Church vs. military / Cardinal still holds torch / That Kangkong Brigade - HERE'S THE SCORE by Teodoro C. Benigno

Two days after the Marcoses fled pellmell to Honolulu after the triumph of EDSA, US Ambassador Stephen Bosworth held a press conference for the foreign press. As Manila bureau chief of the Agence France-Presse, I attended that press conference, probably the largest gathering of foreign correspondents at one time in Manila. I remember having asked Ambassador Bosworth what forces would remain predominant in the Philippines. He had no hesitation answering: "The Church and the military." He cocked a bespectacled eye at me – we knew each other well. Then he added sagely: "The Church in the end will prevail over the military for that is how I understand the Philippines."

I had always believed Ambassador Bosworth (we called him Steve) was the most perceptive, intellectually sharp and analytical envoy the US ever sent here at the time. He must have read his Napoleon well and all the historic edicts and encyclicals that established the primacy of the Church of Rome. Now looking back 14 years after, Bosworth (currently US ambassador to Seoul) comes instantly to mind. The Church. The military.

This Saturday, Jaime Cardinal Sin has called upon the legions of the Church to march and gather at the EDSA Shrine first to pray, and then hurl their defy at President Joseph Estrada. This will be the biggest throng since almost a million flocked to the Luneta Sept. 31, 1997 on the call of Cardinal Sin and Cory Aquino to devastate Cha-Cha and break the lance of President Fidel Ramos who was out to extend his term beyond 1998. Last Tuesday night, we saw the stern, threatening faces of AFP chief of staff Gen. Angelo Reyes and PNP chief Director-General Panfilo Lacson on nationwide TV. They intimated subliminally they would protect President Estrada even if they had to shed blood for a president who – in the eyes of the multitudes – had abdicated all reason for remaining in Malacañang.

President Estrada, who extended what many thought was a limp and lethargic hand of reconciliation to the opposition, should have apologized to the nation that night. He did not. He simply said he would answer "at the appropriate time" all the charges against him mounted by Governor Jose ‘Chavit’ Singson that he received jueteng and tobacco excise money in the hundreds of millions of pesos. Meaning, if and when the impeachment process in Congress should take its due and propitious course – an impossibility since the president has the majority in both houses of Congress.

And so, with due apologies to Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her so-called United Opposition now behaving as though victory was already in their pockets, her political fate, the nation’s fate lies in the hands of the Church and the Multisectorals rallies and demonstrations raging in Makati and all over the country. Or if that should not prosper, there is the danger that this fate will be decided by Mr. Estrada if he can declare martial law. And if he cannot declare martial law legally, brazen it out with Generals Reyes and Lacson holding the citizenry at bay with their fixed bayonets, truncheons, riot guns, and field artillery.

As George Santayana said, those who have not learned the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them.

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Mr. Estrada and the generals Reyes and Lacson are baying at the moon. They probably thought they could avoid another EDSA. Beat the Church this time. Beat the streets. Squelch the spreading thunder of protest. The president had learned his lesson, had wept copiously on his cuff links and would henceforth reform. As everybody is saying, "Too little, too late." And reform cannot come to a president who has not publicly and openly confessed his sins.

Already four of the president’s senior economic advisers have quit. Earlier, this was Mr. Estrada’s boast that the towering grandees of the nation’s business, the Council of Senior Economic Advisers, were in his pocket. These were Vicente Paterno, Washington SyCip, Caesar Virata and Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala. The only non-joiner was Gabriel Singson, formerly Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor.

Daily, things cave in. And still the president does not understand or refuses to understand that the jig is up. That the nation’s trust and confidence in his leadership have been blown to smithereens. Grinding poverty and despair were the explosive forces under the surface. But they came up against a leadership perceived as dwelling in the joylands of Babylon. That this leadership no longer sails by the stars but to the drumbeat of Mammon, the gleam of new mansions for mistresses – and the click of mah-jongg.

