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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| A Moral Alternative
By Antonio C. Abaya Written Nov. 07, 2007 For the Standard Today, November 08 issue Who or what will remove Gloria Arroyo from the presidency between tomorrow and June 30, 2010, when her presidential term ends? Definitely not the impeachment process. The House justice committee has just returned to sender supplemental documents meant to strengthen the impeachment complaint filed by a private lawyer, which is deemed too weak � and deliberately weak, it is alleged � to win the mandatory one third of the votes in the House for an impeachment resolution to graduate to the Senate. Another maneuver by another lawyer met a similar fate when it was found to lack the mandatory endorser, or whatever. The long and the short of it is that the legal and constitutional paths to impeachment are blocked, as they were blocked in previous impeachment attempts. What about a mass resignation of top Cabinet officials? That was tried in 2005, in the wake of the Hello Garci scandal, but the resignation of the Hyatt Ten was not enough to push President Arroyo over the edge, especially after Fidel Ramos came to her rescue � or so he thought - with a programmed shift to the parliamentary system that was supposed to begin to unfold in 2006 and culminate in 2007.. But that programmed shift failed to materialize, thanks to an activist Supreme Court that shredded the people�s initiative concocted by the Sigaw ng Bangaw, and thanks to an enraged public opinion that hooted down a Senate-less constituent assembly shamelessly maneuvered by House Speaker Jose de Venecia. Hopes for another round of Cabinet resignations were raised when former NEDA director general Romulo Neri testified before Senate committees that he had been offered a bribe of P200 million by ZTE promoter Benjamin Abalos to approve the broadband project. But beyond saying that he had told President Arroyo about this alleged bribe offer and that she told him not to accept the bribe but to approve the contract anyway, affiant would sayeth nought, proving that affiant hath no balls to resign from an immoral government, much less to inspire any of his Cabinet peers to do the same. What about - ho-hum - people power? The middle class, who were the shock troops in Edsa 1 and Edsa 2 are thoroughly disillusioned with this mode of protest. In the first, because it did not result in any meaningful change under President Aquino, who had all the opportunity to make those changes. (The only notable change Mrs. Aquino did was to free Joma Sison from detention and to give the Communists �democratic space.� Both of which backfired against her. Joma used his freedom to bad-mouth her in European media, destroying her chances of winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988. And the Communists used their �democratic space� to increase their armed strength to its peak [27,000 fighters] and to spread their mass base to every sector in society, inspiring the military to respond with coups d�etat.) In the second, because the middle class now know that they were just used as cover for a military coup concocted by VP Gloria Arroyo and a clique of military generals who conspired to remove the hapless Joseph Estrada from Malacanang months before he was actually forced to vacate the presidential palace.. So, what other options are left? Military intervention? That was tried by the Magdalo officers and men in July 2003, when 300 of them, according to their defense lawyers during their subsequent trial, just happened to wander simultaneously into the premises of the Oakwood apartment-hotel, carrying high-powered long arms, C4 explosives and expensive radio equipment. By a strange coincidence, they happened to use safe-houses and motor vehicles owned by members of Joseph Estrada�s very extended families, and they were back-stopped by mobs-for-hire organized and led by Estrada� political lieutenants. Military intervention was also attempted in the days leading to the so-called Marine stand-off in Fort Bonifacio in February 2006, when Scout Rangers and Marines were programmed to join Communist-led mobs on EDSA and announce that they were withdrawing their support from the Arroyo government. By another strange coincidence, the Scout Rangers and Marines � but not other units who were fighting the NPA and the Abu Sayyaf - were recipients of an P8 million �donation� from Joseph Estrada�s Saludo sa Kawal Foundation, as admitted by the foundation�s president, Beaver Lopez, Estrada�s own son-in-law. So is another attempt at military intervention possible in the present circumstance? Probably not. The military mercenaries have been effectively neutralized. At any rate, their godfather, Estrada, has been convicted, pardoned and co-opted. Would he have the motivation to turn the tables on Arroyo by hiring a new set of mercenaries and turning the tables on her and giving her a dose of her own convict-and-pardon medicine? I doubt it. What about the military idealists, untouched by the sordid, self-serving hands of Estrada? Do they exist at all? I honestly do not know. But if they exist � and this is a big If � they are not likely to initiate a move against the Arroyo regime unless the conditions are ripe. These conditions could include widespread public disgust with the Arroyo regime (which already exists), an economic meltdown, a high profile political assassination, another mega- corruption scandal, and/or the emergence of a new public figure, a clear moral alternative to an immoral president, behind whom idealist elements in society - military, civilian and religious - can rally. (If Jejomar Binay or Jinggoy Estrada has ambitions of being that clear moral alternative, they can forget it.) Of those five conditions, the emergence of a clear moral alternative is probably the most important because, especially in a highly personalistic culture like the Philippines�, he or she would provide the tipping point during an economic meltdown, or in the midst of another mega-corruption scandal, or in the aftermath of a high-profile political assassination. If Cory Aquino were not present in 1986, the Marcos Dynasty would most likely still be in power today, and our president now would be either Imelda, Danding or Imee. That Cory eventually disappointed most of her supporters in 1986, as Gloria Arroyo did her supporters in 2001, should not discourage us from looking for that clear moral alternative. Surely in a population of 88 million, there are hundreds of men and women who meet the criteria for such a desired and desirable leader. The problem is that Philippine media are not hospitable to the emergence of what Archbishop Lagdameo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) calls �a new breed of leaders.� Consciously or unconsciously, Philippine media are almost exclusively focused on their favorite casts of characters: predatory trapos, mercenary coup plotters and tiresome Communists, whose opinions are avidly and regularly sought whenever events occur that break the tranquility of the realm, which happens almost every week. Individuals who do not belong to these casts of characters are generally ignored by media, probably because their names are not household words and their opinions therefore not worthy of print or electronic mention, except only occasionally. In such an incestuous media environment, how is a new breed of leaders to emerge from which the nation can choose a clear moral alternative to the enveloping immoral darkness? ***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles in www.tapatt.org and in acabaya.blogspot.com OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |