Think about it. How can GMA resist the temptation to be photographed with United States President George "Dubya" Bush, her phone pal, and be seen being "congratulated" (at least in photo op) by Bush on her . . . well, "re-election"?
This is a world in which psy-warfare "perception" of winning means half the battle won. A Bush handshake, whatever Dubya’s current troubles, means a lot in the awareness of us Little Brown Brothers.
Then there are the other chiefs of state who’re slated to fly to the US capital from their current G-8 conference in Georgia. Again, how can La Gloria not be seduced by the prospect of attending these funeral rites for America’s beloved 40th President in the company of France’s Jacques Chirac, Britain’s Tony Blair, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Germany’s Gerhard Schroeder, and the other world leaders, who rushed to the US from their D-Day ceremonies commemoration festivities in Normandy to the Georgia "summit" yesterday.
Why, even Japan’s Prime Minister, her friend Junichiro Koizumi, will be there.
Knowing that the world’s media will have their camera lenses focused on "The Gipper’s" funeral, wouldn’t La Emperadora dearly wish to be there, too?
At present, it’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Domingo Albert who’s officially scheduled to fly to Washington, DC to represent us at the memorial services. However, a contingent of GMA’s Presidential Security group was quietly supposed to have departed last night, "just in case" La Presidenta, at the last minute, decides to slip away – and speed off to DC.
Sure, Presidential Spokesman Toting Bunye, Deputy Ric Saludo, Media Bureau Chief Cerge Remonde, and Palace Finance and Administration Director Susan Vargas (the latter handles presidential trips abroad) have roundly denied any "plans" for GMA to skeedaddle.
But plans suddenly . . . er, change.
This is obviously why GMA, as a commander-in-chief still fighting a congressional "canvass" battle to retain her throne, doesn’t wish to be seen as deserting her Command Post, even if just for the weekend.
On the other hand, why not? She cannot meddle in what’s going on in Congress, whether in the frustratingly slow canvass or the acrimonious debate, with KNP re-electionist Senator Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel (who won third place, a stunning electoral victory) where his KNP opposition teammate, also re-electionist Senator Rodolfo "Pong" Biazon barely eked out a 12th place "win", is fighting a desperate rear-guard action like Horatius at the Bridge.
If anything, the Administration Gang, which has the weight of superior numbers in Congress, ought to be more "laid back", instead of growing noisily annoyed with the KNP opposition questioning every ballot.
I think that the slow turtle pace of the canvassing, very embarrassing in the world’s eyes, should not be force-marched or speeded up by the pro-Administration solons’ bullying (or Joker’s grandstanding). Let the opposition question, nitpick or even filibuster as they want. Why the stampede?
The problem is that GMA seems to want to be "proclaimed" pronto, so she can schedule her triumphal march into Cebu City for her "inauguration" on June 30. I say, easy does it.
The KNP wants the votes in Cebu province (not the city), Bohol, Iloilo and Pampanga more closely examined. What’s wrong with allowing closer inspection of those "questioned’ ballots? After all, the Supreme Court has already nixed the KNP petition to stop the canvassing.
In sum, the canvassing may be annoyingly slow, but it has to be credible, and, equally urgently, look credible.
The assassination attempt on Choy, however, is no laughing matter. A hardhitting broadcast journalist for the past 32 years, the outspoken Torralba had just left his radio station. Angel Radio DYAR station on Juana Osmeña street, at 2:45 p.m. yesterday, and had gotten behind the wheel of his white DAEWOO "Espero" car on Don Jose Avila street, when a gunman materialized in front of his vehicle and started shooting at him with a .45 caliber pistol.
How could the gunman have missed killing Choy from a distance of less than three feet? Torralba managed, though wounded, to grab his own .38 caliber pistol and fire back – five rounds, none of them hitting the would-be assassin, but obviously scaring him off. The gunman, in his 20s but unknown to Torralba, got into a white Nissan car, and sped away.
Eyewitnesses got the license plate number, though: UUJ-988 – and the Philippine National Police have flashed an all-points bulletin on it, while PNP Chief Director-General Hermogenes "Jun" Ebdane has personally ordered a regionwide manhunt.
Our STAR Cebu Bureau Chief Bobit Avila went to the Cebu Doctors Hospital where Choy is confined, after an emergency operation to remove two .45 caliber bullets from his body (the third penetrated but went through), and I spoke to Choy on the telephone.
Choy said, bravely, that he is "on the mend", but from his voice he is in pain. He thanked his lucky stars for his survival. (He didn’t mention being thankful for having a gun under his belt, but now the Pro-Gun boosters will have a field day, decrying us "Gunless Society" militants, for trying to disarm newsmen and other endangered species). In our Wild, Wild East society, where our communities are sometimes as hairy as Dodge City and Tombstone, there are pros and cons about gun-toting.
Who had the motive to try to murder Choy? Lately, he has been exposing local drug lords, but there are quite a number of enemies a radio commentator and column writer like Choy accumulates. Ditto for all of us who labor in the trenches of journalism.
I’m glad that our friend Choy escaped death this time. (I’ve ridden in that now bullet-holed DAEWOO of his two or three times myself.) To my surprise, Cebu Congressman Raul del Mar, another old friend, came on the phone when I was speaking to Choy Torralba. It turns out he, too, had rushed to the hospital when he heard about the shooting incident.
"Gee, Max," Raul said, "I was riding with Choy in that same car last night – we’d come home together from a political meeting." I told him to take care, too, in suddenly gun-happy Cebu.
As for Choy, he’s now got a police guard at his hospital door, provided by PNP Police Director Rolando Garcia (Region Office-7 for Central Visayas) and Superintendent Melvin Gayotin, officer-in-charge of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO). I’m naming them so their cops will be more alert. Torralba’s not out of danger yet.
Rep, Del Mar, though, revealed to me Choy’s most closely-guarded secret. His Wednesday novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, at the Redemptorist church in Cebu. Is this true? A hard-bitten journalist, Choy never confessed this to me. "This is what saved him," Raul intoned. Porbidang yawa, as they say, that is a revelation.