hen the lies start
unraveling, what can Gloria Arroyo do but brazen it out? The tactic worked at
the height of the call for her resignation when the "Hello Garci" tapes were
exposed. There’s a good chance it would also work this time when she has not
been directly and personally linked – not yet, anyway – to the corruption in the
aborted national broadband deal.
While people want to see her go, they are wary of the
uncertainties of another extra-constitutional exercise, the third within a
generation. Noli de Castro, the constitutional successor, certainly could do no
worse than Gloria. Anybody would be an improvement as a successor. There is the
fear, however, that Gloria, unlike Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada, is not
above unleashing the military on the first indication that a People Power 3 is
developing.
Gloria has time and again demonstrated that she holds no
respect for morality or law. She would send the nation into chaos and violence
to keep herself in power even if only momentarily (nobody, after all, can rule
at the point of the bayonet for long).
Not to act is to succumb to the de facto blackmail in the
form of a bloodbath and the rule of naked power. But to remain passive and
silent is to invite more abuses which, in the end, could lead to the same thing:
one-man rule and more intolerable abuses.
We are at the crossroads. Inaction is not an option. The
dilemma facing us is probably best shown in the position of the Makati Business
Club. It calls for the resignation of Lito Atienza and Romulo Neri, but oddly
enough it says nothing about the continued stay in power of Gloria. It expresses
support for mass action and the rekindling of the EDSA spirit. It stops short of
calling, however, for another exercise of People Power.
Perhaps the Makati Business Club’s stopping short of calling
for Arroyo’s resignation and supporting a campaign for her ouster if she doesn’t
is just a matter of prudence. Business leaders cannot be seen as openly calling
for a regime change. They also are vulnerable to retaliation by a vindictive
administration.
A more kind interpretation is that the MBC honestly feels
that Gloria is not beyond redemption. Marching in the streets, mass prayers,
holding community gatherings, expressing outrage in the media and other forms of
protest action would hopefully, in the MBC view, make Gloria see the light.
We hope events would prove MBC right. At the moment there is
no meaningful difference between "Gloria, Resign!" or "Oust Gloria!". The single
underlying theme is for Gloria to put an end to corruption and misgovernance.
We have our doubts that she may yet do a Saul on the road to Damascus. But
miracles do happen and we are not ruling that out.
