Thursday, November 15, 2007 Wenceslao: An Arroyo scheme? By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
REMEMBER that Tide commercial with child star BJ “Tolits” Forbes complaining, “ako, ako, lagi na lang ako”? I was reminded of that line when I listened to some of the immediate reactions to the bomb blast at the House of Representatives Tuesday night that killed Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar and injured seven others, including two lawmakers.
While firemen were still putting off the fire in one vehicle and probers were tying police lines around the bomb blast site, some wise guys already started looking the way of Malacañang. “Si Gloria na say pasangin-lan ani,” my wife quipped. True enough some texters started presenting radio stations with theories, most of them as wild as a wildcat.
My wife actually made the same comment after detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV publicly claimed the Glorietta blast weeks before was the handiwork of President Arroyo’s men: Armed Forces Chief Hermogenes Esperon and National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales. Trillanes did not reckon, of course, with the accident angle.
He was not the only Arroyo critic, however, who seemed to have cried wolf. When party-list Rep. Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran, whom I admire, got involved in an accident, he did insinuate that the Arroyo administration may have something to do with it. The common denominator in the Trillanes and Beltran act: concluding without proof.
No conclusion has actually been made on the Glorietta blast, which should be to Trillanes’ favor. But it would be interesting to find out the difference and similarities, if any, of the Glorietta and the Batasan blasts. I heard this from somebody: Sa Batasan, pagkahuman sa buto, nanimahog pulbura; sa Glorietta lain ang baho nga mialisngaw.”
Anyway, this tendency to blame Malacañang for some violent acts only means that this government has lost credibility among a good number of people. The Garci tapes scandal, the fertilizer scam and the more recent national broadband network controversy and the alleged giving of bribes to congressmen and governors shows a scheming bent.
A government perceived by some people as scheming will make these same people believe government would do anything under the sun, including having another vehicle ram a lawmaker’s car. And no amount of persuading will make the skeptics believe in what the said government says, even if it is the truth. What a sorry situation it is, indeed.
