spare him the onus, and together they delegated the "dirty" job to Raul del Mar, his deputy from Cebu. He lost his defining moment. From that time on, his days were numbered.

Immediate kill was checked only because dolts in her employ distributed bags full of cash to congressmen in her palace, misma! And the whole world learned about it, even the lord bishops of the Roman Catholic Church, who must have wondered why theirs in several visits were in thin envelopes and not in brown bags. Maybe next time they should demand just as much as the congressmen and the governors, they must have mused in bated anticipation. After all, they are among her few "pillars" of survival, just lower in her hierarchy of indispensables, next to the military and the police.

The kill was stayed, but the anger seethed. After Christmas, the daggers were sharpened. And now, before the Year of the Rat begins on Thursday, the rats have deserted Jose de Venecia, at the bidding of the Pig. Sunday at Malacañang, she said the House is an "independent" body.

Time for the kill.

***

Our internet favorite, Ramon Mayuga of Essen in Germany and Batangas in the benighted, wrote:

They are possessed by their devilish determination to keep power in their possession which they have bought…at great cost, this Faustian Family.

This is all just an Arroyo show. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the one hand and her immediate relatives on the other pretend to be at odds with each other in dealing with Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. We have already known her as an ungrateful woman who does not give much value to the help she has received from those who gave her much needed assistance during those times when her hold on her office was most precarious. Those who propped up her seemingly untenable position before look like fools today. They seemed to have enjoyed being useful in their own selfish hope that they would be rewarded for their efforts later. They were wrong, dead wrong. This woman knows no feelings of gratitude.

"Blow, blow, thou winter wind, thou art not so unkind as that woman’s ingratitude", wrote Shakespeare.

I have no love lost for de Venecia. He is largely to blame for the blight we are in.

The poor Speaker who has shown servility to Arroyo in the past by marshalling his forces to kill the two impeachment complaints against her in "his" House… But the naked reality in this reader’s opinion is that the Faustian Family is one in their desire to remove him for the damage to them caused by Joey de Venecia III’s expose´ on the NBN-ZTE deal which the Arroyo clan wanted approved.

This is one case in which Don Vito Corleone would not have approved of - that no member of the family should air their disagreement in public. If that Arroyo mother cannot restrain her sons how can she expect her non-relatives to obey her? One may argue that her siblings are grown up kids who are entitled to their own opinions…(but) their actions may have been scripted to make it appear what we are seeing now. She is distancing herself from the moves of her son…she belongs to two other parties which we know to be at odds with the one they have in common. She dances in three weddings at the same time as the German saying goes…

"All the world’s a stage, and all the ‘sons’ and ‘mother’ only players," wrote the Bard of Avon.

When will this charade end? When will the ignominious reign of this woman on this benighted land stop?

We have had more than enough of her and her family. God save us from this scourge.

***

A reader who’s an executive in a Middle Eastern company wrote:

"Your articles are not the most pleasant read early in the morning, but it really made me sit up and think.

"How can we, as a nation, move on from this lying, cheating and stealing (we should also add murdering) administration? Is delica-deza really dead among the people in power?

"I really hate GMA and JdV for being so power-crazy and greedy for money. How much money does one need to live a comfortable life in the Philippines? Is Php10M not enough? (Maybe even 10 billion dollars is not enough.)

"I’m sorry for grumbling. I’m just so mad I can’t think straight."

To which we say, "Hindi ka nag-iisa".