t’s amazing, the
ability of rebels to bounce back when just weeks before they were supposedly
dazed and reeling under the sustained pounding they were supposed to be getting
from government forces. Now we are told the Abu Sayyaf terrorists are out to
assassinate Gloria Arroyo while the New People’s Army guerrillas are moving from
their countryside camps to Metro Manila.
In response to the assassination threat, Gloria has scrubbed
the traditional appearance of the commander-in-chief at the Philippine Military
Academy Founding Day celebration this week in Baguio City. To counter the NPA
threat, the PNP has set up checkpoints at all entries to the capital and has
deployed heavily armed members at places where people converge.
We understand keeping the target inside a well-secured place
is the SOP in such a situation (not taking the target on an overland tour of
Laguna and Cavite). So Gloria presumably will hole out in Malacañang, waiting
until the latest threat to her life and her administration blows over. She will
have a long wait, but she can always hie off to selected provincial capitals now
and then, secure in the knowledge the members of ULAP will always be there to
warmly welcome her as long she brings along generous "pasalubong" of DBM special
release allotment orders.
The AFP leadership continues to affirm its loyalty to Gloria.
But if her safety cannot be assured at the PMA’s Fort del Pilar, where else can
she be safe aside from Malacañang?
Makati is now hostile territory. And by Makati we don’t mean
opposition leader Jojo Binay’s bailiwick, but what the word represents. Gloria
has always claimed business is her natural constituency. The Makati Business
Club, however, is now a declared enemy, with Trade Secretary Peter Favila,
Gloria’s point man in dealing with businessmen, reportedly telling Ramon del
Rosario Jr., "Kung gusto n’yo away, e di away."
Gloria is now clearly under siege. She has repeatedly vowed
never to resign and we have no doubt she will continue to brazen it out. But
continue to rule and lead? That point has long been passed.
Before the NBN corruption scandal and the continuing
cover-up, many people preferred to give Gloria the benefit of the doubt. She has
two more years remaining in power. All her previous crimes against the people
could be allowed to pass if only to spare the nation another trauma in the form
of an extra-constitutional exercise.
She is, however, proving to be simply incorrigible. The abuses are becoming
worse. She is a cancer gnawing at the society’s vitals. The time may have come
to excise the cancer for the Filipino nation’s survival.
