I ONLY hope that Gloria Arroyo has no plans to extend her tem
as our president, It is our one chance to have a peaceful election leading to a
change in presidents. We have no real defense against her. Neither the Church,
the civic groups, business, our courts, the political opposition nor anyone else
has the smarts to prevent Gloria from doing whatever she wants.
Look at the political opposition. They are mesmerized with
the idea that they will be taking over after the election. This is totally
wrong. Should we actually have an election, it is not the opposition that will
take over but another president with his own crew of family and friends who will
lord it over everyone and do as they please. How can it be otherwise when what
calls itself the opposition is a formless and faceless aggrupation (that apt
Marcos word) with no permanence and no roster of members? All of our parties
exist only in the minds of our politicians. They stand for nothing.
Even when it has a form separate and distinct from its
membership or its leaders, when a party chooses a candidate – as will be
happening with the largest recently merged political party – it will choose a
candidate (even from outside the two recently merged parties) who the party
leaders feel has a chance of wining on his own – with or without any party. So,
if such a candidate does win, why should he feel that he owes that party
anything when the political party clearly only rode to victory on his coat
tails?
And the political parties that choose a candidate from within
the party? This will happen only when the one who will be chosen owns the
political party. Perhaps, he spends for all of the party’s expenses; or has
staffed it with his own people or is the lone organizer and owner of the party,
which would be, as a business, considered as a single proprietorship.
Gloria Arroyo had the best chance of putting together a real
political party after, as vice president, she took over from a president that
she deposed with the help of a lot of political, civic, business and NGO
leaders. It was a real chance – the second time when a people rose against a
political leader whose promise to the nation had turned sour – for unity in
politics. But, then, of course, instead of getting back to that dream, Gloria
also shattered whatever expectations everyone – friend and foe – had of her
presidency, within a week of her installation.
As for the church, its one stringent voice in active
opposition belongs to an aging Pangasinan prelate who may have reached second
childhood early. Once a loud voice in moral opposition against the abuses of
government, he has become a ghost of the one religious voice that once greatly
affected our political lives – that of the Cardinal Sin. The Archbishop’s last
great idea was that the First Gentleman would make a run for the presidency in
order to save his wife from being held for her crimes against the people. That
is, of course, simply preposterous!
Our courts, says a lawyer I greatly respect, have become
transactional fora. While the ideal has always been along the lines of dura lex
sed lex (the law is tough but it is the law), Philippine courts now worry over
the effect of the law being applied with an even hand according to the
principles that have applied to laws since the beginning of civilization.
Instead, our courts now look at what their decisions will do to society, the
government, reputations, politics, etc. not what ought to happen according to
the strict interpretation of the law.
Thus, no court is a final arbiter of the law. It used to be
the Supreme Court but look at what that court has been doing. It ruled wrongly
(with open eyes) in installing Gloria Arroyo president and continues to rule on
the effect of its decisions rather than on the language of the law.
A recent decision that freed Randy David (our David to the
Gloriath in the expected 2010 elections for congress in the second district of
Pampanga) for peacefully demonstrating against an executive order of the
President also upheld the legality of calling in the military whenever there
exists widespread "lawless violence."
There is no more need for a Martial Law declaration; all that
has to be proven is the existence of "lawless violence." Incidents such as bombs
exploding outside the offices of the Ombudsman and other public buildings proves
the existence of "lawless violence" unless one can definitely prove that this
was the work of the President’s own agents; in which case, would it be "lawful
violence"?
Thus, after a few firecrackers exploded in the right places
proving "lawless violence," she can call in the military to take over government
offices and whole cities and provinces and our courts having declared themselves
impotent in the face of "lawless violence" made lawful by a prior decision of
the Supreme Court will just have to do what is best under the present
circumstances. Thus will our future be decided and, sadly, while in the Spanish
era, we had enough "anak ng bayan" to form a katipunan that fought against the
colonizer, today is different.
Our one best hope for elections in 2010 will be that of
Gloria Arroyo’s allowing the constitutionally mandated elections to proceed –
whether automated or manual. Everyone else, as earlier pointed out, is helpless
to affect events enough to force Gloria Arroyo to follow the constitution’s
mandates. She will do as her spirit moves her and no one can stop her.
That is our immediate future.
***
"The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory
future is, in fact, a return to the idealized past." -- Robertson Davies, "A
Voice from the Attic", 1960
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