Battlin’ FVR bites back, but vows he never plans to become President again - BY THE WAY By Max V. Soliven

President Estrada’s Cebu foray yesterday was dismal, even though you have to remember that Cebu is traditionally a die-hard Opposition city. When the Chief Executive spoke yesterday afternoon at the Fuente Osmeña (where in the past you could cram 10,000 to 12,000 people at least) his listeners added up to no more than 3,000 – and when it began to rain, a large portion of these "few" started to scamper.

I think, if he doesn’t realize what’s going on, the President ought to send trusted men who won’t bullshit him to investigate what’s happening to make matters boomerang on him in the hustings. To begin with, the Cebu City rally organizers – led by Mayor Alvin Garcia and his city officials – blocked off all the roads leading to the Fuente Osmeña for hours to enable the President to hold his "loyalty" rally. Which meant that, to accommodate the paltry 3,000 who showed up (okay, if you count more generously, say 3,500), hundreds of thousands of Cebuanos were locked in traffic gridlock and, you can be sure, cursing mightily. Why? Because the Fuente, as everybody knows from past political marches and rallies, sits in the center of the metropolis and is the point through which most traffic has to pass. When authorities barricade those main arteries, Jones Avenue and Mango Avenue, then everything is paralyzed, coming and going.

The crowd "count" was made by our STAR Cebu Bureau Chief and Columnist Valeriano "Bobit" Avila who rang me up yesterday evening to give me the bad news. He was on the spot from start to finish. He said he and other veteran journalists and radio newscasters had compared notes and this is what they came up with.

What’s worse is the rumor has gone around that certain government "rent-a-crowd" artists had been handing out P50 to P100 bills and making hakot to accumulate an audience for the Chief Executive. Does he know this? When he gets to Davao City today, he might check with his "advance team", too, to discover whether such things are happening, hopefully without his knowledge.

The Cebuanos, though, are a hardboiled and critical lot. When I inquired why not everybody ran away when it began raining (it rained, alas, on poor Erap’s parade), Bobit said his fellow reporters had grumbled that the staunch and "loyal" remaining bunch had "not yet gotten the other half of their promised balato (to use a popular term), the second P50!" That’s why they stayed put and got soaked. I hope the "flu" medicine doesn’t cost more than P100!

Another poor showing, Bobit and some other Cebuano sources informed me, was registered earlier in the day when the President first went to dedicate a statue in honor of the late Chief Justice and Senate President Marcelo Fernan at the foot of the "New Bridge," which has officially been renamed the "Marcelo Fernan Bridge", to pay tribute to that sterling native son of Cebu.

The organizers of the celebration had announced they would have more than 10,000 at the site in Lapu-Lapu City to cheer the President. Again, they failed to come up with the requisite numbers. Then, where were the other Cebu big shots? Not even the provincial governor, another Garcia, bothered to show up. He should have done so, though he clashes with the Osmeñas, as a courtesy to the President – and to salute the late Fernan.

Oh, well. There’s a new maneuver, quite noticeable these days, being practised by many, and it’s called "distancing from . . ." On second thought, this isn’t new. It’s an old custom, engaged in by cowards, opportunists . . . and politicians.

Before I forget, there was another speaker going around town – also a familiar face from the Cebu "past." This was our old friend, retired General Edgardo Abenina who was arrested by the military, if you remember, at the height of those kudetas against former President Cory Aquino as a putschist and a leader of the RAM-SFP-YOU movement. Abenina, on a visit to Cebu where he used to be the local commander, told a civic club that "a coup is in the offing . . ."

But that’s what he kept on saying during the Cory regime. As they say in the movie theaters when they stand up to leave the flicker: "This is where I came in."

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Former President Fidel V. Ramos was in his element yesterday. No longer the forgotten "citizen Ramos", he was at his folksiest, fightingest best when he addressed a crowd at the Greenhills Walking Corporation forum which packed the Ristorante La Dolce Fontana virtually to the ceiling.

