another footnote to history (redux)

KISS OF DEBT Imelda's legacy

Eight years ago, when I was still the editor of the now defunct The New Mindanao Collegian during the height of former President Estrada’s impeachment trial, I was hounded by a torrent of criticism from those so-called “progressives” when I wrote, among other things, a rebuttal about Edsa Dos, the prosecution panel and, of course, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Since it was a time of great confusion, I was branded a “Pro-Erap” for being critical of the hasty resolution of the trial, and most of my detractors simply disregarded the publication as nothing short of subservient, or, better still, a pro-administration paper catering only to those alleged feudalistic readers of the university, as if there is such a thing.

But now that talks of staying in power resurfaces again in the form of Conass and Cha Cha, I couldn’t help but state again what I wrote almost a decade ago about how thrilling it is to unearth something for those critics, and for them to reevaluate the stones they cast upon my office.

“Labor Pains”, the title of the article, was published in 2001, a few days after the infamous Edsa Tres almost overwhelmed Malacañang as ordinary citizens, not those opportunistic sympathizers of Edsa Dos, cast their sick faces at the newly-installed Arroyo Republic which governed us for almost a decade now.

The article reads:

Just as expected, this present government is on its way to hell. One may be tempted to say so about the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration. The siege of the palace on the First of May could well be its genesis; its early exodus now slowly taking course. Isn’t it a pity? Certainly those irate Mendiola assaulters were no less than chickens coming home to roost. They virtually proclaimed Malacañang rightfully theirs after realizing they were being neglected for decades and decades by past presidents.

Although I may not agree with de Quiros’s deep-set hatred towards the fallen president, I believe him when he wrote that why this mess we’re in right now is happening is solely because of haste. The haste in truncating the impeachment trial, the haste in eventually taking the issue to the so-called parliament of the streets, or more correctly the parliament of Edsa Dos. And that we were able to reflect on its dung spilling only at Mendiola last May First made it even more piteous.

What happened at the palace gates that fateful May Day Eve and in Mendiola late that morning was sheer pandemonium. Who but derelict hordes of the demonized poor could muster such hellish energy to throw their sick faces at a government that vowed to initiate national healing but didn’t give a hoot of a serious time to look into the wounded dignities and stomachs of the same poor?

Many prominent individuals are putting the blame on those they call poor revolters, or the alleged political trapo instigators behind them, instead of asking the question what stimulated these people to do what they did.

I understand that anti-Eraps out there are directing blame on the alleged great hakot crowd we now reluctantly call Edsa Tres. Nevertheless, who would dare cast a vote of integrity on an idealistic morality-crusading government, being now distracted from its idealism by such a terrifying crowd like that at Edsa the night before the siege? We are, on the contrary, not in a state of rebellion, some would insist, but we are in a state of uncertainty, the proof of which is in the administration itself.

The crowd at Edsa Tres was no mean mob. And there is no justification for us to mock them either, like saying they do not know how to increase their number because they do not know how to text. If this is our idea of healing the nation, we might as well tie our necks with Mendiola blocks and jump into the Pasig River .

This is no time for gags. If selfish interests reigned in Edsa Dos, the case is not so with its sequel. Erap is in prison right now, and everybody is happy. But as I see it, what happened last May First was far from being a cause for us to be happy. In fact, there is no reason for us to be happy nowadays. Seeing such tremendous hatred and blood and death, such Gores de Mayo, exacerbated even more by the recent Dos Palmas-Abu Sayyaf atrocity, cannot be a happy thing at all.

I’m sure even GMA is not happy either. During the riotous day of May, all I could see were her sagging eye bags and her terrified smile. During the Independence Day celebration, news of the American Dos Palmas tourist being beheaded as a Twelfth of June “gift” to her by the hated Abus revived her sagging eye bags and her terrified smile like a chronic disease despite her oratorical effort at declaring a hastily-written though not so hastily delivered Uubusin ko kayo, Abu!

Haste. It sounds more like hell to me. In Lucifer’s haste to “ascend to the Most High God”, hell came to being. In our case, this is a perfect example of a government that is founded on a flurry of do-it-now-or-don’t-do-it-ever without pausing wisely to count the cost, trying very hard, much too hard I should say, to insist on sovereignty in so quick a time. The result? The people behind the present administration turned out to be just parasitic flukes to the supposed heroes of Edsa Dos, now beginning to bleed them dry.

The day the Edsa Tres “mob” splurged themselves at the palace was an indication of indignation beyond conventional Philippine politics. It was not rebellion, neither sedition, but true politics manifesting its truest nature. The eventual backlash of media hype that “the revolt of the poor was manipulated by the trapos” was nothing but empty political counter-propaganda, plain and simple.

This problem, tragically, could have been contained if only we observed procedures that would not put us in a shameful light. Procedures rooted not in haste. The reason why there is so much waste of life, limb and law enforcement at Mendiola was haste. Courses of actions were jump started without serious thought of procedures. Procedures which, had we paused awhile to consider, would not have made us sound inconsistently kinky as we go and make significant statements to the people, procedures that take stock of the constitution, so we may not be laughing stocks to other nations.

There are so many finger-pointing nowadays, and even these hasty finger-pointing are more like unintelligent reflexes rather than a matter of procedural course.

Remember how we pointed blaming fingers at Estrada’s defense lawyers for resorting to procedural materiality and relevancy which at the moment we viewed as delaying tactics? We wanted the impeachment trial to proceed posthaste. Remember how we pointed blaming fingers at Congressman Jose Mari Gonzales for slapping the Sergeant-at-Arms Head for not observing procedural order in the Lower House? We wanted the impeachment trial to proceed posthaste. Remember how we pointed a hasty finger at Judge Hilario Davide compelling him to swear GMA into office even before the beleaguered Erap could write a resignation? We wanted to get rid of Estrada posthaste.

This comes as no surprise to me, anyhow. In much the same way as a physician points an expert finger at the exact location of a baby’s head to its laboring mother and the attendants--- although there are mothers who, for reasons of health or plain laziness to puff away the baby the natural way, would request the physician to go ahead make a Cesarean incision and hasten birth--- we point a finger toward the direction our nation in the throes of new birth would be taking.

Haste, haste, haste. That’s all we’re after. Look where it brought us.

Rereading the article after eight years still resonates to me an attitude of “what if”. What if we had decided in 2001 to go the extra mile of finishing that impeachment trial the natural way, instead of hastily installing a potentially manipulative leader way beyond 2010? But whatever it is, I felt really vindicated.