Was it an impeachment- obsessed ‘Blue’ Christmas for everybody this week? - BY THE WAY by Max V. Soliven

In the Broadway musical and later the movie, Camelot, King Arthur and young Queen Guinevere, blissfully enjoying their honeymoon (their love not yet undone by tragic betrayal and infidelity), mused in a song: "What do the simple folk do?" (Do they also do it?)

At many of the Christmas reunions, never mind the nonstop drinking sessions, alas, the spirit of Christmas Eve and the following Christmas Day was dampened by the same old topic of conversation, this time spiced up by discussions on the Clarissa "Kissa" Ocampo testimony. The talk, the jokes, the quips, and the wranglings remained, even after Mass and the usual Christmas homily, focused on the "fate" of President Estrada. Instead of Christmas cheer, the un-Christmassy jeer was: Will Erap "resign"? Have the Ocampo "shock" revelations and the disclosure of the "Jose Velarde" account (really P1.2 billion? Sanamagan!) doomed him? Or will January 2 bring a defense "counter-attack"?

In most family gatherings, the adults – and even the columnists and editorial writers – with their desperate but feeble attempts to dredge up some Christmas joy, couldn’t succeed on abandoning the topic. Only the children, naturally, retained their common sense. "Erap – who’s that?" They were thinking of goodies and cakes, and the presents to be brought by Santa Claus, or Papa Claus and Mama Claus, Ninong, Ninang, or whoever. For them, regalo ruled the occasion, not balato. Blessed are the innocent young, for they never heard of impeachment.

As for the mahirap and the kapus-palad, the embattled Erap’s avowed constituency – what did they think about at Christmas or Pasko? I can’t speak for them, unlike those government officials who love to be photographed eating with their hands, looking phoney-baloney as they clumsily pose, but I remember the long-ago years when we were very young and very poor. We had only a few coins in our pockets. We walked kilometers to school, unable to afford bus or jeepney fare. But Christmas always brought happiness to our hearts.

In those simpler times, we didn’t even waste time envying the "privileged" and the rich. We believed, in our innocence, that diligence, study, and hard work would get us there, too, someday. And we loved one another, shared everything with each other, and regarded this cool season as a relief from the hot months, a chance to go carolling (without its blackmail implications) with our friends, and a renewal of faith and hope.

Nostalgia, it’s said, is the kingdom of the old. Strange that, surrounded by creature comforts today, we long for those leaner, tougher, but kinder times.

* * *

We call it nakoryente in the trade. Once more, we have to remind ourselves that radio stations and print media should not – without proper verification and checking – dispense rumor or disinformation as if it were the "truth." Such reports are often deliberately circulated to sow confusion.

For example, yesterday, a radio station aired the "hot news" that Estrada defense counsel Estelito Mendoza had suffered a stroke and was rushed to the St. Luke’s Hospital. Immediately, "news" went around that the stroke had been "fatal." Some who instantly believed the report to be true even went around recalling that, at last Friday’s extended proceedings in the Senate which lasted beyond the usual 7 p.m. adjournment, a visibly exhausted Mendoza had complained of the prolonged hearing.

The "news", of course, was totally false. Friends who called up his residence in Magallanes Village in Makati were able to speak with Mendoza himself, who was both aghast and amused at the idea. In fact, when the calls came, Mendoza remarked that he was in the midst of a hearty breakfast of ensaymada with queso de bola (the traditional Dutch cheese) and quesong puti (white cheese, a local favorite) – a much-favored fare for Kapampangans like the former Solicitor General who are fastidious about their food.

Banks have not been spared the current campaign of disinformation and frequently black propaganda being disseminated through "text messages." What about the Senator who was embarrassed when he voiced strong opinions based on what he subsequently, to his discomfiture, found to be a maliciously-false text message which had come to him on his cellphone? Before you pass on those ubiquitous "texts", then, think twice. Even such a virtue as righteous indignation tempts ordinary citizens to become vicious and imprudent about their hate-objects.

* * *

As for me, I believe these unseen destabilizers in our society are not jokers: They are deadly Fifth Columnists whose objective is to bring our country to its knees and provoke violent unrest. The radicals of the Right and Left are taking advantage of the unstable situation in which we, unfortunately, find ourselves.

Former President Fidel V. Ramos, who’s become quite vocal about what he declares is the urgent need for Erap to "resign", warned yesterday that we must be alert on the occasion of the 32nd anniversary of the organization of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its Maoist "New People’s Army" (NPA) today, December 26th, because the Communist guerillas have been attacking "many remote and even not-so-remote communities", seizing the initiative owing to the vulnerability of the present administration.

