The gripes of wrath

The President has to slow down. "Haste makes waste" may be an old adage, but it remains a good admonition. If she rushes pell mell into a panicky Cabinet revamp, she’s bound to make more mistakes – and these "errors" could be irretrievable. (Some already are!)

True: She’s been getting confusing signals from those around her, from the media, and from pressure groups, and from those blowhards who claim to speak for "society", the "church", or the masa. She had previously said that when she decided to declare she was not going to run for re-election, she consulted only God. That is still the best formula. At the risk of sounding preachy, may I reiterate that God speaks to us in whispers, through our own conscience – not through press releases, so-called "people power" demonstrations, or even poll surveys. We keep on saying Vox populi, Vox Dei (the voice of the people is the voice of God). That sounds cute and convincing – but, when you examine the concept more closely, it just isn’t true.

Sometimes the people listen to the devil more eagerly and avidly than they harken to God – the devil promises more delights, as he did Jesus on the Mount of Temptation. Remember, it was the people – the Jewish masa – who chose Barrabas, the notorious bandit, over Christ, and shouted out to the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate about Jesus: "Crucify him!" I’m sorry to say it, but that was "people power" manifesting itself on that day.

I was one of the multitude of protesters at the "People Power" barricades of EDSA in February 1986. We were there when it counted. But once was enough. When such things become habitual, ad nauseam and ad absurdum, like the tricycle drivers demonstrating and blocking the roads to Malacañang, then the people have become powerless in the face of the mob.

It’s time to restore order – and common sense. Not just on the streets, but in our hearts.

* * *

TIME magazine in its January 13th issue ran an article about GMA’s decision not to post for re-election by correspondent Anthony Spaeth entitled: The Long Goodbye.

Said the newsmagazine: "Revolution and martyrdom are powerful concepts in the Philippines. Few people recognize this as well as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. After all, she was elevated to the top job in 2001 through a popular uprising that ousted President Joseph Estrada. Last week, Arroyo attempted to switch from revolutionary hero to political martyr by announcing she wouldn’t run for the presidency in the scheduled May 2004 elections.

"According to Arroyo," Spaeth recounted, "renouncing her chance for a second term will allow her to tackle the country’s mounting problems without the compromises and pressures that go with candidacy. She says the so-called People Power II revolution that installed her tore the nation apart, pitting her middle-class and business-sector supporters against the impoverished masses who preferred Estrada despite charges that his administration was corrupt.

" ‘Since I am among the principal figures in the divisive national events of the last two or three years,’ she said, "my political efforts can only result in never-ending divisiveness’."

Did Mike Arroyo really say what Spaeth subsequently attributes to him? TIME quotes the First Gent as declaring: "She got fed up with all those constant threats," he told reporters, ‘Now she can tell those people F___ you, I will do what is right for the people’."

My, my. Mike must have been so pissed off, he used the "F" word.

The writer comments that "Arroyo says she is sacrificing her political career for the public good. But by renouncing the leverage of incumbency, she may have turned herself into a lame duck. She has also exposed her country to an unusually drawn-out presidential race, raising the likelihood that little will get done."

TIME adds that "in ever-skeptical Manila, there are suspicions that Arroyo’s pull-out was a cynical play for public support – and that she’ll decide to run after all. But the 55-year-old former economics professor and devout Catholic is widely viewed as a straight-shooter. Many assume she’s simply lost her taste for the game – not least because so little has gone right since she took over. The Philippines, she said, is ‘now closer to the category of backward countries, wherein powerful selfish interests are able to exploit poverty and ignorance.’ She also complained of a political atmosphere filled with ‘poison’ – presumably a reference to fierce criticism of her husband and his alleged dealings with Congressman Mark Jimenez, who was extradited to the US last month on fraud charges."

