Food for thought - JAYWALKER by Art A. Borjal

Amidst the ringing national clamor for President Estrada to resign and the awesome numbers that the pro-Erap forces marshalled to attend yesterday’s Day of Prayer at the Rizal Park in Manila, let me for today present the thoughts of two well-known personages on the raging political and economic crisis. The two are Rep. Wigberto Tañada and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Chairman Felicito "Tong" Payumo.

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Bobby Tañada had publicly expressed his belief that the removal of the President through extraconstitutional means would only "create a dangerous precedent that would open the gateway to the instability and erosion of the key institutions of our democratic state." The congressman from Quezon said, in a recent speech before Ateneo student council officers, that "the process of impeachment will be enormously difficult but the lines must hold." The bottom line, Bobby said, is in the Constitution and the legal processes and procedures it mandates for any legitimate change of government.

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At the end of the day, Tañada said, our people will be judged by how strong and true they have kept faith in the Charter and the democratic institutions that form the nation’s foundations. "I know my position will not sit well with those who expect stronger words from me, but I have to live with myself at the end of the day. And for me, this stand is an act of conscience, no matter how unpalatable it may seem to many quarters," Tañada said.

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One major point of Tañada is that President Erap must be given the benefit of the doubt. And he hoped that "the man, who once voted with us in the Senate for the expulsion of the US military bases and was elected as friend to the poor, will put the interest of his country first."

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Tong Payumo had an equally compelling line of reasoning. In a think piece that he prepared, Payumo said that "Getting off the constitutional track and into the streets can lead us to all sorts of adventurism where the end game is unpredictable." Tañada’s piece on a "dangerous precedent" and Payumo’s warning of an "unpredictable end game" point to this: That any triumphant effort to oust President Estrada beyond the procedures outlined in the Constitution is going to damage the Office of the President. In other words, it will make the President’s successor and all future presidents vulnerable to the mass action protests that are now lashing at President Erap’s very back. Real food for thought.

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They were all socialites, most of them apparently senior citizens, but still as beautiful as they were, during their younger years. They came in dazzling gowns, with their precious earrings and necklaces and other glinting jewelry, their husbands and dancing escorts in tow. It was the yearly Charity Ball of the Smiles Club, held this time at the Makati Sports Club, an affair so carefully and thoroughly prepared, for almost a year, by organizing committee headed by Doña Josefina Paras Gonzales and her co-chairperson Elsa Syjuco.

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The Charity Ball, which was made more meaningful by the fact that it also marked the 88th birthday of Ms. Gonzales, is actually the Smiles Club members’ gesture of love towards their less fortunate fellowmen. When she dropped by my office about four months ago to inform me that the Good Samaritan Foundation had been selected as the beneficiary of the Smiles Club Charity Ball, Ms. Gonzales, who has been a regular contributor to the Good Samaritan Fund, appeared so enthusiastic about her project.

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Ms. Gonzales, who looked 20 years younger than her 87 years, also told me that, even at that early time, she and her co-members, all ardent enthusiasts of ballroom dancing, were already preparing for the Charity Ball and its main feature, the "Orchid Waltz Dance," to be performed by 12 pairs. "Be sure that you and your Good Samaritan staff will be there, to watch the dance, and to receive the Smiles Club donation," she said.

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There I was, at the Makati Sports Club, on Thursday evening, November 9, and it was, indeed, a pleasure to gawk at the beautiful ladies and their handsome escorts, as they arrived in pairs or in fours, some of them with their nurses and yayas in tow, to attend the 2000 Charity Ball. And when they began dancing, to the tune of the songs rendered by a well-known live band, I was amazed at how the ladies, although advanced in years, could gyrate and swing and sway to the music of Romy Posadas’ band.

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Definitely, the work done by Ms. Gonzales and Ms. Syjuco, with their co-members Amparo Castro, Lulu Lee, Concepcion Licaros, and Tita San Buenaventura, in preparing the Smiles Club’s Charity Ball, showed they really worked hard. The exhausting preparation took its toll on the grand lady who was the affair’s chairperson, Ms. Gonzales. Last Wednesday morning, as she and her co-members were rehearsing for the Orchid Waltz Dance, Ms. Gonzales fell ill from sheer exhaustion, and she had to be rushed to the Makati Medical Center. Which was why I missed the chance to personally extend to her my birthday greetings, and to thank her for the Smiles Club’s donation of P100,000 to the Good Samaritan Foundation.

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Fortunately, though, my Ateneo de Manila schoolmate Roy Paras Gonzales, who runs the popular fabled "R.T. Paras" shop at Quezon Avenue, Quezon City, right in front of the Sto. Domingo Church, the son of Ms. Gonzales, was there to represent his mother. And it was to Roy that the Smiles Club handed over the bouquets of flower, and the birthday cake, and the birthday song that everyone sang, with gusto and sincerity.

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PULSEBEAT: In that memorable television broadcast, where military and police officials served as backdrop to President Erap’s announcement of reforms, a high-ranking religious leader was jolted. He had thought that the President’s promised reforms would include what the religious leader had advised him to announce: A declaration that none of his relatives would seek any elective post in the coming 2001 election. That advice was unheeded. This, my informant said, was the reason why President Erap had to motor to the religious leader’s central headquarters, to make amends for the omission . . . President Erap’s admission that there was a P200 million "donation" given by Chavit Singson must now be giving a nightmare and horrendous headaches to the President’s legal advisers and damage control strategists. The implications of that admission are far-reaching.

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Art A. Borjal’s e-mail address: <[email protected]>