Nineteen months in office and Joseph Estrada continues to amaze us with his, well....
He was as surprised as everybody to read in the papers that he had pardoned murderer and escapee Norberto Manero. But he wasn't about to admit oversight, unlike Press Secretary Rod Reyes. While Reyes mumbled that Manero's name was just one in a long list of 500 recommended for clemency, Estrada glared on radio that somebody must have inserted the name after he had signed the release.
Estrada gave the impression that a village toughie like Manero from faraway Cotabato has a sly patron in the innermost chambers of power. But how can that be, when everything's fine and dandy in Malacañang? Estrada keeps saying there's no in-fighting at the Office of the President, despite Presidential Management Staff chief Lenny de Jesus' swipes at unnamed subordinates of Executive Secretary Ronnie Zamora. He took in Aprodicio Laquian as chief of staff to coordinate work among Cabinet men, including the nonquarreling De Jesus and Zamora. So how can anybody slip past De Jesus, Zamora and Laquian to insert into the President's out-tray the files of a man who butchered a priest?
While Estrada has his men busy figuring that out, people are still wondering how the naughty word "crisis" also managed to slip into a presidential speech. He was surprised too when newspapers bannered his use of that word to describe the country's state of affairs. He fumed that he never meant it that way, insisting that what he said -- although transcripts don't bear him out -- was that RP has emerged from crisis.
Estrada is now also feigning no knowledge of the scandal sheet circulated among Cabinet men about a supposed "media-based 3-D plot." Yet only the other week, he was claiming that unnamed persons are on a disinform-disaffect-destabilize campaign to bring him down. And while Estrada is disowning Malacañang authorship of the paper, Zamora is saying they will fight the 3-Ds with an info drive -- the cost of which could run to the hundreds of millions of pesos as usual.
Such money could be the author's motive, if Estrada will care to ask Press Undersecretary Ike Gutierrez, presidential adviser on broadcast Lito Balquiedra, and volunteer Charter-change publicist Dante Ang. Whispers in Malacañang have it that the trio wants to ease out Estrada's covert PR man, Bubby Dacer, who had handled his first two overseas jaunts along with maneuvers to get mistresses out of each other's paths whenever they hopped into the same hotel. Of late, though, Dacer has been helping ex-client Fidel Ramos publicize overseas speeches -- a no-no for sycophants of a jealous chief. So to get back at Dacer and grab his budget, the scandal-sheet author linked him and "mysterious" provincemate Joe Almonte to an imaginary 3-D plot.
Shooting two birds with one stone, the author also linked to 3-D 12 newspapermen who have been critical of Estrada. It was a sly way to make it look like anyone will criticize the Cabinet use of smuggled vans, cronyism or Estrada's lack of direction only because he's in the employ of a sinister plot.
Yet it's the administration that has money to throw away on drives to inform or disinform. With business in the doldrums, the only gainful employment left nowadays is in Malacañang. That's how Balquiedra can strut around town, asking broadcast commentators for their ATM account numbers -- and badmouthing as corrupt the many who turned him down and snubbed the Christmas party he threw in Malacañang.
All this is sloppy work -- from the hasty pardon of a murderer to the failure to review a speech before delivery, from the easing out of a Palace PR man to the attempt to malign 12 journalists. In the private sector, sloppiness is enough reason to fire a manager. In newspapering, it can even be construed as malice in a libel suit. In Malacañang, sloppiness is the name of the game.
INTERACTION. Sally Razo, BF-Parañaque: "I read you regularly, and have come to understand many bothersome issues because of your incisive pieces. I never thought Erap would view you as a destabilizer of government (Gotcha, 2 Feb. 2000). Now I feel we're all in danger."
Who was it who said, Sally, we must fear nothing but fear itself?
Turdy Sampang, Bacolor, Pampanga: "Now that I know you're No. 1 in Erap's hit-list, all the more I'll read you and The STAR. He's the one destabilizing the nation with his...."
Hold it, Turdy, we're in deep enough trouble already.
Resty Banuyo, Cebu City: "Let Erap's henchmen tail you to your prayer meetings. Maybe it'll teach them the fear of God, and how not to mess around with their temporal powers."
Julie Cinco, Cubao, QC: "I can't believe Erap will go this far -- witch-hunting journalists whose only 'crime' is to write the truth. I saw Alex Magno on TV asking if such scandal sheets are the bases for top-level government decisions. No wonder our country is in such mess. Is it time to migrate?"
Armand Gador, Dagupan: "How can you make light of a virtual threat to you?"
B. Simpao, aol.com: "A thunderous applause for the Magnificent 12. You gents and lady are driving Erap to the bottle. One of these nights, a deck hand in this rudderless ship of state will yell, 'man overboard.' Then, the nation will be saved."
Veegee Garcia, livewire.net: "Congrats to those in the honor list."
Francis Roque, hotmail.com: "You're right, you should be proud to be on the 3-D honor list. Filipinos in Canada and USA support you."
Frank Valdez, Ilocano Club, LA: "Because they do not have the moral authority to argue against your columns, they resort to black prop and concoct 3-D plots. Hitler did it; Marcos, too. They better not try anything nasty, though. With our wired world, anything they do will be known -- and resisted -- all over."
Ernie Chaves, Seattle: "3-D is a concoction of his septic thinktank. What's real about him is 5-D: d-nagtatrabaho, d-nag-iisip, d-na tatagal, d-asal ko, d-sana mangyari na."
Michael Lucero, pworld.net: "It's cronies, oil firms and Stanley Ho who are disinforming, disaffecting, destabilizing."
Roman Rapadas, New Jersey: "Knowing you got hold of their 3-D report, expect those creeps and their boss to disown it the next day. Flip-flop."
Bing Ramos, yahoo.com: "You 12 should keep up the good fight, but watch your backs."
GSM, smart.com: "3-D is stupid."
Archie Andal, pworld.net: "You sound like Bill O'Reilly, and do us proud. How I wish, though, that it's year 2004 already."
Rafael Llana, yahoo.com: "The real 3-Ds for his plummeting ratings are d-marunong, dorobo, disarray in Cabinet."
Emmanuel Mercado, hotmail.com: "You and Joey Nolasco make fellow-Lourdesians feel proud. Pareho pa kayong Batch '71. Pax et Bonum."
They might think your Latin is a secret code for the plot, Emmanuel.
Thanks to all who sent messages of concern and encouragement.
Erap always says in public he has no cronies. In a private meeting in Tagaytay with managers of foreign mutual funds, however, he vowed to dissociate himself from pals Dante Tan and Mark Jimenez. The finance bigwigs also wangled from him a promise to replace Carlos Arellano as chairman of SSS, whose funds were used in one bank's buyout of another.
Expect Erap to deny, of course, that they read him the riot act.
You can e-mail comments to jariusbondoc@workmail.com or, if about his daily morning radio editorials, to dzxlnews@hotmail.com