Society writ large is set on the speculative mood. No one knows for certain what day 27th of July 2009 would be like when the President delivers her 9th State of the Nation Address. Rumors abound that a huge street rally will be launched anywhere near Batasan Complex where the joint session of House and Senate will be held. Or, sometime within the day, the House convenes as a Constituent Assembly even if only a single soul from the Senate will join the pseudo-constitutional ritual. Worst, rather than satisfying the prescribed ¾ votes of members of Congress, it will go through viva voce, again. In what Bernas says is a clear case of desperation, the House appears indicatively bound by the pecking order from Malacanang – to convene as Con-Ass and amend or revise the Constitution thereafter. And it appears that the first order of business is the shift from a presidential form of government to a parliamentary system. When this is done, as the conspiracy theory goes, GMA can then go around the constitutional ban on seeking another term.
Then the plot thickens.
On one end of the scale, here we find GMA’s COMELEC lawyer Atty. Makalintal stating categorically that GMA will rather take care of her grandchildren after her term come 2010 and that people has nothing to be afraid of since this Con-Ass will no longer push through for lack of material time. Makalintal says that it takes at least a year for the COMELEC to hold the plebiscite and the intervening period for information drive is required so Con-Ass could be publicly debated upon. Thus, hearing another speculation opposite of what Makalintal is saying might reduce the whole Makalintal’s claim as a sort of a ‘decoy’ calibrated or skillfully thought to doze off water from a burning issue that fans the flames of hatred from many quarters of society. In other words, there can be a kind of anesthetic effect if people tend to believe that GMA will not opt to be the next Prime Minister under a new Constitution as well as under a new form of government – a Parliament.
Is it waiting game?
The ‘balance of power’ seems to crystallize. GMA must be most afraid to be slapped with all the charges as are those contained in the articles of impeachment that were eclipsed by an earlier move from a pseudo petitioner who turns out to be her political ally just so to ‘violate’ the constitutional requirement that only one impeachment case should be filed against the president. In other words, GMA does not want to give up on constitutionally availing immunity from suits after her official watch, hence her option for a term extension – by changing the rules of the game, as if it were. Just when at first, presidential authority has just been handed down to her with the rationalized ouster of Erap; and thereafter allowed to run for president after consuming the unexpired term of her predecessor in a 2004 election marred with the ‘hello Garci scam’; on to the third such opportunity to be president or prime minister in perpetuity by – ‘operation of law’ – these, all told, must have given GMA all the luck in the world.
Who is next to rule over RP? This might just be the $6 million dollar question.
Perhaps, there must have been an earlier firm commitment by this government to give in to the pressing demand of the 27 or so states of the European Union for the country to open its doors for foreign acquisition or ownership of lands by relaxing if not totally removing certain constitutional restraints stipulated in the present Constitution. This issue alone invites brewing discussion and debate given its far-reaching implications. If foreigners or foreign multinational corporations can already acquire lands without certain imposed limits or restraints, chances are, prime real estate properties will soon belong to foreign nationals and entities to our own collective peril. Something must operate around an obvious ‘scheme of fraud’ somewhere, we have to think.
Will someone tell us what the next 6 years will be for our country and our people?