|
|
|
|
Arroyo's last
cha-cha
By Leslie Davis
MANILA - Outsiders could forgive the
average Filipino for being cynical, and even that
might be too generous a word. In fact most are way
past being cynical. A good portion of the more
than 80 million Filipinos are so fed up with their
keepers, they simply don' t care any more.
Instead, they prefer to lampoon their leader, with
jokes spread by text messages and, perhaps most
hilariously, by making her voice into a wildly
popular cell phone ring tone.
"Hello
Garci," President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is heard
saying to election commissioner Vigillio
Garcillano, before proceeding with a scheme to rig
the recent presidential elections. And now in
places public and private, that simple greeting
reminds people that not only do they have an
incoming call, but also that their president isn't
really their president after all.
Indeed,
while Filipinos go positively wild over drama and
soap operas, the political scene here is beginning
to resemble high farce. Here's a president who is
accused of committing the very serious crime of
stealing the election, yet in her annual state of
the nation address on July 25 she never even
brought up the subject. A lengthy and
comprehensive impeachment complaint was filed by
the opposition earlier in the day, detailing,
along with the stolen election, massive
corruption. She ignored that as well.
The
grinding poverty that burdens two thirds of the
populace was not discussed. Nor was the massive
deficit or the seemingly never-ending rebellion by
the Communist New People's Army. Instead, she
chose to institute her grand plan; that it's time
to change the constitution of the republic, to
alter the form of government to a parliamentary
system within a federal framework from the current
presidential system. Because, she said, the
current system has failed the country.
What's more, Arroyo claimed that she
wanted to take the fast track to charter change,
by convening the Congress as a constituent
assembly. Simply put, this would mean that the
congressmen and women themselves would be in
charge of rewriting the country's constitution and
have the new government in place in a year's time.
This is a change of tune for the president, who a
few months back said she would support a change in
the constitution via a constitutional convention.
This is the more serious and sober way to change
the constitution as it involves electing learned
citizens from various walks of life to debate and
deliberate how the country wants to move forward.
These are fast-moving times in the
Philippines, however, and Arroyo is quickly
learning to turn to only those who will listen.
Her pronouncements of imminent change had the
session hall rockin' and rollin'. The place was
packed with her supporters in Congress, as well as
members of the local government units whom she is
courting. Of course they all loved what they were
hearing. For the congressmen, they get to change
the government and give themselves many more years
ruling the roost. The local government officials,
who were specifically invited by Arroyo, loved it
too because in a federal system they will attain
much greater powers over their fiefdoms.
But things may not have been exactly what
they seemed. One congressman revealed last week
that he had been offered several thousand dollars
in cash and tens of thousands of dollars in
projects by officials in both the executive and
legislative branches, provided he would not sign
the impeachment complaint against Arroyo. In the
Philippines, they call that "riding the gravy
train of pork barrel politics" or, as one analyst
quipped, (the congressmen and women) came to get
their Christmas in July.
Rumor and
conspiracy theories are flying like jelly Jello at
the cafeteria food fight in the movie Animal
House. One of the prevailing theories is that
charter change is being pushed to offer Arroyo a
graceful exit from the presidency.
This is
the idea being promoted by former president Fidel
Ramos, who just happens to be one of the main
power-brokers in Arroyo's political party. The day
after seven cabinet ministers and three agency
heads resigned en masse on July 7, and it looked
like Arroyo was on her way out, her patron Ramos
came to the rescue. He held a news conference from
Malacanang Palace, arguing that a way out of the
crisis was to switch to a parliamentary form of
government. With a new government in place in a
year's time, Arroyo gets her graceful exit.
What seemed strange at the time was a
former president holding a news conference from
inside the presidential palace. More than a few
people speculated that there had been some kind of
soft coup, that Arroyo had become nothing more
than a figurehead, with Ramos as the real power in
charge. While Ramos laughed off the suggestions,
Arroyo's words at the state of the nation address
said otherwise. As she commenced her speech, she
welcomed and thanked Ramos even before the Senate
president, Franklin Drilon, who occupied the chair
right behind her. From a protocol standpoint this
was a serious blunder. From a political angle,
however, it made perfect sense; Drilon, a former
staunch ally, had recently dumped Arroyo and asked
her to resign.
It's possible that Arroyo
would find herself still at the helm in a
parliamentary form of government. She is perceived
as a person who will do anything to stay in power,
even at the expense of the country's welfare. She
may, however, have good reason to not want to give
up power under the current system. Besides the
vote-rigging allegations, the other serious
charge, that of her family's involvement in
illegal gambling kickbacks, is still picking up
steam. A noted archbishop has been producing
witnesses and has promised yet more to come, and
the scandal is lapping at the palace door.
This is particularly embarrassing for
Arroyo as she was bolted into power because her
predecessor, Joseph Estrada, went down for
precisely those reasons. More importantly,
Estrada, who has been in detention for nearly five
years, has been seen by his mass of supporters as
being persecuted. During his ongoing trial, the
prosecution often has only circumstantial and
hearsay testimony from unsavory characters. If she
now resigns, or falls as a result of a successful
impeachment complaint, Arroyo will no longer enjoy
any immunity from prosecution. The newly empowered
opposition will definitely be looking for payback.
Surely Arroyo cannot be deaf to the
pronouncements of the Senate, whose approval is
needed to pass the constitutional changes and
whose members have already said they will give the
thumbs down to the initiative. So why ignore all
the obvious and try and proceed with changes that
will be impossible to effect? And how can a leader
now under grave suspicion be trusted to tinker
with the nation's most important document? Most
analysts see it as a way to bide time, while she
persuades her allies in the house not to join the
impeachment complaint, all in the hopes that the
issues will become so muddled, that the public
will simply give up in frustration and let her
finish her term through 2010.
Unfortunately, for long-suffering
Filipinos, there doesn't seem to be anything in
the current actions of the president that can do
the country any good. For one, with a change in
the constitution being debated, the economy is
bound to take a hit it cannot afford.
"You
cannot divorce the economy from politics or
politics from the economy," said Dr Jesus
Estanislao, a former secretary of finance. "They
go hand in hand. The picture does not look good.
Calling for cha-cha (charter change) puts
everything in a transition mode. Most investors
will wait for the final shape or form of
government before they come in."
Arroyo
was the first president in a generation, since the
dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who had to be brought
to the Congress via helicopter to deliver her
state of the nation address, as the streets
outside were overflowing with protesters demanding
she address the real issues. Most simply wanted
her to resign.
Inside, she ignored the
clamor for her to come clean. Instead, she
proclaimed before her raucous supporters that "our
political system has now become a hindrance to
national progress. (It has) degenerated to an
extent that it has become difficult for anyone to
make any headway yet keep his hands clean."
But whether the path advocated by Arroyo
will lead to any foreseeable progress is highly
debatable. Especially if it doesn't directly deal
with the serious allegations that have been hurled
at her. If anything, it appears that this road she
has chosen will only lead to more chaos, more
theater and, definitely more farce.
Perhaps the only way for this affair to
end, and for progress to kick in again, is for
Arroyo to simply resign. Anything else and the
drama in the Philippines will continue unabated.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact us for information
on sales, syndication and republishing.) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
All material on this
website is copyright and may not be republished in any form without written
permission.
© Copyright 1999 - 2005 Asia Times
Online Ltd.
|
|
Head
Office: Rm 202, Hau Fook Mansion, No. 8 Hau Fook St., Kowloon, Hong
Kong
Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
|
|
|
|