And so the search for the nation’s soul. The trek, the bridge always leads to the Church as at EDSA, as it did after Ninoy Aquino died and at his funeral. As it did during the Noise Barrage against the dictator in 1978 when all churchbells rang. As it did at the Luneta when Cha-Cha was beheaded and briefly ran like a headless chicken before it died. As it does today, a religious call to arms this Saturday led by a sick and melancholy-visaged Cardinal, tottering maybe on his legs but still a mountain of a man who can touch as nobody else the nation’s soul.

As a follow-up to my Open Letter to the President, I would urge him again to resign soonest with sincerity and with honor. Resigning would require high courage, nobility, in this case love of country, for it is the country to be saved and not the person of Joseph Estrada. Not resigning and brazening it out would be ill-conceived thuggery. For it would lead to violence, the unnecessary shedding of blood. And as we said, the Armed Forces and the police can never take the better of the Roman Church.

Not in the Philippines.

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I hope the reports are not true that some opposition groups, whose spokesman seems to be Rep. Michael Defensor, have set up a Kangkong Brigade reportedly to serve as a "backbone", a "centralizing and coordinating force" for all protest activities of anti-Erap forces. Such a Kangkong Brigade is absolutely unnecessary, believe you me.

There is now an umbrella force in existence called the Multisectoral Groups which have precisely organized the Makati street rallies and demonstrations and other organizations in many provinces demanding Mr. Estrada’s ouster. What makes the Multisectoral formidable is that it has brought together the dynamic elements of the Left, the Center and the Right. As a journalist, I have attended some meetings of the Multisectoral and I can tell you getting the three together not only to dialogue but join forces in rallies against the president is nothing short of a miracle.

Mike Defensor and his allies can join if they want to. And that would be just fine. The Kangkong Brigade certainly is welcome. But no pretensions to being the "backbone" – please.

The two men who in the main conceived and energized the Multisectoral, finetuned it to what it is today are former congressman Jose (Peping) Cojuangco and Pastor (Boy) Saycon. They were the two persons I identified in a previous column as the parties who succored Governor Luis ‘Chavit’ Singson as he came in from the cold. At that time, the governor could trust only the two of them. He said he was marked for liquidation by Malacañang for he had in his possession documents that would prove he personally turned over P400 million in jueteng money to President Estrada. He was ready to confess, tell all. And he said he was also ready to die.

At the instance of the Messrs. Cojuangco and Saycon, Jaime Cardinal Sin provided sanctuary to Chavit Singson after he was fully convinced the governor was telling the truth. Documents were minutely examined, affidavits minutely probed. In many of our conversations before, the Cardinal mystically assured our group (the Council of Philippine Affairs group), "Believe me, something will happen to Erap", meaning probably he would be shafted by Fate and Divine Providence. He said nothing more. And we left it at that. When such a Cardinal talks, the flutter of angels is in the air.

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After Cardinal Sin realized the enormity of it all, the dynamite in the documents of Singson, he met with the Presbyterial Council of the archbishopric of Manila. In that now deathless presbyterial pastoral, the Cardinal sought the resignation of President Estrada. The earth shook. And then commenced "the sound and the fury", mounting day by day for the president’s resignation, impeachment or ouster. At this juncture, Peping Cojuangco and Boy Saycon realized history was whirling at a speed media and the streets had to match. They moved fast.

They brought together the Center, the Left and the Right, holding meetings deep into the night in the Dasmariñas residence of Peping (and, yes, Tingting) Cojuangco. The meetings go on and on. The demonstrations go on and on. And all of the Multisectoral will be at the EDSA shrine tomorrow on the call of Cardinal Sin. I have repeatedly asked both Peping and Boy if they were not afraid. For the threat to their lives was real and palpable. They admitted they were, but it was a commitment they could not shirk mandated as it was by love of country.

Bareheaded in the wind, I salute this two.