Own your truth

Last week, we had the honor to be invited to the virtual book launch of “Deus Ex Machina, A Memoir by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.” The former president of the country – from Jan.20, 2001 to June 30, 2010 – aptly entitled her memoir, which is generally an autobiography that she personally wrote.

From the Latin phrase which means “god from the machine, “deus ex machina” describes a person or thing, or event that appeared, or was introduced into a situation suddenly and unexpectedly provided an artificial, or contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty.

“In realpolitik there is no Deus Ex Machina. But for those who trust in the Lord, there is, and it’s called Divine Providence. Divine Providence has played such an important role in my career, and I refer to it in several instances in the memoir, interchangeably with the more secular term deus ex machina,” Mrs.Arroyo cited. It was her brother Diosdado Jr. or “Buboy” who suggested the book’s title.

Among the selected few former members of the Malacanang Press Corps (MPC) who covered her presidency, Mrs.Arroyo did not indulge us to interview her even virtually. Instead, she had a brief question-and-answer with someone behind the scene. We were not surprised at all because she frowns on being asked questions she is not prepared to answer.

According to Mrs.Arroyo, she put together the memoir with the help of her immediate family members, former Cabinet and other government officials, very loyal allies and family friends she shared the memories with. Through those years, she reminisced memorable moments while she first held appointive offices at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to being elected, first as a Senator, then vice president, and eventually as the President of the Republic.

Next to the 20-year rule of the late dictator, president Ferdinand Marcos, Mrs.Arroyo had the second longest term as president of the Philippines. She first assumed the presidency following the ouster of former president Joseph Estrada during the so-called “EDSA-2” in Jan., 2001 when then vice president Arroyo was sworn in as constitutional successor. Mrs.Arroyo is also the second woman president of the country. The late president Corazon “Cory” Aquino was swept to Malacanang during the EDSA -1 People Power Revolution in Feb.,1986.

According to Mrs.Arroyo herself, she plodded writing her memoirs almost as long as the nine years she stayed in power at Malacanang. Per her account, she started writing her memoir while placed under “hospital detention” during the administration of the late president Benigno Simeon “PNoy” Aquino III. Due to the restrictions of “hospital detention,” she pointed to the difficulties writing the memoirs. When she was acquitted and released from “hospital detention” in 2016, she became very busy and her memoirs went to the back burner.

Half-amusingly, she related her memoirs came under heavy editing. Shorn from bitterness she had before the heavily edited memoirs came to print, Mrs.Arroyo recalled when she was first accused and implicated in alleged election sabotage during the May, 2004 presidential elections. It was the infamous arrest warrant served at the airport before she and her husband, former First Gentleman Miguel Arroyo could take the flight that would take her for medical treatment abroad for spondolysis condition. She was again placed under hospital detention after being charged with graft at the Sandiganbayan. In both cases, she was later acquitted years later. She was finally freed from “hospital detention” a few months after June, 2016 when former Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte got installed as the newly elected President.

In her 216-paged memoir, Mrs.Arroyo wrote her first person narration from birth until her second lease in life literally when she was sworn into office as the new Speaker of the House of Representatives on July 23, 2018. Quoting verbatim her oath of office as Speaker of the 17th Congress, Mrs.Arroyo wrote: “I found my vindication in these 116 words.”

Ironically, it was also on the same day she unceremoniously unseated then House Speaker, Davao del Sur Rep.Pantaleon Alvarez whose differences with presidential daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio came to head. Counting support from administration allies at the Lower Chamber, Mayor Sara pulled the rug under Alvarez and succeeded getting the required majority number of votes to install Pampanga Congresswoman Arroyo – who was already on her third and last term at the House – as new Speaker.

It was on the same day President Duterte was supposed to deliver his third state of the nation address (SONA) at the joint opening sessions of the Senate and the House at the Batasan Pambansa in Quezon City. Hours later, both camps agreed to accord Alvarez the last time to preside the joint session.

“Looking back, it all seems undignified...And unfortunately, it disrupted the president’s (sic) SONA. But when the president’s speech was done, there was no doubt that the House of Representatives had a new speaker, the first female speaker in its history,” Mrs.Arroyo wrote on page 215 of her memoirs.

Turning 75 years old this April, Mrs.Arroyo is running again in the congressional district of the Macapagal hometown of Lubao. Eldest son Mikey has given way to his mother’s return bid. Mrs.Arroyo announced son Mikey will go back to manage their family business.

In ancient Rome and Greek mythology, “deus ex machina” actually refers to the stage machinery used in dramatization of a god or goddess descending into the play to resolve the entanglements in the scene. Perhaps, it was the turn of son Mikey to provide his mother the “deus ex machina” to take her to the 19th Congress.

From her own words, Mrs.Arroyo tried through this book to give her side of the truth she rued never saw the light of day. She wrote: “I am arguably the most maligned woman in our history…Thus, to someone like me, redemption is precious.”

The truth can be subjective. It can mean something different to everyone.

What is important is that you own your truth.