The template is not working

The template for ousting a Filipino leader has been used before. It was superbly implemented in EDSAs 1 and 2. The trouble is that same template is not working with President GMA. The Garci tape, Hyatt 10 resignation, impeachment, people power attempts, Cory, the Church and now extrajudicial killings and the coming May elections were meant to make her give up the ship. The surveys are already out that it will be an opposition victory and therefore a referendum against her. Her enemies have thrown the entire kitchen sink at her but she is still standing. You’ve got to hand it to her. She’s tough as nails. But that is only part of the story.

We will miss the point if we think it is just about President Gloria being tough that has kept her in power. Not so. It is also about Filipinos wanting to think for themselves. The economic figures help — they are better than ever. Despite dire predictions that will happen if she went ahead with E-vat, she did it and there were red faces among the Cassandras.

No less than David Rockefeller gave Cory Aquino the Leadership Bridging Award just in case Filipinos have forgotten her "international prestige" and that they might consider following her in EDSA when she calls for people power. Or maybe for a mass in Luneta when together with Cardinal Sin they demonized Charter change. As the crowning touch of this rescue attempts by her American friends, she was once again the TIME cover.

I know a few among the Hyatt 10 who have been telling friends they were just persuaded to join the attempt to oust her. They might not like her but they wished they were not so exposed doing a high profile act that turned into a dud. The Lakas-CMD congressmen/women who voted against impeachment were called all kinds of names and insulted publicly by those who did not know any better that impeachment is not a judicial proceeding but a political act. The numbers of this political act went in her favor. As for EDSA-like people protests, there were no takers except by their own crowds of leftists, some churchmen and Binay followers.

Should we grieve about these failed attempts to destabilize our country? I am afraid it is commonsense that rules. Among the people (not SWS or Pulse Asia surveys) none of the above will mean a better set of leaders or good governance.

I trace this template failure earlier than the Garci tapes. It came when President GMA pulled out the Filipino contingent before any other country because she understood that her first obligation was to Angelo de la Cruz. That is what provoked the oust Gloria movement.

Dana Dillon, a senior policy analyst in the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation wrote: "Over the last few months, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines has allowed Iraqi terrorists to determine the location, mission and staying power of her nation’s military commitments. And she has acceded to China’s expansionist plans in the South China Sea. But she has also accepted nearly $100 million a year in military, development and food aid from the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks, at the same time working against American interests on a variety of issues. Some ally."

Dillon adds and this is when it becomes ominous "the longer her administration makes foreign policy for the Philippines, the more it seems that threats from terrorists and regional bullies influence her more than diplomatic and financial aid from Manila’s friends and allies. On question after question, she has changed policies to put her and her erstwhile allies into weaker positions. At this point, she must be considered the weakest leader in the region."

It is her willingness to open to China that is really worrying some Americans. Dillon called her an equal-opportunity weakling for traveling to Beijing to sign an agreement with China to jointly explore for oil and gas inside the Philippine maritime territorial claims in the South China Sea and Spratley issue.

It can be confusing to Philippine watchers since the leftists are just as vociferous against her as some Americans like Dillon of the ultra-right Heritage. But that’s the catch. When you have both leftists and rightists against you, you might just be doing the right thing.

We may be forgetting that Plaza Miranda was the site of the most ignominious bombing in our recent history, killing and maiming so many. Speaking of resolving killings and impunity, I don’t know if this killing was ever resolved. As far as I know everyone (me, among them) knew and were told that the Marcos government was behind it so he could use it as an excuse to suspend the habeas corpus.

Imagine the consternation many years later, when Plaza Miranda’s most injured victim, former Senator Jovito Salonga himself accused Sison of orchestrating the bombing. The motive was to force the hand of Marcos to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and eventually declare martial law. The same accusation was made by other former CPP members who were privy to the plot. The bombing, then martial law would hasten the revolutionary situation. Later Sison was also said to have begun the ‘Second Great Rectification movement’ to reestablish the Party’s Marxist-Leninist-Maoist (MLM) political line.

Those who refused to follow this line became victims of a purge. Anyone suspected of being DPAs (deep penetrating agents) of the military during the 1980s and the 1990s were summarily executed. The hysteria about DPAs was so widespread mass graves have been found in Quezon Province, Laguna, and in some parts of Mindanao. Who would not be wary of another Plaza Miranda disaster?

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