JDV’s almost theatrical 59-minute rhetoric, served public notice that he stood trial – and pleaded guilty as charged, matter-of-factly. Keen observers of trends know where the man is coming from – trying even a last-ditch effort – to free his head off the noose. Blackmail, call it that, for the first and final act, against the president of this damned republic. It was time for the man that left a legacy only best known to him – to go. Or ask anyone in the know what monstrous scenario he has created in an institution called the House of Representatives as its supposed-to-be mere agency head. JDV projected himself as bigger than the institution he represents when in truth and in fact, no part ought to be bigger than the whole. Thus, he probably overdid the state of affairs of what ought to be a sacred institution in so far as the officials and employees are concerned and more so in so far as the historic role of a Legislature is taken into account.
The vote configuration betrayed the man who thought he has all the Batasan for himself – as new set of congressmen and women mixed with the old set in what Pichay always referred to as the ‘Old Boys Club’. Now, there must be any given number of his colleagues – old or new – who rebelled against JDV’s own self-fulfilling prophecy not to mention antics that have already lost their spell or hypnotic effect. Ironically how many editors, political analysts, and even scholars ever thought of JDV as the consummate statesman – as such perception rests on a mistake. It is not just Malacanang that benefited more with his ouster – the Filipino people in general. The anomaly that is JDV is soon a thing of the past or how indeed can he seat as speaker for three consecutive terms when each time a new Congress opens, every member is deemed on equal footing – no such thing as primus inter pares. In other words, he is the author of a grand historical blunder and good thing this Gorgian knot is finally cut that no more tradition as bad as that JDV authored be repeated in history.
Public perception of JDV is limited to what we read in newspapers, hear over radio, watch on TV, view on the net. All these were created to be false by the man himself who writes his own press release, his own oratory, his own place in history. History should be objective but when he came, he made it purely subjective as though everything that happens in the country, every issue that burns in the day, every hope left for the entire people – gravitates around his well-designed image as a great political leader of the times. Not anymore as his long oratory or rhetoric gave the man away – JDV – in real than in reel, has become more of himself. Now that he has to subordinate himself to the new leadership he himself apparently anointed – good or bad – not much shall be heard of him. He shall resigned himself to oblivion – the sooner the better – that no more of him is heard, not his idea – if it ever was a bright one anyway. His chronic reference to all his accomplishments – spoken from the first point of view, that is – really is an insult to intelligence. Now he fall in his own snake pit.
JDV’s successor, albeit his protégé, does not have to test the waters any longer. Problem is, our fate and future might still be more of the same as they both came from the same breed of what Salonga conveniently calls ‘traditional politicians’ and its negative slant. Spin doctors, damage control experts, media handlers need not do a lot of dishing in or dishing out. The same menu will be served to the public at large with no perceptible change in flavor detected from any distance from the frying pan. As a people or as a country, Nograles doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel. Creeping patronage politics as that discussed by Brillantes of UP will be the norm than the exception. If we go by B.F. Skinner’s psychoanalysis, we shall find out in no time at all, that anybody driven by the same set of stimuli will respond in the same particular way as that demonstrated by the old occupant for three punishing terms or the man called JDV. Thus, it is not as if ‘payolas’ will be a thing of the past. It is not as if ‘lobby money’ will no longer circulate within the Big League. It is not as if, the Congress will cease to be a Malacanang rubber-stamp.
PGMA is probably the luckiest president we ever had. And she better has to finish all of her term in office till she really has to go herself – with all the music and trimmings of a well-served term, if we can call it that. Nothing has been proven of all the charges slapped against her to the satisfaction of the High Court. On whether or not the High Court is beholden to her is another story by itself. If the AFP and PNP and even the bureaucracy itself continue to patronize her leadership, so be it – nothing is the matter with that. If coup plotters, destabilizers, or other extremists group cannot inflict the political blow they want to deliver, then so be it. The president is the president under all the harsh conditions that have visited her – past, present, future.
It would seem that no promising group ever holds promise. No such group can keep up a good fight – not even the so-called ‘bully from the school yard’. Definitely, not Lacson, not Cayetano, not Escudero, not Magdalo. Nobody as no group can boot PGMA out of office except by the tinkerable processes of law. Malacanang knows what buttons to press, its survival kit complete, its lieutenants and sub-alterns trained in politics as it should be better done under existing culture and sub-cultures. PGMA’s core group of advisers are a force to reckon with and they understand their political calculus more than other presidents combined. Who said it was hard for PGMA to boot out JDV from his speakership? It is a walk in the park – so far as PGMA is concerned – no fuss, no fibs. The daughter of the former president knows how to run the affairs of state, albeit – one step forward, two steps backward, if you follow my drift. Fact is, the more she is ‘harassed’, the stronger her stay in power becomes.
What is in store for the Filipino people?
PRIMER C. PAGUNURAN
UP Diliman, Quezon City Email: nielsky_2003@yahoo.com Cellphone: 09164985265