A silly season

What is the President promising? To eradicate jueteng in one year? To reduce corruption in government service by one half in three years and wipe it out completely by the end of her term in 2010? How can such timetable be set? Just do it.

If La Presidenta’s Independence Day pledges are met with the usual skepticism, she mustn’t be surprised. Everybody recalls she once promised not to run for reelection. As for jueteng, she knows who are the godfathers and godsons of that racket which fleeces the poor and betrays their dreams, while corrupting and enriching politicians, policemen, judges and other "lucky" officials.

Is the Royal Family tainted by this less than original sin? Tell us how a young buck can maintain a stable of 25 to 30 thoroughbred race horses and studs, some of them imported tax-free from Australia, etc., through the National Olympic Committee and the Racing Commission – on his measly salary? Surely, he didn’t win the Sweepstakes, or the super-jackpot in jueteng.

Let’s take President GMA up on her pledge, then, to wipe out jueteng. It’s our only option, as well as her only option.

On the other hand, what’s all this wild talk about forcing GMA out of office, overthrowing her, or "impeaching" her? Never happen. This isn’t because people think GMA is "innocent", didn’t somehow rig the elections, or is Madam Perfect. This is because any alternative which presents itself looks worse than the status quo.

No matter how many tapped phone calls or "tapes" are "revealed" and aired, don’t think we can expect a convulsion, a climate of disgust may be created but nobody will move. Everybody’s exhausted by this non-stop litany of exposés, denunciations, and pontificating.

One of the silliest statements I saw published in the past week is that of Bishop Ted Bacani’s, who exhorted GMA to examine her conscience and step down if she really cheated in last year’s election. Monsignor Bacani’s remarks were reportedly made on Radio Veritas last Saturday. What? GMA "confessing" she had cheated then "returning" (as Bacani proposed) the election she had "stolen"? Stolen from whom? If she stole it from FPJ, the Opposition’s candidate Ronnie – as his widow, Susan Roces, said – is no longer alive to accept the Presidency. But in your wildest dreams, could you imagine La Emperadora saying she had "cheated"? Susmariosep. Our good bishop should go back to condemning condoms.

Is it true that Bishop Bacani is one of the instigators of the Samuel Ong "exposé" – and where is Ong now? He was scheduled to leave the "sanctuary" of San Carlos Seminary last night. If so, why? There are so many finger-pointers in this land that one is bewildered as to their moral authority. As for me, as an admitted sinner, I can offer only the worm’s-eye-view of any situation.

Yesterday, at 2 p.m. they held another panic meeting in Malacañang. What’s there to panic about really? Those who seek to overthrow GMA are in disarray, or disappointed at the lack of turn-out. But the current crisis, hopefully, will be a wake up call – at last. Remember the old adage: "You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time – but not all of the people all of the time."

Keep your renewed "promises", then, Madam President. Crush jueteng no matter who gets crushed with it. Crack down on corruption even within your own charmed circle. Don’t give us a timetable or deadline: just do it as quickly and effectively as you can.

GMA is fortunate that those who plot her downfall don’t come to the fore with clean hands. Nor can they offer our distressed and disillusioned nation leadership of a more inspiring kind. All the "cures" being offered appear worse than the disease. But I’ve said that before.

The problem with being a so-called opinion writer is that you find yourself repeating yourself. Over the decades I’ve written this column, when I review those old clippings, the crises seem to be similar to each other, even though the names have changed. Of course the amounts involved get bigger and more scandalous by the year.

Almost half a century ago, one of our most popular columnists, who died some years ago, wrote as he frothed at the mouth: "The Philippines is going to the dogs!"

The dogs have had a good long wait.

* * *

If there weren’t so many crises plaguing the world simultaneously from Darfur to Bolivia, to Iraq and the confrontation with North Korea, I’d be really worried about what the "outside" world is thinking. However, our reputation is already so bad abroad that we’re off the "radar screens" of many countries, while the others shrug and quip, "What do you expect of the Philippines?"

Once in February 1986 we had one brief shining moment called "People Power". The world, remember, literally stood up in admiration to applaud us. Today, from misuse and overuse, People Power has become a joke.

Yesterday, at the luncheon tendered in the Inter-Continental Hotel’s Skyroom by our astute Secretary of Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Bert Romulo (not to be confused, once more I say, with "Triple R"), I learned that two important state visits are in the offing – on the same day. On June 20th, the President of Indonesia, (retired General) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is arriving here. A few hours later, the same night, the President of Gambia, Dr. Yahya A. J.J. Jammeh, will be arriving, too. How these two very important chiefs of state will be handled on the same day will be a feat of legerdemain. But this just goes to show that we can expect "business as usual".

It’s self-evident why S.B.Y., who leads our next-door neighbor, the world’s most populous Muslim nation (220 million people), is important to us. Indonesia, which is bracing itself for more terror attacks from the Jemaah Islamiyah (the al-Qaeda linked group which bombed Bali, the J.W. Marriott hotel, and the Australiam Embassy in Jakarta – as well as targets in Metro Manila and Mindanao) is our ally in the war against terrorism.

Gambia’s President Yahya is also very important – he is prominent in the Organization of the Islamic Conference, is active in the World Trade Organization, and will be the first African President to come on a state visit to our country.

After the lunch in honor of Italian Ambassador Umberto Colestanti, in which Secretary Romulo delivered a graceful address and toast in which he quoted Virgil, Dante Alighieri, and cited everything yummy Italy has given the world from pasta to Pavarotti, not to forget Opera’s Maria Callas, Bert told me he was leaving for Qatar today for a meeting, then, on June 22, he would be in New York to chair the Inter-Faith Dialogue in the United Nations, and finally, he would go to Yemen to make the Philippines’ bid for observer status in the coming OIC meeting there. May I wish Bert a happy and successful trip. He’ll need all the stamina he can muster to meet such a hectic schedule.

When one attends diplomatic functions, it’s also an opportunity to pick up other scuttlebutt. In this case, I hasten to say my "source" was not brother Bert. I hear that Washington DC has changed its mind. It’s no longer Ambassador Cameron Humes who’s coming here as the next US envoy to Manila.

They’re picking, I’m informed, somebody more – "aggressive". Who? Don’t ask me. I’m just your neighborhood rumor-monger.