EDITORIAL – Lifevests under the seats

Apparently jolted by the shrill howls of protest from millions of cellphone holders in the Philippines, Malacañang swiftly shot down yesterday an unpopular proposal to slap taxes on text messages.

That the Palace would recall the proposal, and in so swift a manner, was not the real surprise, though. The real surprise was why such a proposal was ever made when it knew it was bound to be hugely unpopular, bad for the already immensely unpopular Palace resident.

Days earlier, a similarly unpopular proposal to require a national ID for all citizens was also floated. And in similar fashion, it was just as quickly recalled and shot down. Pray tell, what is going on?

A Palace insider recently told journalists that the president, in one Cabinet meeting, wagged a stern finger at two Palace officials, admonishing them for their propensity to blabber before the media, as if they were official spokesmen for the chief executive.

And that is precisely what seems to be going on, according to our Palace insider. There is a growing number of Malacañang officials who, even without any authority to speak for the president, simply assumed that speaking on her behalf comes with the territory.

It would be good if that is the only reason for all these PR nightmares hounding the Palace. At least the problem merely involves some unsavory abomination in the personalities of some Palace officials. Any harm done, while uncomfortable, poses no real threat to anyone.

Malacañang would have a real problem, however, if all these monkey wrenches are being thrown with sinister deliberateness, with the intention of stoking the fires of discontent in the president some more in order to undermine her leadership further.

This is a more subtle form of rebellion, one that does not require the use of force. It does not disrupt the business of living beyond ruffling some feathers. With the end of her term drawing closer, could some of her men be starting to feel for the lifevests under their seats?