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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Quadrilateral Gridlock By Antonio C. Abaya November 05, 2003 Even if a "principled solution" to the constitutional impasse were found, brokered and agreed to by all affected parties by November 10, the vulnerability of the Philippine political system to the machinations of someone who has not even been elected barangay captain has been brought out in stark relief. Having engineered a political coup de chambre in the Lower House, with the active collusion of at least some of House Speaker Jose de Venecia's trapos, Danding Cojuangco then proceeded to target the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for political assassination. Not bad for someone whose lust for the presidency is reined in only by his consistently low ratings in public opinion polls. (A personal note. I have the honor of having been a classmate of both these illustrious gentlemen in the Ateneo of yore. Danding and I were classmates in freshman high school [1947-48] in the then famous 1-C batch under Fr. Louie Candelaria [who understandably was his most enthusiastic backer in the 1992 presidential elections]. But Danding flunked out of the Ateneo and moved to That Other School, La Salle, if memory serves, because he couldn't do Latin, which at that time was a required subject in all four levels of high school in the Ateneo. (JoeDeV and I were classmates in junior and senior years of college [1953-1955]. Because he had done his high school in That Other School and therefore had no background in Latin, he was not a member of the Ateneo's snobbish AB class [which at that time was required to go through two additional years of Latin torture] but only of the lesser BS class. The AB honors elite, which I was not good enough to be a member of, also slogged through one year of Classical Greek. In junior and senior years, when Latin no longer disturbed our sleep, these two classes were democratically combined. The moral of this story is: you do not need Latin or Classical Greek to become very rich and/or very powerful, at which point you can even boss around those pedantic, Latin-quoting lawyers all the way to the Supreme Court). But I digress. Some fifteen years ago, then Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew observed that the Philippines' political system, inherited from the Americans, in which the executive and the legislative branches of government were often at loggerheads with each other, could not but lead to two-sided political gridlock, as one checked and balanced the other to a state of paralysis. Well, Senior Minister Lee is probably now chuckling over the present predicament of the stupid Filipinos: a three-sided political gridlock in which the executive, the legislative AND the judiciary are pulling and pushing each other in a stationary dance of death. The Brits in Cambridge never considered this possibility, did they, Harry? And how do we hope to untangle this mess? Through prayer rallies and prayer vigils, for chrissakes. If the Swedes were ever to award a Nobel Prize for Blah, we would win it every year. I always knew we were good for something. ***** As usual, in moments of political uncertainty, there are wild talks of military intervention, and the present situation is especially volatile because Oakwood is less than four months behind us and its spontaneous ringleaders have not yet been punished spontaneously. And, if our past wimpy leaders are any indication, will probably not be punished at all. It is unlikely that President Arroyo will bear down hard on the erring military between now and the May elections as that will just fuel military discontent against her. The fact that more than a hundred of the mutineers have recently been pardoned supports that perception. So, military intervention in favor of who or what? It can be safely assumed that the top brass, led by Gen. Narciso Abaya (no relation), would be supportive of the Constitution and the incumbent president in the present crisis. But that is no guarantee that the bulk of the military will be loyal to the chain of command. The Oakwood mutiny and attempted coup of July 27 remind us that, because of their low pay and low morale, the lower ranks, including junior officers, are vulnerable to the mercenary blandishments of deposed politicians trying to regain power and the glib tongue of a messianic guru like Gringo Honasan. During the waning years of the Marcos kleptocracy, it was widely known among journalists that many active and retired generals, including several in charge of the Manila International Airport then, were in the payroll of Marcos' number one crony, Danding Cojuangco, who was also known to maintain a large private army trained by Israeli mercenaries. Strictly speaking, the PAOCTF were police, not military. But when Panfilo Lacson was their boss, they numbered about 500, were armed with heavy weapons (some of which have not been returned to the armory) and were fiercely loyal to him. So when people talk of 'military intervention', they could