Spaeth points out that thus far only one politician, former Education Secretary Raul Roco has "formally announced an intention to run for the presidency." Among plenty of other "possible aspirants," the magazine mentions Fernando Poe Jr., "like Estrada, he is an action-movie star", as well as "rumors that ex-President Fidel Ramos might join the fray, although his candidacy could be blocked by a clause in the Philippine Constitution . . ."

TIME published, to illustrate its piece, photographs of four would-be candidates in its "short list". Along with FPJ, FVR, and Roco was one of former national Police Chief (now Senator) Panfilo "Ping" Lacson. Under the sub-caption of "The Tough Guy", the caption-writer said of Lacson that he "cracked down on crime and kidnapping as top cop. And he’s an ally of still-popular former President Joseph Estrada."

I can’t resist making the remark, though it sounds like a pun (the "lowest form of humor"): Only time will tell.

* * *

Outgoing Public Works and Highways Secretary (incoming Justice Secretary) Simeon Datumanong announced yesterday that he is firing 13 DPWH officials and employees in connection with the nefarious P182-million scandal involving fake vehicle repairs. Surely many more are involved, but let's leave that for the investigators to establish.

The President is reportedly insisting that pending investigations be speeded up and crooks ferreted out and nabbed, so she can have a better report card to present in her next "State of the Nation Address".

If this is the case, she must not forget – while launching high-profile reforms and "revamps" (which thus far have been reshuffles only) – the true, terrified state of the nation. What her government has neglected, and continues to neglect, is street crime: The daily "terror" that grips ordinary citizens, mostly those who walk home, or to work, or school, ride jeepneys, buses, FX taxicabs, or live in under-policed neighborhoods. There are scores of cellphones, for instance, seized at gunpoint or knifepoint daily, muggings, armed robberies on public transportation vehicles, and snatchings of handbags, jewellery, and other valuables on the street, akyat bahay intrusions, robberies of small stores. One small cellphone stall, for instance, was emptied of its wares in broad daylight by three armed men while passers-by scampered away, agape, and an FX taxicab waited at the curb to receive the "loot".

My nephew, a Jesuit priest, was walking along East Avenue a few months ago when he was hemmed in by three men. One of them, brandishing a knife, told him to hand over his cellphone – or else. Cellphones are "big business" for robbers, while those divested of them (since they cost a few thousand pesos apiece, even the cheapest ones) are financially devastated – and, worse, suffer a sense of personal violation. Don’t sneer at these occurrences: It’s the "cry of the little people" that the President, and the PNP Chief, Police Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. must heed.

It was right of General Jun Ebdane to have rejected the idea of extending the extension of tenure of 21 police generals scheduled to retire this year. I hope the President will back him up on this. In particular, she must not agree to the request of Chief Superintendent (General) Reynaldo Berroya of the Civil Security Group for a "four-year" extension. Berroya is already viewed by many as "teacher’s pet". Teacher must show everyone she is even-handed and just.

What we need is more cops, younger ones, and better cops. Some of the "oldies" may have been good policemen, but enforcing law and order and chasing after criminals is a profession for the fit and the strong, not those afflicted with arthritis, not just of the body but of the mind.

* * *

I think the United States will soon "go for broke" on Iraq. The bugles are blowing. The troops are being ordered to the "front". The Pentagon is mobilizing nearly 20,000 reservists and national guardsmen. Even the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, one of the heaviest of the US Navy’s modern carriers, was turned back from its voyage to home port in the US and returned to station in Australia – to await battle orders.

One straw in the wind is that Filipino-American seamen in the US Navy have been bringing their families "home" to relatives in the Philippines before proceeding to rejoin their units at sea, or new postings in Diego Garcia island in the Indian Ocean.

The timetable nobody knows just yet, but things may come to a head a few weeks from now.

Will US President George W. Bush back down, after some more sabre-rattling? Not likely. Remember, the old 18th century marching song which went: "The Duke of Marlborough, he had 10,000 men. He marched them up the hill, then he marched them down again."

Few believe that Dubya Bush will march them down again. Can’t you smell it in the air?