What a crazy world! - JAYWALKER by Art A. Borjal

What? Has our political world become this crazy? In yesterday’s papers, Senator Francisco Tatad was quoted as having said he was appealing to the people not to speculate – repeat, NOT SPECULATE – on how the senators would vote on the Impeachment Trial of President Estrada. But on the same day that Tatad was issuing this appeal, his colleague and partymate, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, was shouting out her fearless forecast that President Estrada would be acquitted. Tatad, who has a cerebral mind, should be able to clearly discern that Santiago was not merely speculating; she was making a categorical statement.

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Why ours is a crazy political world is that Santiago made her fearless forecast, even before a single piece of evidence was presented to the senators by the House prosecution panel. Even an amateur law student knows that a judge or juror cannot convict, or acquit, before a trial begins. What then was the basis for Santiago’s fearless forecast?

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Santiago’s forecast, which the a Metro Manila daily bannered, is going to do irreparable damage to the Senate. It will make the people speculate that the Impeachment Trial is already a lutong macaw. For a million reasons? That is what many people are speculating on – a speculation that is now gaining credence in the light of Santiago’s fearless forecast.

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Tatad should now direct his appeal, for people not to speculate, on his colleague Santiago. And if he cannot even convince a Senate colleague to keep her month shut, how can he convince millions of people who are already beginning to suspect that the Impeachment Trial will be a farce?

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Santiago’s fearless forecast has put new Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. in a bind. Over and over again, during the past several days, Pimentel has been saying that the Senate, under his leadership. will live up to the highest expectations of the people. With Santiago blabbering away, how can Pimentel prove that the Impeachment Trial will be fair, objective, and impartial? Crazy world, isn’t it!

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There was certainly a hidden agenda, masterminded by someone or some group, behind the ouster of Senator Franklin Drilon and Rep. Manuel Villar from their posts as Senate President and House Speaker. One secondary reason was, probably, vengeance. These two guys had to be taught a costly lesson for abandoning their powerful ally.

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But there must have been a more important reason, other than vengeance, behind Drilon’s and Villar’s ouster. As to the Senate presidency, political analysts cannot yet fathom the hidden agenda. But for the House, there are indications the plotters wanted to derail or delay – as what is probably happening now in the Florida recount of the US presidential votes – the transmittal of the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate. This plot, as everyone now knows, was thwarted by the brilliant maneuver of Manny Villar and his House allies.

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Villar’s ouster from the House Speakership thus became a pyrhic victory for the revamp plotters. For not only was the ruling party’s hidden agenda thrown into the kangkungan, it produced an unexpected bonanza and blessing to the deposed Speaker. Now, Villar has become a superstar, a "Speaker of the Filipino People," in the minds of millions of his countrymen. And suddenly, Villar has become a leading contender in the 2001 senatorial race, something that Manny, in his wildest dreams, never expected.

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What can the new Speaker, Rep. Arnuldo Fuentebella, do in the brief span remaining of the current Congress? Hardly anything at all. Most of the bills that the House will approve, during the dying days of Congress, will not be taken up by the Senate, because of sheer lack of time. Most of the time, the senators will be sitting down as jurors in the first Impeachment Trial of our country’s history.

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And believe you me. For the next two months, the attention of the entire nation will be focused on the Impeachment Trial of President Estrada. No one at all, except for a handful of congressmen, will bother to find out at what is happening in the House of Speaker Fuentebella. Well, anyway, Fuentebella can put his new post as House Speaker in his curriculum vitae.

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"Operations Christmas Joy 2000" will definitely go on, despite harsh times that make it so difficult to raise funds for this yearly project which the Good Samaritan Foundation has been implementing for the past five or six years. Ateneo 1992 Diamond Jubilarians, the Ateneo High School Class of 1932, sent P1,000 through class president Manuel B. de Leon. UP Medicine Class 1939, through its president Dr. Julita U. Denoga, sent P2,000. Two anonymous donors, one from Greenhills and the other from Alabang, sent P2,000. Thanks, and God bless!

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In the meantime, I have already turned over the amount of P5,000, plus assorted medicines, to the Dur-as Kalinga Foundation headed by Capt. Conrad Dieza, Jr. (PMA ’92), which is currently conducting a medical and dental mission for the very poor people of Kalinga. The Good Samaritan Foundation also gave a box of assorted clothing to Capt. Dieza.

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The financial assistance given to the Dur-as Kalinga Foundation came from Ms. Mila Chua of Hercules Agro-Industrial Corporation, who gave P2,000, and from Mr. and Mrs. Francis Choy of East Riverside, San Francisco del Monte, Quezon City, who donated P3,000. By the way, the Choy couple also gave an additional amount of P3,000, which they asked to be used for children with visual impairment.

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PULSEBEAT: Fr. Nick Cruz, S.J., who was a Jesuit regent when I was at the Ateneo de Manila High School, asked me to inform all members of the Buklod ng Pagibig Batches 1-45 about the forthcoming Foundation Day of their charismatic community, BNP, tomorrow, Saturday, November 18. The venue, according to Bishop Federico Escalar, S.J., will be held at 3 p.m. at No. 3 Don Ramon St., Talayan Village, Quezon City. All BNP members who wish to join the gathering may confirm their attendance at Tel. No. 732-3421... Waway Saway, an artist who comes from the Talandig tribe in Bukidnon, wrote to thank the Good Samaritan Foundation for the help extended to him during his time of crisis, immediately after he lost his legs in an accident. He is now active again, working as a stage performer and musician, for the Asian Council for People’s Culture. "I can now walk again, and a million thanks to all the Good Samaritans who lent me a helping hand," Waway said.

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Art A. Borjal’s e-mail address: <[email protected]>