Gloria, it's time / Politics is war

These are critical days, days that need a leader who has brains, who can will those brains into political power, and crack that power like a lion-tamer's whip. Simply put, we don't have that leader. And that's why the nation is going into what looks like a tailspin. What is probably even worse is the political opposition is fragmented. It yields us no alternative to the present leadership. Except -- perhaps -- Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. But then, despite recent signs she may be stirring in her igloo, GMA is simply testing the waters, not yet jumping into it for the long plunge.

That plunge will bring her eyeball-to-eyeball with President Joseph Estrada, and she's not ready for that yet. Or she may already have muffed the opportunity.

That's what Fr. Raul Enriquez (vice chair of Gomburza) just said: "Sayang, she was already there but she still needed to come back. Does that mean she never really understood that the PCSO (Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office) scandal is really one reprehensible incident?" This same priest recently launched an 'Erap-Resign' campaign in Lucena, a crusade geared for Gloria to come out and start punching the screaming meemies out of the Estrada administration.

To recap: Gloria fired Wednesday her first salvo against Erap by taking the side of Sister Christine Tan. The good sister disclosed that about P430 million in PCSO funds were allocated for the use of the President, the First Lady, and their son San Juan Mayor Jinggoy Estrada. And only over P60 million to the charity projects of the PCSO. Gloria compared the PCSO "scandal" to the BW Resources Corp. sting. She said both should be thoroughly probed and guilty heads should roll.

An irate and stunned president scolded GMA, saying she was a member of his cabinet and struck a warning matchstick in her face. Gloria, instead of standing her ground, according to reports, according to Fr. Enriquez, said she was misquoted by media. In the unraveling, the president declared, "There are no thieves in my family," while First Lady Dra. Loi Ejercito said she could account for all the money she received from the PCSO.

Ever the firebrand, Sister Christine said, "I think she (the First Lady) is putting a noose around her neck." All she said, Sr. Christine recalled, was that PCSO funds were allocated to the First Lady's office, period. Now Malacañang's propagandists are out to destroy the reputation of Sister Christine. Fat chance. The good sister is Gibraltar, her character hewn from granite, her good works and sacrifices for the poor cast on a formidable mountain ledge.

Sister Christine didn't say anything in this regard, but it was obvious.

The popular perception is that the P430 million in PCSO funds is money milked by the powers-that-be, particularly the Estrada family, for political and other purposes. No different from presidential pork barrel, in fact probably even worse. Because there is no check and balance. Listen to the good sister again: "The first was the manner in which we were kicked out. The second and more important was how the First Family has drawn from PCSO funds for benevolence in their name."

The "second and more important" -- the emphasis on the First Family -- is a bomb blast unhinging almost all the furniture in Malacañang. And so the Palace has sent out all the fire engines to douse the conflagration set off by Sister Christine. And my five gets your four that dirtying, and blemishing her name will be for naught. It is like assailing a forest fire in the Azores with a dozen buckets of water. This is a Christian nation and the faithful will rally around Sister Christine. You bet.

Now we go back to Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. I do not think she is sayang as Fr. Enriquez claims. That was a good sign, the position she took apropos Sister Christine and her blast at the BW Resources scandal. Previous to that, she was all sweetie-sweetie with Erap Estrada, a rose garden the president smelled with sheer delight. Now, GMA is beginning to have the instincts of prowling cheetah. She knows (I hope) that if she does not move now or soon, the denizens of the surrounding political jungle will devour her.

What exactly is the situation?

This. There is no effective leadership, no road-map for the nation. There is scandal after scandal, boo-boo after boo-boo, stigma after stigma, outrage after outrage, ignominy after ignominy. They continue to stagger Malacañang like a howling desert storm. It doesn't let up. The economy is bleeding, the citizenry is fast losing heart, the president's net approval rating has melted to near zero. There is war in Mindanao which could get much worse, street demonstration almost by the day, a restless and disgruntled military, a dirty and corrupt political system that has lost all reason for being.

It is in dire circumstances like these that the nation looks for a brave man or a brave woman. A leader. A voice that rises in the darkness. Steps down the mountain and with it the banging of gongs that address the urgent issues threatening the republic's existence. Cronyism. Graft and corruption. Grinding poverty. Spiral of prime commodity prices. The Marcoses and their colossal loot. The war pitting Filipino against Filipino in Mindanao. The smell of utter decay in Metro Manila and our cities. A resurgent left. A threatening right.

Who speaks for the nation in Congress? Hardly anybody. Who in the cabinet is a brave prince that speaks wisely and well? Nobody.

The road is downhill, dangerously downhill. This is what Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo must understand. She remains the most popular public figure in the Philippines. And that is her main asset. She makes the jump now and the people will follow her. Outside of a still far-behind Raul Roco, there is nobody to follow. GMA doesn't make the jump now or soon, and there could be a mudslide. And she could politically go under. The example of a democratic Afghanistan storming into a military dictatorship is too close for comfort. Knives are now being sharpened in the dark by political adventurers, would-be messiahs and tinhorn caudillos. Out to do our democracy in.

If Gloria jumps, these could happen: (1) She unites what remains of the good elements of the opposition; (2) She could bring about the resurgence of the "critical mass" that made EDSA happen in 1986; (3) She could bring in the support of Cory Aquino and Jaime Cardinal Sin without whom any Third Force in Philippine politics is a pipe-dream; (4) She could ignite a torrent of favorable media publicity here and abroad; (5) She could bring sanity back to Philippine politics.

But all that requires guts, conviction, principle. And this is where GMA will have to prove herself.

Theodore H. White, one of my all-time favorites, a journalist and author par excellence, once wrote: "Men always have the choice between chaos and order, and generally prefer order. But order requires power and all power is exercise, in final analysis, by individual men (or women). Every president is subject to the traditional danger of the prince-in-his-court -- that he will be suffocated by the flatter of his servants, his information choked by what his bureaucrats report. The leader thus desperately needs an independent check." Right he is.

And, I might add as I have said before: Politics is war. This GMA must understand. A general or a field marshal mobilizes his men in the name of national passion, and thus they are ready for any field of battle. Politics is mobilization of the best of political forces that exist, supported by symbols of public morality, in our case the Church and Cory Aquino. And with that mobilization, you also mobilize new ideas, concepts, principles. The present must give way to the new, and as many of the biggest political scoundrels that exist must be slain in the ascent.

It is no good to listen to bureaucrats or those in the business community who engage in voodoo economics. They say our fundamentals are still good, beer sales are increasing, many foreign investors remain, so the future of our economy looks okay. That's bull manure. The economy stays above the water because millions of working Filipinos abroad send in their dollars by the billions. But even this is canceled out by a population that increases at 2.4 to 2.6 percent annually. And a poverty that gallops.

So just to break the ice, why not a Third Force senate slate proposing the following for starters: Serge Osmeña, Bert Romulo, Oscar Orbos, Dick Gordon, Joker Arroyo, Butz Aquino, Solita Monsod, Perfecto Yasay, Rene de Villa, Rene Saguisag, Haydee Yorac, Ting Ting Cojuangco, Gary Teves, Bobby Tañada, Mike Mastura, Serafin Cuevas, Paul Dominguez, Adolf Azcuna.

You gotta admit this is a formidable attack force.