Legitimacy of GMA’s presidency

David Murphy, MD, with whom I have been having a running interaction during the past several months, is almost through Aprodicio Laquian’s book titled, The Erap Tragedy and subtitled Tales from The Snake Pit. "If I can be permitted a brief moment of smugness, their description of the man they knew intimately confirms what you printed about Erap’s sanguine personality. It’s nice to be right once in a while, eh?" he said.

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The other thing that struck Dr. Murphy is that the Laquian’s, obviously very intelligent and erudite people, still question the legitimacy of the process that brought President Macapagal-Arroyo to power. He suspects it has to do with his American biases.

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"I realize that I may be charged with assuming that the Philippines is a small version of the United States. It’s hard for me to refute this because I know only a little about Filipinos and the Philippines and I don’t understand all that I know. I offer these thoughts on the grounds that they deal with Universal Truths and not with specifics of governments or political institutions," he added.

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As Dr. Murphy stated it, the American Declaration of Independence starts, "When in the course of human events…" and goes on, first, to acknowledge the gravity of their action and the necessity to explain their decisions and second, to justify the colonies’ rebellion against their mother country. Ultimately the thesis is that when all legal remedies have been exhausted, one may choose to supercede man-made laws with recourse to the laws of a Higher Power. "The language is majestic, although somewhat archaic, and the principles are at least as valid today as they were over two hundred years ago," he opined.

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"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness," Dr. Murphy said.

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"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security," he said.

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According to Dr. Murphy, these precepts are directly applicable to the induction of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo into the office of president on January 20, 2000. He justified his thesis in the following manner:

"When men of good conscience and intent have applied all legal means to correct an injustice, and when those who have sworn to serve the people and ensure justice have used the power they were granted to pervert the law and make themselves invulnerable to those legal means, responsible men must be guided, not by the same legal systems which the powerful have invalidated and emasculated, but by immutable moral, ethical and logical principles as best they can apprehend them, recognizing the gravity of their actions and, except under the most egregious of circumstances, eschewing violence as a means of reinstituting the rule of law."

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Or, with the shortcomings of oversimplification: When the holders of supreme power put themselves above the law, it is necessary to go above the law to restore it. Shorter still: Above all else, let ‘common sense’ prevail, Dr. Murphy concluded.

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Ernie Pinzon, associate pastor, of the Saipan Community Church in Saipan, set a note from that US commonwealth, asking me to report on the kind deed of our Consul General, Julia C.  Heidemann who is assigned in Saipan. According to Pinzon, his son’s flight from Saipan International Airport to Manila was at 2:30 a.m. April 16, 2002.   He was at the airport by 11:30 p.m.

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To Pinzo’s consternation, he was told that his son’s notarized authorization for him to travel as a minor with a friend would not be accepted.  This friend was going home to Kolambogan, Lanao del Norte, the same destination as his son.  "My stomach immediately sensed tragedy in the making.  The airline people would accept only a document that came from the Philippine Consulate.  It was about 12 midnight, and you can imagine the knots in my stomach," he said.

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Pinzon then thought of Consul General Julia C.  Heidemann.  They rushed to her house at past midnight.  They woke her up and with great embarrassment explained the emergency nature of their visit.  Still in her nightgown, the Consul graciously comforted them.

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She called her staff from across town and woke them up.   By this time, it was already 1:00 a.m. At 1:45 a.m., the Pinzons were leaving the consulate office with the precious document and speeding on their way to the airport.   They made it and his boy arrived in the Manila the next day.

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Pinzon added that Richard Heidemann, Julia’s husband, was so supportive all the way until it was all over.  "I intended to hug our consul but gave it instead to her husband," Pinzon recalled.

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"Thank you very much, Art.  I hope this letter would encourage our people at the Department of Foreign Affairs and countrymen in different countries," he added.  

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Thoughts For Today:

Although each day brings challenges
and things that are unknown,
you need not face them by
yourself or deal with them alone.
For others care about you
and will keep you close in prayer,
and above all, God will guide you
for His love is always there.

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My e-mail addresses: [email protected] and [email protected]