Mongaya: Fixing Arroyo’s mess

Sunday, December 18, 2011

CAN Aquino fix Arroyo’s legacy of costly and messy projects?” The subtitle of Newsbreak’s “The Seven Deadly Deals” caught my attention as I browsed around the bookstore looking for something as a birthday gift for myself yesterday.

No, I haven’t read the book yet as of this writing. But the question articulated thoughts running through my head as I monitor the latest in the ongoing controversy between President Noynoy Aquino and former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

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P-Noy is apparently on top of all the moves to fulfill his “walang kurap” campaign promise.

The past weeks saw the Arroyo camp suffering setbacks, starting with Arroyo’s failure to escape despite the Supreme Court’s hasty TRO in her favor, the jailing of former Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos, and the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Months back, the Aquino administration succeeded in getting Merceditas Gutierrez out of the Ombudsman’s office.

Still, we can’t say the Arroyo camp is out of the game. It apparently possesses several cards that it’s starting to play.

For instance, Chief Justice Renato Corona lashed out at President Aquino for an imagined bid at becoming a dictator. Never mind the fact that impeachment is a democratic process enshrined in our Constitution. After his impeachment at the Lower House, the chief justice will have his day before our senator judges. Corona knows that.

He also knows that senator-judges will go through the motions of uncovering the truth but eventually will vote according to political realities and alignments. That is part of the rules majority of Filipinos approved shortly after the restoration of democracy in the mid `80s. Former president Erap Estrada underwent the same process though short-circuited by Edsa 2 (when Erap’s men tampered with the process) that eventually pushed Arroyo to the presidency. The SC then under the leadership of chief justice Jun Davide stamped the whole episode as legal and democratic.

My point: Corona obviously knows he will lose during the impeachment trial. He can always take the option of resigning from office. But the chief justice chose to frame the issue as a presidential attack on the judiciary in a bid to build a dictatorship and proceeded to mobilize court employees out in the streets a la people power. He wants to trigger a constitutional crisis of sorts.

Saturday night, I listened to pro-Corona and pro-Arroyo party-list congressman Jun Alcover accusing Aquino as playing with communists, obviously to deliver his sizable constituency within and outside the military establishment to the Arroyo camp.

This led me to ask, is there a military card up the Arroyo camp’s sleeves? We know several pro-Arroyo generals are smarting because of their multimillion dollar Garcia racket.

This led me back to the question posed by Newsbreak’s book: “Can Aquino fix Arroyo’s legacy of costly and messy projects?”

***

Another book I found, which is about George Friedman’s predictions for the next decade, seemed timely for somebody turning 51. I know him for his accurate analysis of global events in Stratfor. But browsing quickly through the pages early yesterday morning, I realized the Philippines was only mentioned as a label in the book’s Southeast Asia maps, not even as an American pawn in geo-politics. The significant global players considered in this part of the world are the US, China, Russia, Korea, Japan and Australia.

While the Philippines is known in the world of boxing, thanks to Congressman Pacquaio, or the entertainment world because of Lea Salonga, Charice and a host of several other world-class entertainers, we don’t matter when observers talk about world politics.

But then, we could look at this as an opportunity and a challenge. First things first, though. Let’s fix first the mess Arroyo left us.

***

Could it be because of aging? I often misplace or forget where I place things as long as I can remember. But not my laptop. Sumpay sa kinabuhi. Last Saturday evening, however, I simply left my laptop and all accompanying gadgets in a bag at the Bo’s Coffee at Fully Booked.

Personally, I consider the laptop’s hard drive and the accompanying expanded drive as extensions of my memory. I placed it inside a bag placed just in front of me. I only realized it was missing when I decided to check my Facebook around midnight, partly to respond to greetings from friends. What a disaster!

Fortunately, and my chest heaved with relief, the Bo’s Coffee staff took care of the bag and its contents. Thanks a lot, guys.

(www.inbetweencolumns.wordpress.com)