Wednesday, June 18, 2008 Editorials: Questioning Edsa 2 legitimacy
GRANTING that the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) supported Edsa People Power II without thinking of its implications on the rest of the country, what does it make of the legitimacy of the acts of the national government down to the barangays?
CBCP, according to a member, now realizes that Edsa 2 weakened, instead of strengthened, the country’s political structure simply because “it did not wait for the verdict of the senator-judges.”
It said that Edsa 2 preempted the result of the impeachment trial of then president Joseph Estrada and hence, “did not respect the rule of law and did not give the duly instituted political institution a chance to assert itself and prove its strength to handle such a political turmoil.”
That argument tries to put doubts on the legitimacy of the Arroyo government.
Delayed reaction
But that may have come quite late in the day.
The presidential elections of 2004 that President Arroyo won may have corrected such mistake.
And unless the charges that the said election was marred by cheating and rank fraud stick, there is no other way anyone could possibly right the wrong the CBCP claimed it had unduly and unintentionally committed.
Contemporary Philippine historians, looking at the prevailing national condition, can come up with a number of “what might have beens” had Edsa 2 not happened.
The flow of the nation’s history, for example, could very well have been different.
We might not have the Hello Garci scandal, the NBN-ZTE scam, and other cases this government is gravely noted.
Losers
The P2-billion fuel subsidy the President is extending to transport operators who plan to switch to LPG for their vehicles, and the one-time subsidy of P500 per family for small power users, might not also have come to pass.
Unfortunately, things did not turn out the way we are wishing it did.
That our republic is grossly mired in economic problems despite the fact that we are a country rich in agricultural resources and potential for economic growth expose the weakness of our national leaders and the absence of political will in their leadership.
Indeed, the losers in the prevailing circumstances are our unsuspecting masses.