Flashbulbs popped, television cameras whirred, and a grinning FVR, the sparkle back in his eye (no longer wearing glasses, he bragged, owing to terrific Filipino laser surgery), waved his unlit cigar like a baton more jauntily than ever. An appreciative crowd applauded his every sally, even jokes that ought to have fallen flat on the face. Foreign correspondents jostled with the local press, who swarmed all over "Ramos Resurrected" before and after the two-and-a-half-hour forum, hanging on his every word. He was jovial and, indeed, he was "presidential." But he doused – he hoped, once and for all – all speculations that he was glad-handing people all over the place because he wanted a second run at becoming President, post-Erap.

"Six years in the Presidency, that pressure-cooker of a job, ought to be enough for anyone!" Ramos declared.

He quipped, jestingly, that he did consider running for political office, like that of Barangay Captain in his hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan. However, with a merry twinkle in his eye, he said that the local officials had told him to "keep out!"

He responded with a categorical denial to allegations made by President Erap and government "reports" that he and his men were engaged in trying to destabilize the Estrada administration and asserted he was busy running "non-conspiratorial foundations." In fact, he solemnly said, "We are helping to build lifeboats for the people – so, if our ship of state flounders – our people will have additional lifeboats to get into." Corny as ever, General Tabako added: "So nobody will perish if the ship sinks, like the Titanic."

He beamed: "Actually, I’m here to help our President Estrada." (I wonder how that’ll play in Malacañang.)

In any event, FVR did not dodge the fact that he wanted the "constitutional process to be followed, like impeachment." He explained that when he arrived a few days ago from a trip and a speaking engagement in Bali, Indonesia, he had been pounced on by reporters at the airport who asked him, as he blinked not fully comprehending whether he was joining Cardinal Sin and Cory about insisting on Estrada "resigning." He clarified that he would prefer the "constitutional process" (of "impeachment") to give Erap "a graceful exit." I’m positive Erap, who has no intention of "exiting", won’t appreciate that remark either.

Today’s front-page story will, of course, carry a more comprehensive round-up of FVR’s statements at our Wednesday breakfast forum, so I won’t belabor what he said, insinuated, or joked about any further. Except to say: He played grandly to the gallery with aplomb and savoir faire, his vintage Ilocano-Pangasinan accent unaffected by his West Point background:;I’m sure it brought a strong tug of nostalgia to many a heart. In these depressing times, that’s a plus.

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The House of Representatives is miserably bungling the "impeachment" motion filed by House Minority Leader Feliciano "Sonny" Belmonte, Jr. (Lakas, Quezon City) and already signed, as co-sponsors, by 50 other congressmen.

Yesterday, objections hurled by obviously pro-Malacañang Representatives, who smothered an overwhelmed Chairman of the Committee on Justice (COJ), Rep. Pacifico Fajardo (LAMP, Nueva Ecija) with objections and technicalities. Fajardo wasn’t able to convene anything, not even made an "opening statement", before retreating under the barrage of objections and resetting the convening of the 45-member Committee to November 6! Why, oh why, so far away a date?

With the nation in a ferment of political passion, pro and con, the apparent delaying tactics of the likes of LAMP Rep. Emilio Espinosa (Masbate) and Congressman Didagen Dilangalen from Maguindanao and others won’t help the President establish his innocence, or assuage widespread public suspicion that an "impeachment" move is doomed to be derailed from the start.

The excuse for shouting Fajardo down? That there were still discussions on the budget. What? Since when have budget considerations been more crucial than a Presidential "impeachment" deliberation. This is not going to improve, sad to say, the embattled President’s image.

The awful truth is that Congress goes on a break for Todos los Santos tomorrow, Friday, and is not due to reconvene till November 13. A sizeable number of solons in the House, let alone people outside, are outraged by the guerrilla tactics being employed to smother the motion. One would think non-stop hearings and deliberations, with a four-day break to enable the congressmen and their kin to devote prayer and remembrance to family departed on All Souls and All Saints’ days, were called for by the grave nature of an "impeachment" resolution.

Where, one might inquire, is Speaker Manny Villar? That may turn out to be a rhetorical question. No reply?