f Gen. Hermogenes Esperon
is obsessed with staying as AFP chief after his scheduled retirement next month
and if Gloria Arroyo is inclined to grant his wish as payment for services
rendered, why don’t the two of them get it done away with?
It’s not the first time an AFP chief wants to stick to his
post like a leech (think Fabian Ver). It’s also not the first time a widely
discredited president wants to keep a trusted man at the AFP helm (think
Ferdinand Marcos). So there’s a precedent.
That both Ver and Marcos ignominiously had to flee in the
face of the people’s wrath in February 1986 is a minor lesson in history that
Esperon and Gloria could both ignore. It could not happen to them, could it?
Esperon does not tire of boasting he could crush any "destabilization" attempt
by Gloria’s enemies. Gloria is equally confident no force could eject her from
the Palace before noon of June 30, 2010, and by the grace of the AFP, possibly
beyond.
People would go along – or pretend to go along – with
Gloria’s extension of Esperon’s services. They have long given up hope Gloria
will listen to them. What’s Esperon’s extension but the latest in the long list
of Gloria’s abusive exercise of power?
Gloria and her Cabinet members, however, should stop scaring
the people with all this talk about renewed efforts to bring down her
administration through mass actions by civilians and withdrawal of support by
the military. In truth, people are frightened not by the purported campaign for
another EDSA uprising, but by the threats of a crackdown by the administration.
Last week, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez threatened to send
to jail media men who ignore police orders. The background is the Manila
Peninsula occupation by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and
their supporters. Media men were told to leave as government forces prepared to
storm the hotel. For fear of missing out on the action and the coverage, they
did not. After the assault, they were taken to military camps in handcuffs.
Yesterday, PNP chief Avelino Razon said checkpoints might
again be put up and a curfew imposed because of the alleged plots to overthrow
the administration.
What next? Threat of a round-up of "destabilizers" and their
supporters, disclosure of purported communist rebel plans to conduct
assassinations, warning of a terrorist bombing campaign?
They way we see it, the government "drama" is plain blackmail to quell the
opposition to Esperon’s extension.
