‘Coup talk’ startled everybody yesterday: Has the threat subsided? - BY THE WAY by Max V. Soliven

The report that troops were approaching Manila "from Isabela" yesterday and that a battalion of Special Action Force constables from the Philippine National Police (PNP) were ready to move against the government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo disturbed everybody who heard the rumors yesterday.

Indeed, since Friday there have been persistent "whispers" about some generals plotting to install a military junta. Where does fact end, and fiction begin? These stories will continue to circulate – true or false – until the new President has firmly established herself, and until the membership of her Cabinet and what sort of government she is mobilizing will be more clearly defined.

There’s no doubt that the military who "junked" former President Erap and crossed over at EDSA to La Gloria’s side remain watchfully waiting to see how things shape up in the fledgling President’s administration. Which is one compelling reason GMA quickly announced as her Executive Secretary, ex-Defense Secretary and former Armed Forces Chief of Staff (General) Renato de Villa. For much the same purpose, GMA promoted the PNP Deputy, General Leandro Mendoza, to PNP chief. She further retained "defected" National Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado in her Cabinet.

Will these measures be enough to stem unrest, resentment – and ambition – in our Armed Forces and PNP? The threat, it must be said, recedes with every hour that passes, but the brave new government isn’t completely out of the woods – yet.

* * *

Yesterday morning, deposed President Estrada (yep, he was deposed, he didn’t resign) stirred up the cauldron somewhat by dispatching a letter to the Office of the Senate President (still Aquilino Pimentel) which was dated "January 20, 2001", which said: "By virtue of the provisions of Section 11, Article VII of the Constitution, I am hereby transmitting this declaration that I am unable to exercise the powers and duties of my office. By operation of law and the Constitution, the Vice President shall be the Acting President."

In this manner, Erap attempted to convey that he wasn’t relinquishing the Presidency, that he was still President, and that GMA was only "Acting President." Indeed, the Section 11, Article VII, of the Constitution referred to states that "whenever the President transmits to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President."

I don’t wish to ascribe some sinister purpose to the former Chief Executive’s written declaration, but does this so-called notice of inability to perform his duties and responsibilities mean that, sooner or later, he intends to reclaim his office? That’s the only reading anybody literate can put on this strange missive. If so, one might ask, under what "circumstances" would the office of the President be re-claimed by Mr. Estrada? Is the message one which presages he might be restored by force? Certainly, when the note was made public, the international wire agencies and news networks were sent into a tizzy of speculation.

The Supreme Court, on the other hand, responded by swiftly convening and shooting the idea down. In a decisive move that may have turned the tide, the High Court, meeting en banc, issued a resolution yesterday afternoon which appears to have rendered the "written declaration" of the deposed President moot and academic. Owing to the importance and significance of this en banc resolution, perhaps I ought to quote it verbatim to be contemplated on by the readers:

"A.M. No. 01-1-05-SC. In re: Request of Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to take her Oath of Office as President of the Republic of the Philippines before the Chief Justice, Acting on the urgent request of Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to be sworn in as President of the Republic of the Philippines addressed to the Chief Justice and confirmed by a letter to the Court, dated January 20, 2001, which request was treated as an administrative matter, the Court resolved unanimously to confirm the authority given by the twelve (12) members of the Court to the Chief Justice on January 20, 2001. This resolution is without prejudice to the disposition of any justiciable case which may be filed by a proper party."

The resolution signed by Asst. Clerk of Court Ma. Luisa D. Villanueva clearly states that the oath of office that Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr., administered at noon on January 20 is for the position of President of the Philippines, not for "Acting President." This can only be seen as a move by the Court to head off a possible "constitutional crisis." It has to be pointed out, however, that the last sentence of the resolution did not permanently close the Supreme Court’s door to a constitutional question being raised in the future before the Tribunal itself, a so-called "justiciable" one. To the layman, alas, the intricacies of such legalese may be somewhat incomprehensible, but ruling against yesterday’s resolution by the same Justices who framed it seems very remote.

Oh, well. Ex-President Estrada, therefore, can still file such a motion, or some nuisance petitioner could do so to continue stirring things up. There are heat-seeking lawyers like, for instance, Oliver Lozano, who’s filed a number of nuisance cases before our courts, such as the one seeking a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to "halt" the government’s military offensive in Mindanao against the rebels of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). That’s what lawyers are all about.

By the way, those newspaper reports (also carried internationally by the Asian Wall Street Journal and other overseas dailies) that the presidential defense counsel in the Senate impeachment trial had "already left the country" are somewhat inaccurate. Erap’s lawyer, former Solicitor General Estelito "Titong" Mendoza, indeed, went to Hong Kong last Friday – but not because he was running away, like, say, the crony who started all the fuss, gambler Charlie "Atong" Ang as well as crony Jaime Dichaves. Titong Mendoza, after his usual weekend "rest" in Hong Kong, returned to Manila Sunday night. I know because we spotted him yesterday noon in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Was he the author of the Erap "letter", or was it another member of the defense panel in the aborted Senate trial? We’ll know in due time.

