A graceful exit looms / Kobe Bryant is back

I don’t think we are about to slam head-on into a constitutional crisis. The way I figure it the protagonists – particularly Congress – are looking for a graceful exit. They realize that if they don’t, the republic could stagger like Humpty-Dumpty then – as the ditty says – have a great fall. Even the arrogant Nationalist People’s Coalition, headed by the equally brash Eduardo (Danding) Cojuangco, cannot afford its continuing exposure to the outrage and condemnation of civil society. Mr. Cojuangco gambled with his Brat-Pack. Now he probably realizes he gambled wrong. He was fighting a war he couldn’t win, at the wrong time, in the wrong territory, against an implacable enemy.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo sought the high ground with her Covenant. But this too was a dud. Only such highly esteemed women leaders like Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi could push through such a covenant. But not GMA. The presidential stature had woefully plummeted. Most of the time, she now speaks in the political wilderness, punier and more pathetic than ever. Speaker Jose de Venecia has been badly battered and bloodied in the process. Now he walks on matchstick legs, mumbling "win-win" all by his lonesome in the dark. A somnambulist he has become.

Even if the impeachment process does not materialize, nobody really wins.

Everybody loses. The impeachment brawl should never have been triggered off in the first place. It weakened the republic even more. It showed Congress in its worst light, if that is still possible, avid for more power and more money. It sought a stranglehold over the nation. It wanted a Supreme Court supine and spineless in its pocket. The biggest loser, I think was GMA. She rode the fence when things got messy. In riding it the scarce metal in her presidency disappeared, and what was left was lambent and sticky clay. The Judiciary too has been hurt and bruised, but not as badly, Chief Justice Hilario Davide held the fort and nobody could remove him from his perch.

Now, what’s the score really? I have always maintained that the system that held the Philippines together for 54 years since World War II is now beginning to crumble.

While it worked somewhat before, the presidency doesn’t work anymore. The legislature doesn’t work anymore either. The judiciary doesn’t work anymore, riddled as it is with corrupt judges and fiscals. I’ve heard the naughty comment that if only our congressmen and senators were suddenly shoved into coffins for immediate burial, including the president of course, then things might just work out. Anyway, let’s cut that out.

If the system is beginning to crumble, what could stop it?

Maybe, just maybe the 2004 elections. I have heard many say that if we elect the right man (is there a right man?), then things might just straighten up, and we could begin all over again. The trouble is that there is no political superman around. Virtually everybody is a Singer midget, a Tom Thumb, a paramecium masquerading as a pylon. We have no Jawaharlal Nehru, no Lee Kuan Yew, no Mahathir Mohamad, no Deng Xiaopeng. We do not even have a Thaksin now striding Thailand with seven seven-league boots.

Besides, the whole shebang is corrupt.

We realized that only too well during EDSA I and EDSA II. Bam! A corrupt, despicable tyrant disappeared in February 1986. Bam! Another corrupt, ne’er-do-well Neanderthal tumbled out of Malacañang in 2001. The daughter of Diosdado Macapagal took over. After all, GMA was the vice president. What ensued? Nothing. Nada. Rien. Nyet. The situation is much worse off than before. Above the ground, those in power live off the fat of the land. On the ground, 82 million Filipinos grovel, the scrabby flesh on their skin thinning by the day, the bones beginning to show.

So will the forthcoming elections make a difference?

I strongly doubt it will. The way I see it GMA is primed to win either by divine or human intervention, or a collusion of the Fates. there could be massive cheating. This is the first scenario. If this scenario does not work out, there is the Mindanao scenario, the martial law scenario, the national emergency scenario. Whatever. Pre-engineered or not, Turbulence and Maelstrom will take over, and an angry political sea will rage. This is probably the real trigger point. If the final proof is needed, the system does not work, this is it.

And even assuming after May 2004, GMA remains in power, the question emerges: How long can she stay in power? My surmise is by that time, the entire support system of our so-called democracy will have the shivers. Like the Twin Towers in New York during 9/11, the whole edifice could eventually run down in ruins to Ground Zero. Street demonstrations will take over like a mailed boot with the ominous tramp of history. This will then be the moment of truth.

Will the massed forces of the extreme Left possess the power to take over? Or can they easily be overpowered by the right, the Armed Forces that is, which even now, we understand, is preparing for the eventuality? Or, will civil society bolt out of the blue, organize itself and deter the Left and the right to take over. Is this what the so-called Third Force is for – a thunderbolt that will restore sanity or our deeply divided society? I understand such a Third Force, actually called BANGON!, is about to be formally launched in a few days and fill a void – that of nationalism – that the country crucially needs. If it is to survive and get to the next bridge.

What after all is nationalism but love of country? Love of country with a difference of course. It will be a covey of tanks, armed with the musketry of economic, political and social progress. This musketry will wake up the Filipinos from their stupor, unfasten their chains, ignite them to work and to high endeavor, restore their old spiritual values, link them again to God and the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. We as a nation have been lost for as long time, chained treated by our masters no different from the ruthless apartheid inflicted by the South African by the white Afrikaner.

We must break out. We must wrestle free. We must all breathe the air of freedom again. This system sometime will simply have to go.

* * *

Weeks we had been hearing Kobe Bryant was in a big, big hole. He had reportedly raped or assaulted a lady attendant in a vacation resort. We thought Kobe could easily get out of it. After all, he was famous, rich, with enormous resources. But the news got worse as the law got in. Kobe insisted there was no rape whatsoever and the whole thing was consensual, meaning both agreed to go to bed. Surprisingly, the lady fought back, insisted she was manhandled. The splatter of blood tended to prove there could have been rape. Although others said, even if it was consensual, there could still be blood.

Things looked bad for Kobe.

The examining magistrate decided there was enough evidence to justify the holding of a trial. Immediately, Kobe’s market value plummeted. Immediately, they said he had or would lose $150 million in endorsements. And if ever he would be convicted, he could spend half a year or most of all his life in the calaboose. Only next to Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant was the Los Angeles Lakers’ super-star. Of course, he was still far from being a Michael Jordan, but some said he would get there. Still in his mid-twenties, he was setting the basketball world afire with his versatility, his talents, his speed – and his rage.

It really would be a terrible pity if Kobe Bryant wouldn’t be able to play this season because he would be spending most of his time in court. Like him, hate him, Kobe was always a crowd-drawer because he performed a lot of visceral magic on the court. In the sense that Kobe wanted to hog the whole show, he was no Michael Jordan. And many resented him for refusing to blend with the team. In the sense that he and Shaq were often at odds, that was great for the team. They said Kobe was the best player. Shaq was the most dominant. So there.

Anyway, I thought, many of us thought that all the ordeal that Kobe had gone through as a result of the rape charges would hurt his game, stab his morale, drive him to despondency. We were wrong. Last Tuesday, the LA Lakers beat the Milwaukee Bucks 113-107. And guess what? Kobe scored a spectacular 31 points, even as the crowd heckled him everytime he had the ball. Shaq had 23 points, Gary Payton had 19.

Brash as usual, whiplash fast as usual, gritty as usual, Kobe Bryant remained Kobe Bryant. This is vintage Kobe. Hard times bring out the best in him. The bigger the challenge, the better he is. I used to hate the guy, revile him because he was such a braggart, a plumed popinjay on the court, very much in love with himself. But now you have to give it to Kobe. This is a guy who can thread a needle while falling off a cliff. He doesn’t blink in times of adversity.

And so, a long, low, admiring whistle as he passes by.