Term extension hallucinations?

Some groups, notably the Black and White Movement and the Former Senior Government Officials (FSGO), got much media mileage out of a purported campaign ostensibly to block an alleged bid by the President to stay in office beyond the official term which expires in 2010.

The groups used as basis for their allegation the ongoing conflict in Mindanao and a recent executive order which placed security agencies under the wing of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).

On the basis of the twin move, these groups hope to whip up a hysteria over an imagined bid by the President to hang on to her seat beyond 2010. Forgive us, but this campaign appears to be based on imagined fears if not outright hallucinations.

We are constrained to ask: Do these groups want us to believe that this administration actually unleashed the likes of Umbra Kato and Bravo to snuff out lives in Mindanao in order to justify a term extension?

The idea seems far-fetched. What we do know is that these MILF renegades are on a murderous rampage because they did not get what they want. Homicidal tantrums, in other words.

In the meantime, we should commend the Armed Forces and its chief of staff Gen. Alexander Yano. They are in hot pursuit of these renegades, closing down captured MILF camps in the process. It is hard to believe the ruse now being peddled that all that killing in Mindanao is merely part of a grand design for term extension.

These groups, through former Civil Service Commissioner Karina David, are also faulting the DILG for consolidating security agencies under its wing. They want to ascribe political motives to what could simply be a strategic move on the part of the government to optimize the use and potentials of its security resources.

A Palace spokesperson has a name for this kind of game: fear-mongering. This is because every time we hear David and company interpret each and every single move by the administration as a prelude to term extension, we are expected to wet our pants in fear.

These groups want us to believe that there is a hidden agenda behind each and every move made by the Palace. We respect such view. But we are also constrained to ask whether or not the Black and White Movement et al might also have a hidden political agenda behind the renewed effort to sow fear in people’s hearts.

The view is that the stage is probably being set again for a politically tumultuous close to the year 2008. No, we do not share the suspicion of some quarters that so-called advocacy groups usually go high profile this time of the year as part of the efforts to replenish their financial coffers for the following year.

We are more inclined to believe that these group find this is the most opportune time to whip up anger against the administration. The close of the third quarter going to the last quarter of the year has so far been the most volatile. Unfortunately for these groups, the volatility subsides when the Christmas season sets in some time in October.

We heard from the grapevine that there is also some sort of “panic” on the part of anti-administration groups because no serious clamor for an extra-constitutional ouster of the President has so far been mounted – and the year is almost about to end. Come to think of it, nobody has done the ritual filing of an impeachment case against the President this year.

These groups have already been advised that it is now too close to the 2010 elections. At this point, people are more excited about the prospects of a presidential election rather than on toppling the duly-constituted government.

Other quarters think that the emergence of the “fear-mongering” effort could also be largely due to the fact that there is no serious public relations assault on the President at this point – a major discomfort for the President’s avowed nemeses.

The analysis is that, at this point, the real intention by rabid anti-administration forces is not so much to topple the government but merely to diminish the value of an endorsement by the President of her possible successor. That can be done by making sure people are angry with the President, never mind that the anger is based on hallucination on the part of those coaxing the ire.

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