Plunderers Power-Grab

Efren Danao said that it is now apparent that power grab is the only reason behind the efforts of former President Joseph Estrada to unite the opposition and nothing else. There is no underlying principle that should bind the opposition except to take over Malacañang in 2010—if that qualifies as a principle.

At the Kapihan sa Senado on Thursday, I asked Erap if there is any other reason, besides capturing Malacañang, that should bind the opposition. He virtually gave no other reason. He only gave the motherhood statement that “in the interest of our country, our government, we must be united.” He added that every member of the opposition wants to put the country’s affairs in order so the Philippines could no longer be branded as “the most corrupt country, most dangerous for journalists.”

For the opposition to be truly united, they must all agree on common political, social and economic principles that would govern the conduct of the government once they are in power. Otherwise, the unity will be good only during the election. Once they are in power, they will end up fighting each other.

But then, why bother with coming up with a platform of government that would be adopted by all opposition candidates? Opposition unity is a pipe dream, after all. And it is keeping Erap in the news.

If we are to believe the Pulse Asia Survey, Sen. Manny Villar is tops in the voters’ presidential preference. If we are to believe the Social Weather Stations survey, he is second only to Erap. Whichever survey one believes, what is apparent is that Villar remains high in the surveys despite the ethics case filed against him by Sen. Jamby Madrigal.

Villar had refused to attend the hearings of the case against him. He preferred to explain his case to media and the people and not before the Senate Committee of the Whole with members who would be his rivals for the presidency in 2010. I have had misgivings before about his non-appearance in the hearings. I thought it was a wrong strategy because the hearings were aired live on TV and radio. Only snippets of Villar’s side could be aired on the news programs of TV and radio, which would put him at a disadvantage.

Well, it looks like Villar was playing his card well. He is maintaining his ratings despite the charges. Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago has an explanation for this: “Either the people were becoming confused by the pieces of evidence submitted by Jamby or, they just do not care.” Incidentally, I note that the hearing last Tuesday was no longer covered live by radio and TV. I expect some senators to stop attending the hearing once they realized that they could not get the needed media exposure there.

Estrada is Unstoppable!

(by Tony Lopez) More than 100 trips to 360 towns and cities in 60 provinces in less than two years. By plane, by helicopter, by boat and by land. No one has been to more places, held more protests and meetings, spoken in more universities, delivered more speeches, met more local officials, seen more people and pressed more flesh in so short a time. Yet, Joseph Ejercito “Erap” Estrada is not even a declared candidate for any office—yet.

“Neither [Senator] Many Villar nor [Senator] Chiz Escudero has covered not even a third of the territory we have been to nor the number of people we have met,” reckons former Sen. Ernesto Maceda, Estrada’s de facto executive secretary for his sorties. Villar and Escudero, per surveys, are Estrada’s main rivals for 2010.

In Iloilo next week, Estrada was scheduled to visit nine towns in two days. Four mayors called up his Greenhills, San Juan residence to inquire why their towns were not in his itinerary. “This shows you the interest of people in Erap, considering that Iloilo is supposed to be Mar Roxas and Frank Drilon country,” smiles Maceda.

In Cebu, the former president has made five visits and covered all its congressional districts. Cebu is administration or Gloria Arroyo country. Erap, per surveys, is weakest in Cebu, among so-called presidentiables. Yet, he was mobbed by local officials and Cebuanos. His political machinery on the island, which is booming economically, is well-oiled and working well.
In the 2004 presidential election, the main opposition candidate, actor and Erap buddy, Fernando Poe Jr., was clobbered by Arroyo by a margin of eight to one in Cebu. Yet, overall, nationwide, the fight was close and the outcome would have been different if not for the fraud. Arroyo, the incumbent, got 13.9 million votes (39.99 percent), just 1.12 million votes more than FPJ’s 11.78 million votes (36.51 percent). Her 3.48 percent margin is the smallest in the history of Philippine presidential elections. Her Lakas CMD party got just 79 of the 235 district congressional seats.

Erap—his screen name and political nickname—says he is stumping the length and breadth of the archipelago to say thank you to the people who had stood by him and never wavered in their support during his six years and six months of incarceration after his conviction for plunder by a special three-person court created specifically to try him.
Estrada says he will run only if the opposition is not united. Judging by the previous presidential elections, since the abolition of the two-party system, the opposition is usually not united. Since 1992, the presidency has always been contested by no less than five opposition claimants against a single perceived administration or status quo candidate. Estrada thrives best in such a scenario.

In 1992, seven vied for the presidency. Retired general and People Power 1 hero Fidel V. Ramos won with a 23.58-percent plurality, just a slim 3.86-percent margin over the second placer, Miriam Santiago’s 19.72 percent. In 1998, when Erap won. He garnered 40 percent (10.72 million votes) of the vote in a nine-way presidential fight. His chief rival, former Speaker Jose de Venecia, was a poor second, with 15.58 percent (4.26 million votes).

It seems inevitable Erap will throw his hat into the ring in 2010.

Surveys indicate he is now No. 1 among the aspirants. This is the effect of three factors—his lingering popularity and masa appeal, his hundreds of provincial sorties, and what Maceda calls “the sympathy vote,” the Filipino’s love for the underdog, for one who had been a victim of injustice, having been unceremoniously ousted from the presidency in January 2001, only to be succeeded by someone who later acquired the image being even more corrupt (than Erap) and as dictatorial as Ferdinand Marcos was.

Remembering tita Cory

Some people make me sick... Marine Col. Ariel Querubin, who helped lead a coup against Aquino in 1989, said in a statement: “She braved the night and the anti-riot police to be one with the people in prayer.” “Through the years I have learned to admire her bravery and courage very much. She was brave up to her final moments,” said Querubin, detained in connection with a failed 2006 coup against President Gloria Arroyo.

Two of Marcos’ senior aides defected in February 1986 after he beat Aquino in elections marred by massive cheating.

Aquino called her supporters onto the streets to protect them, giving birth to her “People Power” Revolution that sent the strongman and his family packing for exile in Hawaii, where he died three years later.Aquino established a transition government, overhauled the electoral process, released political detainees and instituted democratic reforms.

I saw Ariel Queubin and Rommelino Gojo painting a Marine LVT tank with the RAM-SFP markings back in December 1989. They treacherously went against my dad (who was Marine Commandant at that time), to lead the 1989 military revolt against tita Cory.

Their goal was simple- to murder the President! Rebel choppers open fired on the Presidential palace with rockets but luckily missed tita Cory.

Bloody coup attempts hounded her from Year one up to 1989. The first five of these useless rebellions were crushed without or with minimal violence. But the sixth left 53 people dead and over 200 wounded, including tita Cory’s son, Noynoy, now a senator. A handful of rebel Marines open fired on a Presidential convoy that carried tita Cory’s eldest son.

The seventh and final attempt, in December 1989, ended with more than a 100 dead and cost the nation more than a P1 billion financially. Until now, these rebels say their actions against Pres. Cory Aquino were “justifiable”. Some of these same rebels are again in jail, for their involvement in “military adventurism” against the present administration. Tita Cory, who these rebels loathed to the point of trying to murdering her, has now metamorphosed into the country’s madre de familia and national treasure.

I ask these rebels now… Was it worth trying to slaughter our madre de familia?