Everybody’s casting the ‘first stone’

Poor GMA.

To dunk her deeper into her sea of troubles, TIME Magazine (Asian edition) came out with its second cover of La Gloria in just a few weeks. Depicting a dour-faced Presidenta, the July 11th issue of the newsmagazine trumpeted: "FALLING FROM GRACE: Can Arroyo salvage her presidency?"

When I spotted our old pal, TIME Bureau Chief in Asia Anthony Spaeth in town a few days ago, I knew he had flown back from Hong Kong to do a new cover piece – a follow-up to that cover of his quoting GMA intoning, "The Lord Put Me Here" (meaning, the Presidency). Even then, Tony had been sarcastic. And so I asked him: "Will your new cover article be headlined: ‘The Lord Giveth, the Lord Taketh Away"?

Picking up the latest issue yesterday, I found my guess more than confirmed. Tony, along with many of us, had covered the last agony and death of the Marcos Empire in 1985-1986. But now, he’ll have to admit, there’s still no sign of "People Power", only a lot of people shouting.

Yet, I agree with Tony, and his correspondent here, Nelly Sindayen, my favorite half-Taosug. The tiny mini-subtitle on TIME’s cover said: "In a June 27 television appearance, Arroyo acknowledges a ‘lapse in judgement’. "

The implication is that this is where she flopped. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: that radio-TV "Hello, it was me!" confession was an awful lapse in judgment. As Spaeth put it halfway into his article, on page 15: "Arroyo has chosen to break an old rule of politics – ‘never apologize, never explain’ – in a gamble that she can rise above Manila’s deafening political noice and appeal directly to the people."

Although he tried to moderate his tone in the last paragraphs even that ending was barbed. The inside headline said it all: "UNDER SIEGE", followed by the subhead: "As vote-rigging scandal deepens and calls for her resignation grow louder, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is fighting for her political survival."

What proved interesting to Spaeth and company, as revealed by the major tagline it gave to one of his declarations, was the fact that her own former National Security Adviser, Congressman Roilo Golez (a former campus boxing champ from the US Naval Academy, Annapolis) had deserted her and was going all over town lambasting her.

The quote the newsweekly played up from Golez was: "(Arroyo) No Long Occupies the Moral High Ground . . . She’s Left With No Other Option but Resignation."

Wow.

Tony concluded his condemnatory report with the following lines: "Everything depends on whether Arroyo’s contrition clicks with the public and enables her to hold on to power – or whether it backfires, ‘I have a lot of stories of her courage and coolness under fire,’ says former adviser Roilo Golez. ‘She’s going to be tough. But when she made the decision to speak, the mea culpa thing, she was going into the unknown.’ So is the Philippines."

Photos speak volumes. TIME really did a sledgehammer job on GMA. One of its lead photos showed a bunch of Kadamay and Kilusang Mayo Uno, the radical leftist labor organizations glaringly turning thumbs down on La Gloria and brandishing lurid placards belting out the chorus: "No Way Out: Resign," "Do Not Delay: Resign," "No Other Way, Resign", "One Way Only: Resign", "No to Martial Law! Yes, To Oust GMA!" and "Oust the Fake President."

What's fascinating about this Anvil Chorus is why the Left is going for the jugular in such an obvious fashion.

* * *

Not to be outdone, NEWSWEEK Magazine (also July 11) also put GMA on the cover, but in the upper portion. The main cover boy was a South African businessman named Oscar Dube. At the right top was a passport-sized pix of a frowning La Gloria with the headline: "PHILIPPINES: Arroyo on the Ropes".

Inside, on page 34, the article written by George Wehrfritz and Marites Vitug put a . . . well, question mark at the end of that question.

The unflattering (to all of us) subheadlined said: "Once on the vanguard of change, the Philippines is embroiled in a sordid political soap opera."

If anything, the NEWSWEEK article while sharply critical was less hortatory and, in a sense, more balanced. It still said in its last segment: "Foreign investors, international aid organizations and even the ratings agencies hope Arroyo can weather the storm. They applaud her efforts to fix the fiscal crisis, knowing that a populist successor could easily rachet up spending again."

In ends with the lines: "Were Arroyo to resign, Vice President Noli de Castro would take the helm. The former television news anchor was the top vote getter in his 2001 senatorial race, but he’s perceived as a lightweight who would struggle to solve the many problems facing the Philippines. But, then, so has just about everybody else."

What’s worrisome is that – as I feared – the Supreme Court TRO freezing the Expanded Value Added Tax (E-VAT) appears to have screwed up the economy. The Philippine Stock Exchange crashed on Monday following the High Court’s resolution, its steepest one-day plunge since September 2001, while our peso faltered.

There you are. Probably the 13 wise Justices were well-intentioned. But you know how the ancient saying goes: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

International confidence in our viability and our seriousness of purpose in embracing the tough tax measures required to put a brake on our descent to hell "in a hand basket" (as the hoary expression goes) has been severely damaged by this development.

