Cornered - SKETCHES by Ana Marie Pamintuan

In the country’s seat of power, all it takes is a feast of the dead to make the living disappear. Last Wednesday, during the national fiesta that’s All Saints’ Day, news desks tried the whole day to find a Cabinet member who could give an official confirmation of reports that members of President Erap’s council of economic advisers had resigned.

The cell phones of Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora, Presidential Spokesman Ricardo Puno Jr., Finance Secretary Jose Pardo, Political Affairs Adviser Lito Banayo, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno and the press undersecretaries were off. Zamora was finally reached at his home in the evening, but said he knew nothing of the resignations. He suggested we check with Pardo or the President.

But the President himself was out to lunch – or to a meeting at his residence on Polk street in Greenhills, San Juan. At least that was the story released to those who waited for him until evening at his father’s tomb at the San Juan cemetery. Among those he kept "jueteng" (sorry, that’s the pun of the moment) were his mother Doña Mary and First Lady Loi Ejercito with her three children Jinggoy, Jude and Jackie.

What meeting? – Ronnie Zamora asked. So it was no official meeting. Perhaps a summit of the families?

As for Titoy Pardo, he said he switched off his cell phone and took a break to celebrate his wife’s birthday. Yesterday, with people scrambling to desert the sinking Erap ship, Pardo was forced to resume contact with the world.

In the worst crisis of the administration, all the officials’ cell phones are off, and only the huge rats remain at the Palace. All because it was All Saints’ Day. How does the President expect to survive this crisis?

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I guess you can’t expect much from an administration that keeps stumbling from one booboo to the next. "Lady-in-jueteng" Yolanda Ricaforte nearly slipped out of the country yesterday but was preempted by news reports. Why would a key witness in the jueteng scandal sneak out?

The administration can’t even make up its mind whether it should woo the opposition or throw them the kitchen sink. The President seems to be listening to different advisers with contrasting proposals on damage control, and trying a different tack from one day to the next. After all those disparaging remarks against former President Corazon Aquino and her brother Peping Cojuangco, former President Fidel Ramos and Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, President Erap now wants to reconcile with them.

And he offers his "hand of reconciliation" with the military and police behind him. Who are the clowns who concocted that TV appearance? That show merely heightened tension in this rumor-loving capital. Until yesterday, there were reports that President Estrada indeed signed an order declaring a state of emergency. The order was dated Oct. 13, the day defense and military officials went on TV for an eerie announcement that there would be no declaration of martial law or a state of emergency. That was the same night administration officials called up news desks to deny that there was such an order.

Before that announcement, President Erap had intimated his plan about the state of emergency to his spiritual adviser, El Shaddai leader Mike Velarde. Someone didn’t like what he heard and passed on the information, scuttling the plan since such things need an element of surprise to succeed.

Our only hope is that our soldiers have a history of defying their commander-in-chief when faced with the people’s wrath.

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The buzz, as all rumor mongers and text destabilizers know, is that the major defections from the Cabinet and Congress will occur after the holidays. I guess communing with the dead gave officials an opportunity to touch base with their conscience, or at least with their constituents. We had some early defections yesterday: Mar Roxas, Neptali Gonzales II, Dante Liban, Ralph Recto and even his wife, Ate Vi. Coming up: a mass defection led by Speaker Manny Villar.

Another buzz, which is highly probable in this land of political expediency, is that the fence-sitters are awaiting the turnout at the EDSA rally tomorrow before deciding to jump ship.

So if you want to hasten change, attend the rally tomorrow. But be vigilant, there’s mischief afoot. There are creatures who are most dangerous when they are cornered.