The term of President Estrada is truly punctuated by many surprises.
The latest is a war of exclamation points being waged by his staunchest critics on one side and his rabid supporters on the other.
Small black stickers with slanted white exclamation points aimed against the President began sprouting all over the
metropolis last week.
Apparently to counter these anti-Estrada stickers, orange pro-Estrada stickers turned up yesterday at the Senate. Nobody knows how they got there.
A Senate official suspected that the stickers probably came from Estrada supporters in the Senate.
"It's like fighting fire with fire," the official said.
The pro-Estrada stickers have slanted exclamation points over an orange background, Mr. Estrada's political color. Emblazoned underneath it are the words "Yes pa rin kay Erap (Still yes for Erap)."
Measuring six by seven inches, the stickers are twice bigger than the black protest stickers.
"Talagang mapapansin yung kay Erap (The pro-Erap stickers are more noticeable)," said the Senate official.
Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora told the STAR in a telephone interview that the pro-Estrada stickers put "a smile on the face" of Mr. Estrada.
"This is the first time we learned about it. It's good to note that there are people defending the President," Zamora said. "And this, mind you, is not government-funded."
In another telephone interview, Presidential Spokesman Fernando Barican said they knew nothing about the stickers. "Obviously, these are political supporters of the President," he said, referring to the stickers' source.
Presidential Legislative Liaison Office head Secretary Jose Jaime Policarpio Jr. told The STAR yesterday that the stickers visibly boosted the morale of the President, who has been suffering a string of setbacks in the past week.
"Definitely there are still a lot of people who supported him in the last elections who are still there for him, still supporting him now," Policarpio said. He said he also does not know where the stickers came from.
The group that is distributing the anti-Estrada stickers said their campaign is a silent protest against the 21-month-old Estrada administration.
Jose Luis Alcuaz, the group's spokesman, earlier said the stickers will enable ordinary people to express how they feel about how the President is running the country.
Appearing on television, Alcuaz accused Mr. Estrada the other day of corruption, using "government money" to buy large houses for his "wife and girlfriends."
Since their stickers don't say anything, Alcuaz said anybody can interpret the exclamation points anyway they want except in support of the administration.
"An exclamation point is not libel. It is not subversion," he said. "Some people can interpret it as a wakeup call."
Alcuaz said in a radio interview yesterday his group cuts across political and social lines, including "reformists and radicals, rich and poor."
He said his group includes former Tourism Secretary Narzalina Lim who served under then President Corazon Aquino. Alcuaz also served under Aquino as commissioner of the National Telecommunications Commission.
On Monday, Alcuaz and his group will make public their silent protest with a news conference at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan. --