GMA: Speaker now, prime minister later

GMA is the ultimate political strategist and tactician. The youngest daughter of President Diosdado Macapagal should now be deemed the most astute and the most durable female politician who ever lived. She started as an Economics academician, teaching as UP professor, then became Undersecretary of Trade and Industry. She ran for senator, then vice president. Then, when President Joseph Estrada blundered, she took over the presidency. On the third SONA day of President Duterte, history repeated itself. GMA again saw an opening and struck the blitzkrieg way and stung like a bee from nowhere. Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez blundered and GMA marshaled her forces and staged the coup. Alvarez’ forces fell like a house of cards when GMA’s assault teams Inday Sarah and Tonyboy Floirendo (with Malacanan's tacit green light) mounted an ambush.

Congressman Dadong, the poor boy from Lubao, Pampanga, who defeated President Carlos P. Garcia in 1961, was also trounced by President Ferdinand Marcos in 1965. President Macapagal married twice, first to Purita dela Rosa, sister of matinee actor, Senator Rogelio de la Rosa. They had two children, Arturo and Maria Cielo who married a Salgado, a basketball player. Cielo Macapagal Salgado became Governor of Pampanga and was allied with Erap. She was never affiliated with Lakas-NUCD, which has always been GMA's political vehicle. Three years after Purita died, Dadong married Eva, a doctor from the landed Macaraeg clan in Pangasinan. They had two children, Diosdado Jr. and Gloria. She married Jose Miguel Arroyo who belongs to the rich Tuason clan of Rizal. GMA grew up in Malacañan and learned politics even before learning the three Rs.

The way GMA became president, while the presidency was not yet declared vacant is a legal puzzle still being debated by many students of political and constitutional law. Some pundits ask how could GMA, then vice president, could take an oath before Associate Justice Hilario Davide Jr. when Estrada was still in Malacañan? One does not have to be a genius to figure out you cannot fill up a position that isn’t vacant. With all due respect then, the Supreme Court was led into declaring Erap “constructively resigned,” and thus a vacancy was created. That legal principle of “constructive resignation” is not in the Constitution as a just cause to replace a sitting president. However, by acquiescence, GMA stayed in Malacañan for 10 years, four years during Erap's term, and her own six years.

GMA, of course, faced a barrage of cases when PNoy ascended to power. She was charged, arrested, and held under hospital arrest for a long time. The charges were serious but the rich and the powerful have a way of letting time heal all things, When President Duterte came into power, GMA saw hope. She helped Duterte pledging the Pampanga solid vote. The rest is history. The speakership of GMA was not a spur-of-the moment decision. It was a long-ranged plan hatched by astute strategists. Alvarez was just a small pawn who was used as a transition bridge. The real power resides in the ultimate political titan, and that is GMA. When Alvarez earned the ire of Sarah and Tonyboy Floirendo, his end was sealed.

Mark my words; the next target of GMA is the post of prime minister. Her mission as speaker is to pass the new Constitution and install a federal government. Then she assumes as prime minister. That is how the cookie crumbles, and if you cannot figure this out by now, you have a problem.