be talking of different groups of armed men with different loyalties and different agendas, and they could all be describing the situation on the ground accurately. As far as I can tell, there is no military officer who is not beholden to any of these macho presidential contenders, yet is strong enough to command a following, daring enough to stake his life and career, charismatic enough to inspire a critical mass, incorruptible enough to occupy the moral high ground, and patriotic enough to intervene, if and when it becomes necessary, not to save the Arroyo government from its enemies, but to save the country from its politicians and their cannibalistic politics, in the mold of Gen. Park Chung Hee of South Korea or Gen. Mustafa Kemal (later known as Ataturk) of Turkey. The ultimate horror story for the frazzled middle class is that, as the country spirals into chaos as a result of the triangular gridlock between the executive, the legislative and the judiciary, the military itself fractures into several factions, each one lining up behind a different macho presidential contender. That would make it a quadrilateral gridlock which could lead to a four-sided civil war. This is known to happen only in Black Africa. But they haven't heard from the Pinoys yet. ***** The bulk of this article appears in the November 15, 2003 issue of the Philippines Free Press magazine. |
| OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to "Quadrilateral Gridlock" Hear! Hear! Eloquently, humorously, and bravely said! Richard Powell, [email protected] November 08, 2003 ������������.............................................................. Do you realize that the old two-party system we had before Dadong Macapagal bought many congressmen into a twilight zone called "Allied Majority" debilitated it? And Marcos finally dealt a death blow with Bagong Lipunan was very much better than what we have. Manglapus railed against it because his third party could not command electoral respectability. Finally Manglapus flunked out and joined the rapacity of the re-established oligarchy with his sinecureship as chairman of Petron. So much for "reformers". They end up maka-Diyos scoundrels like the rest. Danding is the result of the inability of maka-Diyos Cory Aquino to wipe out the remnants of the Marcos regime, Successive administrations found it easier to milk Cojuangco and now the Cosipet wants payback time like any Oriental triad chieftain. Solution: re-colonize the Filipino. Wasn't governance better in the years 1899-1941. Quezon already smelled already tasted the gravy in 1935 so God (if he exists) terminated him with TB. I'll believe in god for 5 minutes if that were true. Quezon engineered the founding of the Philippine National Bank in 1916 to buy the sugar planters' loyalty. The Bank went bankrupt shortly after and had to be resucitated with taxpayers' money. Leonard Wood was right. Filipinos were unprepared for self-governance. Ross Tipon, [email protected] November 10, 2003 MY REPLY. Re-colonize the Filipinos? Which imperial power would be so stupid as to willingly assume the burden of feeding, educating and governing 82 million quarrelsome Filipinos? .................................................... Not worried. There'll be a little "bakbakan" then the leaders will sit down and have a compromise. And they will still be rich and powerful while the poor will be poorer. But you forget foreign intervention when things really go bad. What say you? Gras Reyes, [email protected] November 11, 2003 MY REPLY. I say foreign (meaning, US) intervention will come only in an extreme case, such as a communist takeover (extremely remote), Chinese invasion (even more remote), or a total breakdown of law and order verging on civil war (more likely reason for intervention). Otherwise, we will be left alone to fry in our own fat. ........................................................................ |
| Dear Tony, Read your article again and, as always, a terrific one in style and content. I strongly and seriously suggest that you consider my idea broached years ago that you write a book based on your articles. I would be more than happy and honored to collaborate if you are interested. If not, can you bequeath to me in your Last Will that Rick B. Ramos will be authorized to do so before the world ends? I find your anecdotes on Danding and Joe very interesting. Never imagined that Latin was required in all levels of high school at the Ateneo in the late 40s. Well, you guys are ancient na pala. Then, may Classical Greek pa. Indeed, the days of yore! A Jesuit cousin my wife once introduced me to Mar Roxas in restaurant. Later on, he remarked that Mar was not exactly a bright student because either he did poorly in Latin in college or was not even in his Latin class. Who needs Latin or Greek when your mother is an Araneta and your grandfather a president of the republic - and a father who was also vice president? Let us talk about the book when I go to manila in january. Rick B. Ramos, [email protected] December 20, 2003 MY REPLY: Latin was a required