Worst of all, critics are now – in growing crescendo – blaming that adverse Supreme Court ruling on her. They sneer that GMA herself, by golly, allegedly influenced the Justices of the Court (she had appointed nine of the 13) to scuttle the controversial E-VAT because the pain it would cause on the population might provoke "hate GMA" riots and anti-government demonstrations.

In our malicious society, no matter what one does, one does wrong. More and more, James Fallows is being proved right about our "damaged culture".

* * *

If you’re a Bible reader – and even the Devil can quote scripture – you’ll recall the incident in the New Testament in which Jesus reproaches the mob eager to stone to death a woman "caught in adultery." The Lord had rebuffed the crowd by asserting: "Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone."

The evangelist records that, in response to Christ’s rebuke, the mob dispersed shamefaced – and the woman was spared. In sharp contrast, the worst sinners are today jostling with each other to cast "the first stone", with many more stones to follow. The woman concerned was not caught in adultery, but, according to unwise admission (of sorts, but not completely) "caught" in cellphone conversation.

The word which comes to mind is – shameless.

What I find offensive is that there is so much hypocritical ranting and perorating on the part of scoundrels who themselves revelled in guns, goons, gold, buffoonery, plunder, pillage and outright cheating.

In fact, everybody seems to want to take over the leadership of this scandal-shell-shocked country, slavering at the mouth with ambition, unctuously presenting themselves as saviors when, in their time, they were ravenous wolves and jackals – and would like a second chance to do a repeat performance. Then there are the sanctimonious would-be "kingmakers" and hopeful would-be beneficiaries of change. The "haves" and the "have-nots" in collision.

This is not a brief for GMA. What’s quite clear, though, is that none of the proposed alternatives look more appetizing. As for "the people" (all the loudmouths claim to speak for them) they don’t seem to be stirring. Perhaps they’re too exhausted – or to busy trying to survive – to get excited over what the Defenders of Democracy are shouting.

Let’s see what happens next. Much of the media – both domestic and foreign – is already in full cry against the embattled La Presidenta. In fact, the media is full of blood-curdling cries. But again, where are the people?

There used to be an old-fashioned admonition against "throwing out the baby with the bath." Everything’s being thrown out the window. What will be left?

* * *

This writer sneaked into Room 403 of the Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital yesterday to have a talk, with my compadre, former President Joseph "Ejercito" Estrada.

Erap had, from his "sickbed" there issued a manifesto, topped by the "Presidential Seal" and describing himself as "Millenium President Joseph Ejercito Estrada." With a copy of the manifesto in hand, I asked Erap if, indeed, that was his signature, and he said, "Yes". (No, it wasn’t "Jose Velarde").

Elsewhere in this issue you’ll read our News Editor Marichu Villanueva’s account of what former President Estrada wrote (having covered Malacañang for us through four Presidents, she knew Erap well, and, in truth, also spoke to him yesterday in person). So I won’t elaborate on what he’d written.

However, from our cozy chat – he was in nattily pin-striped pajamas – I can offer a few sidelights and asides. He reaffirmed that, as the press release stated: " . . . I categorically state that I am not after regaining the lost, stolen years of my legitimate Presidency."

He continued to call GMA "a fake President".

Yes, he wanted a civilian Council (of nine?) to take over leading the country. Susan Roces would be "the conscience" of that Council under the Erap plan.

I asked him how GMA would be evicted, and that so-called "council" put in place? He said he stood by his position that he didn’t want a military junta.

If not the generals (just as his own generals had once deserted him) who would dislodge Gloria? Estrada smiled, his moustache twitching, and replied, "the people". Gee whiz. That’s all I can say.

I must add that Erap has lost none of his charm and chutzpah. Four years in the calaboose and in his "rest house" in Tanay under confinement have not dulled his exuberance. But I left our cheerful reunion with the thought that behind his grin and half-bantering conversation is a lot of serious . . . er, plotting. Will Erap and his allies pull it off – whatever they’ve got in mind? Abangan.

In any event, I noticed that Erap goes on smoking heavily (despite the groans of his doctors who warn him that he’s got a touch of bronchitis and approaching emphysema). A pack of "Lucky Strikes" lay on his table.

Someone remarked that he might be criticized for having the effrontery to use the Presidential Seal on his manifesto and calling himself "Millenium President".

Erap smiled even more broadly, but asserted in all seriousness. "Don’t people still call FVR, "Mr. President?" Or Cory, "Mrs. President When you'r President, he declared, "you're President – and will be called thus for life." Former Ambassadors, he pointed out, are still called "Ambassador." Et cetera. What about former Sinners? Can’t they be called "Saints" But I grow facetious.

It’s always interesting to talk to Erap. Never make the mistake to think he’s become a clown, or a figure of fun or pity. He’s still in there – somehow – trying to get in that karate chops.