The latest political comedy unfolded with 15 minutes of fame for an NBI officer recently retired with stain of partisanship. Waving on television "master tapes of wiretaps", Sammy Ong rambled that Ms Arroyo resign for phoning Comelec officer Virgilio Garcillano to cheat in last year’s polls. But he forgot to do one thing: play his tapes. In the rush to the press meet actor-handler Rez Cortez, who like Ong had backed Ms Arroyo’s rival Fernando Poe, perhaps left behind an open-reel player. Or, Ong, a lawyer, must have gauged the consequence of running the tapes. For, he would have to detail how he illegally bugged the President to prove it’s her voice all right. Then, it’s the calaboose for him.
Pols of all stripes nonetheless quickly hailed Ong their hero or heel. Gofers of jailed ex-President Joseph Estrada rushed to San Carlos Seminary on EDSA, Makati to rouse people-power revolt, imploring US blessing. Roy Señeres, a former diplomat who has claimed the US would consent to oust Arroyo, was there with perpetual coup plotters. They erred big though. The priest they had tapped to take Ong to sanctuary is head of a group thought aligned with communists. By nightfall US embassy chargé d’affaires Joseph Musomelli was stating "the duly-elected government ... is not at any risk."
Still Estrada’s men hoped Poe’s widow Susan Roces would make the people rise. It was not to be. She did go to the seminary Saturday to hear out Ong, but left saying "my candidate is dead, there’s nothing to gain from this." In a radio talk the same time, Estrada’s disbarred lawyer Alan Paguia hinted that Ong could be a Malacañang wild card out to distract public attention from the tapes to himself. NBI chief Reynaldo Wycoco divulged that Ong, notorious for compiling dossiers on rivals for promotion, was once a partisan of Opposition Sen. Ping Lacson but switched to Poe.
Makati Mayor Jojo Binay, an Estrada trustee, rustled up a few dozen slum dwellers to ring the seminary and call for Ms Arroyo’s ouster. But the copycat EDSA uprising could not grow. They lacked two crucial elements: middle-class support, and viable alternative leader from the Opposition. And so Binay spent the rest of the day demanding in vain to be let into the seminary too, a radio station reported.
Arroyo loyalists had their own goof-ups. A PNP general, seeking his own 15 minutes of fame perhaps, dispatched a squad Friday night to arrest Ong. For what, it wasn’t clear. If for wiretapping, it would have been a gas had the unplayed tapes later dished out Simon and Garfunkel’s "Sound of Silence". Besides, Malacañang has been denying it was Ms Arroyo’s voice in two wiretap CDs that Press Sec. Ignacio Bunye earlier had given out to pre-empt Paguia’s own release of a third CD. The squad turned back, for it had no arrest warrant to begin with.
Last week also saw Administration senators reassessing their jueteng inquiry. They had aimed for legislation but fell into ruining reputations. No effort was made to delve into the 200,000-strong jueteng syndicates. Instead, witnesses unscreened for evidence were let to rattle off names of politicians – including Ms Arroyo’s son, Pampanga Rep. Mikey, and brother-in-law, Negros Rep. Iggy – in protection payolas. All were hearsay; three confessed vice lords said bagmen merely told them the payoffs were for the two and First Gentleman Mike. A fourth swore personally to have delivered cash to Mikey and Iggy. Still, such testimonies under normal rules should have been taken behind closed doors, for it’s only their word against the accused. Too late did the Arroyo allies realize they’d been had. Cajoled by Minority Leader Nene Pimental and Lacson who habitually employs parliamentary immunity to make unsubstantiated charges, they had made the inquiry in aid of the weekend destabilization.
Not comedy but drama pervaded a gathering at Malacañang Friday night, however. Scores of national and local leaders lined up to assure Ms Arroyo of help against a coup. Their constituents, they said, were paying no heed to the jueteng and wiretap stories, busy as they were with making a living. Speaker Jose de Venecia reminded them that Ms Arroyo had made painful, unpopular decisions – new taxes, less subsidies in the midst of uncontrollable fuel price surges – but all to raise money to better serve the poor. Her foes know Ms Arroyo is about to turn the economy around, de Venecia said, so they wish to pull her down before then.
Ms Arroyo was not to be ruffled by the coup murmurs. In the wake of the witness’ claim to have paid off Reps. Mikey and Iggy, she ordered the justice department to not spare her kin from prosecution for vice. On Friday she told a relieved Justice Sec. Raul Gonzalez to turn the probe over to the independent Ombudsman for good measure. Critics were left gaping: they could not nail Ms Arroyo after all. So they took to hooting for Mikey and Iggy to resign and Mike to disappear.
Ms Arroyo has done her part as President and mother, however. The investigation of Mikey and Iggy is about to start. But in a land where mere accusation is construed as proof of crime, Mikey and Iggy would do well to help the President dissipate the destabilization by going on indefinite leave from their posts. They could return after the investigation ends. After all, it is unlikely their accusers would come up with evidence. The jueteng stories were but a prelude to the wiretap issue, in turn the springboard for an Opposition daydream of a coup, Still, they musn’t let Lacson get away with it.