subject in high school and college in the Ateneo up to, as far as I know, the 1970s. Not exactly a useless course, though. It gave us facility in learning French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanche � the Romance languages � which are all based on Latin. It allowed us to understand the incantations of the Latin Mass. And, for those taking up Law, Latin was a great help since Philippine law is based on Roman law. On top of these, Latin imposed a mental discipline and honed one�s memory skills like no other subject did. To this day, there are elite high schools in the US and public schools in the UK that require some exposure to Latin. And, of course, humanities courses in such universities as Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge still include some Latin. As for your suggestion that I collect my articles into a book or books, you obviously have not bothered to open our website www.tapatt.org, as I had suggested months ago. If you were to do so, you would discover that a. all my articles since 2001 are archived there, arranged chronologically, together with an index of subject matter. b. the reactions of my readers follow each article, meaning, I have an interactive dialogue with them, which I could never do in a book. c. there is a Reference Material section, in which are archived selected relevant articles, usually from foreign publications, which again is not possible in a book. d. my articles in the website are accessible FOR FREE to anyone anywhere in the world who has access to a computer, versus a book which would cost hundreds of thousands of pesos to publish, hundreds of pesos to retail per copy, which would limit the very market I want to reach. e. my readers write in not only from various points of the Philippines, but from various countries around the world as well. I doubt if I can have that kind of readership with a book. f. my server automatically tabulates which article is opened by how many viewers. So every month, and then every year, the articles are tallied according to viewership, which is totally impossible to do with a book. g. eventually all my articles, from 1987on, will be archived in this website, together with my books: Europe by Scooter, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Communism. h. I suppose a Collected Works in book form would make sense in the future, together with my more artistic photographs, but only if I become famous as President or Emperor. But otherwise, the website makes more sense. Do me a favor. Open the tapatt website. Now. Thanks. ..................................................................................... Tony, Will do as you suggested months ago. I am glad to know all your articles since 2001 have been archived, chronologically arranged and indexed. Even more exciting is the prospect that you will do the same beginning 1987. They will, indeed, be a treasure-house of ideas and information. The rationale of my proposed book is NOTHING still beats the written word in hard copy. Later on, even students can read them for their edification. You do not have to be famous, President or Emperor, before coming up with one. Had you written the book, it might even be timely for the 2004 national elections. Tony, my friend, all I am saying is that more Filipinos will be enlightened if they read your columns. Who knows? Perhaps even FPJ might ask you what globalization really mean? Another friend told me that FPJ is against globalization because somebody told him GLOBALIZATION means "KAMUNDUHAN". Wasn't the translation from English to Tagalog correct? Hindi ba tama? Lastly, I would like to say this now than in your eulogy. Nice thing in the internet is that you do not have to blush. Tony, you are an Intellectual Giant who deserves to be treated as a National Treasure. Our country should have availed of your service as National Security Adviser, or Metro Manila Governor ,or Housing & Urban Development Chair. I have learned much reading from you and talking to you. Our friends, Bal and Gem, think very highly of you. That is a lot because they, themselves, are veritable intellectuals. It has been - and will always be - a pleasure and honor being your friend. Wishing a Blessed Christmas & Better New Year (as long as FPJ does not become president). Sincerely, Rick December 20, 2003 MY REPLY. I am overwhelmed by your kind words. A friend and viewer in Daly City had a similar suggestion for a book or books of my articles, as you will see if you go through the Reactions in the website. But you made the offer first. It is satisfying and ego-boosting to hear such praises while one is still alive. As for FPJ, I get the feeling that he may yet decide to back out when he realizes that he cannot fake it for six years. I believe that right now he is going through some kind of agony over his realization that he really has no idea on what to do and that he will just be humiliated if he were to continue with the charade. Let�s hope so, anyway. Warm holiday greetings to you and EJ and the kids. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |