LuisTeodoro.com

It is tempting to blame the vagaries of memory for his most recent statement on the 1986 People Power revolt. Juan Ponce Enrile is after all at least 80.

Having bolted the opposition a month or so ago, and now an administration voice in the Senate, the former Marcos Defense Minister recently said over national television that former President Corazon Aquino should abandon her belief that she can help oust Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from the Presidency by once more taking to the streets after the impeachment complaints against Arroyo were dismissed in the House of Representatives. »

The Arroyo government, as Archbishop Oscar Cruz so aptly describes it, is without values, morals and principles, and one of the values it least respects is truth. Archbishop Cruz alleges that it has bribed and threatened witnesses implicating Mrs. Arroyo and her family in the jueteng pay-offs scandal. If true, however, that would be only one of the many instances in which Mrs. Arroyo and her gang have resorted to all sorts of devices to remain in power by keeping the truth from the public.

When the “Hello Garci” scandal was about to break out last June, for example, Malacanang tried to discredit whatever recordings the opposition would make public by claiming that these had been doctored, and that, indeed, it had the original ones–in which a woman who sounded like Mrs. Arroyo was talking to someone Malacanang said was a “Gary” who was other than “Garci” (former Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcellano). »

Its advocates may think that amending the Constitution now would solve the country’s legions of problems by putting in place a supposedly gridlock-free system of governance. The eagerly prospective members of the Constituent Assembly in the House may believe that a “Con-Ass” would assure them an unlimited number of years in the parliament they’re almost certain to create. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo may look at the shift to a parliamentary system as affording her the “dignified exit” come 2006 Fidel Ramos promised– and as even allowing her to run as a district MP (member of Parliament) from Pampanga and whatever opportune post comes along, the premiership and presidency included.

The rest of the country may be debating the issue, and going through the motions of seeming to decide whether charter change is timely and necessary, and if so, how much change there should be, or whether the changes are likely to mean anything. The usual pundits may also be saying that Ramos’ proposal for charter change by 2006, which Arroyo publicly adopted during her July 25 State of the Nation Address, won’t go through because of Senate opposition. »

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was, as planned, the center of attention during her fifth State of the Nation Address last July 25. She was applauded 32 times by administration congressmen and senators and their wives, in most cases for no apparent reason, but exactly on cue. It was to demonstrate, of course, that she remains popular, except that it was town mayors, governors, and the members of the majority in Congress–most of them Jose de Venecia loyalists expecting to reap the political benefits of the shift to a parliamentary system and to a federal form of government–who were jumping up from their seats and clapping.

She was in fact most applauded when (1) she argued for a supposed “change in the political system”; (2) she said this should be through constitutional amendments; and (3), in a turn-around from her often-announced position that charter change should be through a constitutional convention, she announced that she preferred that a constituent assembly should do the deed. »

Despite her basement-level approval and trust ratings–and calls for her resignation from the opposition, business groups, academia, her erstwhile cabinet members, former political allies, Corazon Aquino, and a broad range of militant, religious, people’s and non-governmental organizations–President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has so far defied predictions that she would be forced out of office by the hemorrhage of her support last July 8.

The Catholic bishops’ decision not to ask her to resign came later, on Sunday, July 10, and was not as crucial to stopping the bleeding as former President Fidel Ramos’ declaration of support for Ms. Arroyo on condition that she preside over charter change and the shift to the parliamentary system. »

The Pulse Asia finding that 61 percent of Filipinos think they would be better off without Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Malacanang was not surprising. Previous surveys had earlier indicated a vast erosion of public confidence in Ms. Arroyo.

Malacanang claims not to be surprised at the findings either. But however much Malacanang affects indifference to the gathering storm calling for Ms. Arroyo to resign that now includes ten former members of her own Cabinet and even her allies in the Liberal Party, Ms. Arroyo may soon be leaving Malacanang as her capacity to govern deteriorates. »

Her perception that the threat of a People Power uprising or of a military coup had waned seemed to have emboldened President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo into admitting last June 27 that it is her voice in the “tapes” of the allegedly wiretapped conversations between her and “a Comelec official.”

Mrs. Arroyo’s confession can still backfire, however. The more perceptive realized even as she was broadcasting it live that she was also thus validating the tapes authenticity, and admitting to the accuracy of their contents. Despite Mrs. Arroyo’s claim that she did not cheat, the phone conversations between her and former Commission on Elections Commissioner Virigilio Garcillano suggest that there was indeed a conspiracy to manipulate the results of the May 2004 vote. »