GMA in her worst crisis

The call of nine of the Cabinet members of President Gloria Macapa—gal-Arroyo for her to resign puts on the block the question of the survival of the Chief Executive.

That’s almost a déjà vu. A civilian replication of the withdrawal of support by the military and the police that took out former President Joseph Estrada.

What makes it more significant is that the nine are her economic managers. A catastrophic event.

On Thursday night, the President came up with a hastily designed preemptive move in asking her entire Cabinet to resign. And she talked candidly that she was not resigning. It was an obvious attempt at damage control since the Palace might have already learned that a big number of Cabinet members would do exactly what they did yesterday.

That may not force the President to resign. But that puts her ability to govern at stake. When you cannot control the members of your family, it is difficult to look for others to take up the cudgels for their abandoned duties.

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Mike Defensor stressed that former Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima had talked to Vice President Noli de Castro in Hong Kong that he accept the presidency while they tried to convince the country’s Catholic bishops and the President herself that the latter’s resignation was the only option left and that the constitutional process be observed.

That may not cripple her governance, but it will severely hobble the President. But since the political maneuver depends primarily on perception, that grievously handicaps the President. Even if she refuses to resign, as GMA has clearly stated, the question is that it will definitely erode her public standing. And the opposition will definitely seize on that to hound her.

She can take refuge in the fact that most of the country’s local officials — from governors to mayors and vice mayors — have thrown their support behind her continued stay in office, albeit they also insisted on the constitutional process.

Last Thursday, the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches appealed to the nation’s lawmakers to rise above partisan politics and put the welfare of the nation first in their search to establish the truth.

The PCEC held its 26th National Assembly at the Sugarland Hotel in Bacolod City. It has 65 denominations and 132 missions and over 20,000 local churches.

Speaking on behalf of the PCEC, Bishop Efraim Tendero said the search for truth must be done within the framework of the Constitution.

"We believe in the rule of law and reject any violent means. We seek order, not anarchy," he stressed.

Also last Thursday, the Visayas governors from Regions 6, 7 and 8 also assailed "the attempts by unscrupulous groups that seek to undermine the rule of law and negate our economic gains."

They also stressed that "we will not allow the votes of our people to be nullified by a few."

It was Leyte Gov. Rosette Lerias who presided over the press briefing in refuting the opposition’s claims that the President cheated during the 2004 presidential elections.

"Please do not discount the people of the Visayas and Mindanao. Mga Pilipino rin kami. We are now appealing to the people in Manila that it is now time to unite at maawa kayo sa ating bansa," Lerias declared.

Fifty-six of the country’s 79 provincial governors also reaffirmed their unequivocal and unwavering support for Mrs. Arroyo to complete her constitutional mandate of six years in office, according to their press release.

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte was the most vocal in his threat for the secession of Davao and the entire Mindanao should GMA be ousted by force. He stressed that the Constitution must be adhered to, and warned that there is a risk in pushing for the extra-constitutional ouster of the President.

DA Anomaly

That does not mean that everything is at a standstill despite the deepening political crisis and standoff.

The Commission on Audit’s regional office reportedly unearthed a P4.95-million "illegal" transaction involving the purchase of swine parent stocks, tagging Dr. Nachito Baylon, DA regional technical director.

State auditor IV Evangeline Canlas, in her audit observation memorandum dated Dec. 31, 2003, claimed that Baylon was not the one authorized to purchase the swine stocks.

Former Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo reportedly gave the authority to undertake the negotiated purchase of the swine parent stocks to engineer Ricardo Oblema, DA regional executive director, not to Baylon.

It was Baylon who signed the contract between the DA Region 6 office and the Nueva Swine Valley Inc.

Many more DA personnel might be involved in the anomaly. The COA found that of the 489 swine parent stocks received by the DA on Dec. 27, 2002, 373 were not yet born as of inspection date. Four were delivered (born) only during the time of delivery, while 112 were aged two to four months old.

Baylon and the other agriculture officials involved in the transaction were asked to submit their explanations under the threat of administrative or criminal charges if they fail to comply with the COA request.

Last Thursday, Miguel Seneriches, a retired employee of the DA regional field unit 6, enumerated alleged irregularities in the office in a May 14, 2004 letter to the Office of the President.

He claimed that the grant of the collective negotiation agreement incentive of P3,740 per employee, totaling P1,219,240, has not yet been released. Then, senior agriculturist Pedro Canela resigned his chairmanship of the inspection committee for agriculture inputs and related services upon discovering alleged irregularities in the purchase of 1,662 bags of GMA hybrid corn seeds amounting to P1,435,968. He claimed that the two inspection reports that were attached to the payment vouchers had been tampered with and the figures in the reports had been altered to increase the quantities inspected.

Meanwhile, Roxas City Mayor Antonio del Rosario managed to convince the 248 port workers at the Culasi port in Capiz to dismantle their picket line after he promised to look into their problems and to discuss their complaints with Philippine Ports Authority officials.

The strikers claimed that PPA officials failed to implement their agreement to pay their salaries and other benefits on time.

The strike, called four days before, had paralyzed the port and stranded some 150 boat passengers and left the cargo of one inter-island vessel unloaded.

But there was something more serious — the threat by 55 mediators of the Philippine Mediation Center in Bacolod to resign en masse unless their complaints (10 points) were not attended to by Chancellor Ameurfina Melencio-Herrera of the Philippine Judicial Academy.

Their complaint, according to lawyer Nenita de Vera-Alquizar, ranged from lack of room space for mediation sessions, no office furniture, non-payment of reimbursement claims, and cases terminated at the mediation level not sent back to the originating courts timely and regularly.

Worse was their plaint of non-payment of mediators’ fees since the start of regular operations last year.

The situation is such that MTTC Branch 2 Executive Judge Lorna Demonteverde stressed that "if all mediators will resign, we will stop referring cases to the Mediation Center."

"That will stop the wheel of justice," the woman judge added.