He cited an NPA raid on Santa Fe, Nueva Vizcaya last Saturday noon (December 23) where about 50 NPA rebels attacked the town hall, routing a skeleton force of only six policemen, to demonstrate they could interdict Dalton Pass (formerly called Balete Pass), the gateway to the Cagayan Valley.

If you ask me, the whisperers, rumormongers, and "organizers" of the so-called "militant Left" (call them Reds, really) are even more dangerous than their armed cadres, for they are boring in from within. They’re piggy-backing on the zealous moves of the businessmen and the middle-class to mobilize a "People Power II" movement and calling for a civil-disobedience drive, to boot. The funny part is that these Leftists are fooling the gullible rich, where they can’t seem to impress the less-gullible poor.

But let’s not be caught unawares. The current vacuum of leadership, with President Estrada and his cohorts concentrating all their attention and frenzied efforts on beating off "impeachment conviction", is giving these bayaning huwad and fake "nationalists" the opportunity to pour in through the cracks.

Even in the pages of this very newspaper, last Sunday, I read an article written by a dizzy, rich dame mouthing their alleged "proletarian" sentiments and shibboleths. She’d better beware. If they come to power, she’ll be among those they hang first.

* * *

The tale of defense lawyer Titong Mendoza’s alleged "stroke" reminds me of the report about the celebrated American writer Mark Twain’ (alias Samuel L. Clemens) "death" when Twain was still very much alive. Twain (1835-1910) was the famous author of two immortal boys’ novels, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

When Mark Twain was on a visit to London, the rumor of his death or "imminent death" reached the editor of the New York Journal, who sent its London correspondent the following telegrams: "If Mark Twain dying in poverty in London send 500 words," and "If Mark Twain has died IN poverty send 1000 words."

When the Journal correspondent caught up with Twain and showed him the two cables, he replied that it must have been another Twain. But, he ended his reply with the words: "Report of my death greatly exaggerated."

Twain, on another occasion, once observed: "I am different from (George) Washington; I have a higher, grander standard of principle. Washington could not lie. I can lie, but I won’t."

He was, although he liked to brag about his hunting and fishing exploits, also a witty fellow. Somebody asked Twain: "In a world without women, what would men become?"

To which Twain answered: "Scarce, sir. Mighty scarce."

In a world without women, what would our own President become? Twain might have remarked: "Much wiser – and much safer." Look at what happened to "Jose Velarde."

* * *

President Estrada’s appointment last Wednesday of Court of Appeals Justice Angelina Sandoval Gutierrez as the 15th member of the Supreme Court was well-taken. Contrary to earlier speculation, where many in bench and bar had thought Justice Secretary Art Tuquero or Presidential Legal Counsel Magdangal Elma would be named to the vacancy, the designation of Justice Gutierrez was not politically-motivated nor dictated by the present crisis.

Justice Gutierrez served in the government for 37 years and with the judiciary itself for 17 years. She started out as a Manila Metropolitan Trial Court Judge in 1983, ascending the judicial ladder to the Court of Appeals where she served for nine years.

As a trial court judge, Gutierrez was the first recipient of the prestigious Cayetano Arellano Award for judicial excellence in 1991. She is the sixth Estrada appointee, incidentally, to the High Court – all of whom, to his credit, have been career jurists. (This includes Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr., now presiding very evenhandedly over the Senate impeachment trial.)

I hope that the same high standard of professionalism and probity will be applied for the Chairperson (Justice Harriet Demetriou) and the two other commissioners soon to be retired from the Commission on Elections. Is this too much to expect? I pray not. The great temptation facing Mr. Estrada is the inevitable fact that the May 2001 elections will constitute a kind of "referendum" on his own performance and the credibility of his Presidency (whether he’s acquitted or convicted, or resigns). The poll body itself and the nation cannot afford to have a weakling or a toady for its chairman, not merely owing to its vital Constitutional function of ensuring an honest, free and credible election but also because the Comelec is a lucrative "source" of graft money from its multibillion-peso purchases of equipment and supplies for every election.

An added reason for the appointment of good people to the poll body is that members of the Comelec can be removed only by impeachment, a tedious and difficult process.

Sad to say, ex-President Ramos appointed a number of bums to the Comelec, as everybody well knows. For instance, despite numerous reports involving the integrity of a certain Comelec official, he could not, for years, be removed. Fortunately, his days are numbered.

Then there’s that "kissing" guy. You remember him well.

I don’t know what FVR’s agenda was, indeed, in some of his less felicitous appointments, including some in the Cabinet. Can Erap do better? That’s the challenge.