* * *

The speech delivered by GMA yesterday at the flag-raising in Malacañang was as eloquent as it was extemporaneous. It’s heartwarming she mentioned her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, for Dadong was indeed a truly earnest and honest leader. In fact, the Executive Order banning members of her family, relatives and in-laws from participating in deals with the government or receiving government favors is very similar to her father’s first Executive Order prohibiting the same thing.

A few weeks ago, at an intimate lunch hosted for me at the Rotisserie of the Inter-Continental Hotel, GMA’s husband, Mike Arroyo, assured us that if Gloria became President, he would give up "business" and refrain from participating in business or commercial transactions. Mike quipped: "Perhaps I’ll just be a photographer, because photography has always been one of my favorite hobbies." As a matter of fact, the fetching photograph used in Gloria’s campaign posters and handbills when she ran for Vice President and won a landslide victory, Mike recalled, had been snapped by him on the spur of the moment. The photo opportunity was seized by him when GMA was leaving the house for an appointment. He said to her: "Wait a minute. You look great the way you are today. Let me take a snapshot!" And that’s what produced the now-famous picture.

GMA is being pictured, by the way, as coming "from the elite." I guess that was her upbringing, because, when she was a kid her father, Dadong, was on the way up in his political career – and it’s true enough that Gloria went to Assumption College as a colegiala, and ended up in the Jesuit university of Georgetown in Washington, DC. On the other hand, her papa Dadong was a very simple man – as he would proclaim himself, "a poor boy from Lubao." I knew him well during his congressional days, and when he was still Vice President, bragging to me, with a twinkle in his eye, that he would someday, surely, become President. "That’s because," he would laugh, jokingly, "my name Diosdado means God-given!! Ha, ha, ha!" Seriously, though, he would add, he had "prepared" himself for the Presidency by earning two Ph.D.’s – a Doctorate in Economics and a Doctorate of Laws.

He used to recount endlessly that he was desperately poor. His classmates would josh him about his poverty. "When I was going to college," he recalled, "I had only two suits to my name – and had to be very careful not to damage them. I would wash one suit and hang it out to dry, while I used the other one. I always wanted to appear, even though extremely poor, tidy and well-groomed."

Dadong’s endearing trait was that he was always optimistic, even when faced with setback and disappointment. His theory about "winning" was simple, too. He believed in election by locomotion. He would go around shaking everybody’s hand and getting to know everybody. He was so industrious in his handshaking that he would "work" a room, until on more than one occasion he found himself shaking the hand of his own wife – Evangeline (GMA’s mother).

Those were the good old days. Cong Dadong wasn’t given a chance by most of the "power" elite and the influential politicians of the 1960s of defeating the incumbent President Carlos P. Garcia. CPG was himself a kindly man, but his subordinates and intelligence agents were ruthless and tough. They would jot down the license plate numbers of everyone rash enough to visit Macapagal in his San Juan residence – yes, DM lived in San Juan. The time came when among the few who dared park their cars in front of DM’s home were the late Rufino "Fenny" Hechanova and myself. I was the "boy" Publisher of The Evening News then (the Bulletin’s late Publisher, Gen. Hans Menzi, had saddled me with that half-derisive title). As it turned out, I was the only newspaper publisher who came out openly and categorically in support of the upstart challenger, Macapagal. The other dailies were in full support of President Garcia. But to my surprise (not his), he won.

"Within sight of victory," DM exuberantly rang me up, "I’m asking you to become my Press Secretary." However, I said, "No thanks," and had to convince Fenny Hechanova to take that thankless job – and, more difficultly than that, convince Fenny’s reluctant wife, Chit Melchor Hechanova, too.

I reminded Dadong, at the time, of our "compact." We had agreed: "I’ll be 100 percent for you till election day. The day after you take your oath of office, I’ll be your most relentless critic."

Within a year, I was no longer being invited to Malacañang. GMA knows all this, of course. She was the one who, years later, thoughtfully and gracefully arranged an intimate dinner in which Dadong, Evangeline, and my wife and I were reconciled.

Cabinet positions or government appointments, I knew from early on, are not for me. I’m a journalist. I’m proud of being one. The immortal blind poet laureate of England, John Milton, put it well: "They also serve who only stand and wait." We, in the noble profession of journalism, too, serve our people and our nation – we believe – the best way we can.

If La Gloria has the right stuff, as inherited from her father, she’ll do fine. She’ll be a President true to her legacy and her name.

* * *

THE ROVING EYE . . . US Assistant Secretary of State Stephen Boyd was scheduled to arrive last night for a one-on-one meeting with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today. Among the matters to be discussed is the enhancement of relations between the new government and Washington, D.C. Included among the items in the agenda, I’m informed by my "Deep Throat" sources, is the extradition of Mark Jimenez.