GMA panders to military / Fund campaign for justice - HERE'S THE SCORE by Teodoro C. Benigno

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo slips through our fingers like quicksilver, her character elusive, her political instincts like corn on the pop, her presidential leadership still unable to grab the brass ring. I thought she got it right when she herself chose with delicate punctilio the 13 senators who would bear the banners of the People Power Coalition (PPC) in the May elections. I liked that slate. And I figured Winnie Monsod, Roberto Pagdanganan, Liwayway Vinzons-Chato and Wigberto Tanada – underdogs they may be – could embellish the upper chamber. Integrity they have a lot and a knapsack over their shoulders for the right social causes. That’s right, they are not thieves.

But I lost President Arroyo again when she announced she would not personally campaign for the PPC senate flotilla because she had a lot of things to do. She would leave this important chore to Vice President Teofisto Guingona. Well, she should take a lesson from Cory Aquino who went to the electoral battlefields all over the country to campaign for her 24-man senate slate in 1987. And well she did. Early surveys stated her senate slate would win only 12, the other 12 to be gobbled by the opposition. The widow in yellow fought like mad for her candidates. The spirit of EDSA I prevailed and the outcome was a smashing 22-2.

Victory is never left to chance. Right now the surveys say the PPC will win only 7, the pro-Erap opposition 5, independent 1 (Noli de Castro). Seven-five-one after People Power II? Ridiculous. Then that’s a bugle call for GMA to ride the waves of EDSA Dos and fare forth – and fight. And spread the gospel of what People Power was all about – the breakers of the sea crashing forth to inflict a dagger into the sins, crimes, villainy and perfidy of the fallen Estrada administration. So slash Erap’s senatorial candidates to ribbons. That’s a man’s job, Gloria. Do it.

But I still have another row to hoe with GMA.

Why in heaven’s name is she romancing the Armed Forces of the Philippines? Oh, by golly, in her latest sortie, she thanked the military for "helping avert...civil war and chaos by making that great sacrifice." And what was the great sacrifice? The military brass’ withdrawal of support for the embattled Erap Estrada and switching to her. And so in her own words, these battle warriors "have turned into consummate statesmen." If there is a gross and terribly atrocious misreading of People Power II, this is it.

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This is history flipped over to its dorsal side. Again it’s like hearing ex-defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile and his loyal valet ex-Col. Gringo Honasan together with their RAM (Reform the Armed Forces Movement) condotierre taking full credit for EDSA February 22-25, 1986. EDSA was just a vaudeville sideshow enacted by the US government since Washington had despaired of Ferdinand Marcos and wanted somebody else to take over. If you believed that, you could believe everything.

Avert civil war, Madame Arroyo? What civil war? The people in their luminous majesty had taken over the streets and public places and none of them bore arms. Or shouted revolution. Who are the Merlins breathing this pusillanimus pap into your ears? Or are you referring to the people of Erap Estrada. Oh, yes, he had his so-called masa, and they were at Makati and they were at Mendiola Jan. 19. But they were largely mercenaries, P300 to P500 a head with just about as much fight in them as a Livermore lalapaloosa "cheesing it" when the cops came around.

Chaos? What chaos? Was this the class war threatened by Erap Estrada because his so-called fighting poor would troop over to Manila and engage the burgis in street battle? What a laugh! All Estrada could do in his last months, weeks and days was threaten. Ferdinand Marcos threatened likewise during EDSA in 1986. He would bus Ilocanos by the tens of thousands from the North, arm them and – pouf! – those hoity-toity Tagalogs would flee like pregnant turkeys. It was he who fled.

Yes, Madame, the military and the police did their job. They deserted Erap Estrada for he represented nobody anymore, a beat and battered president before his assigned time, a discarded leaf in the wind, a twig, a clod, an empty shell, a miserable caricature of a man who once roamed the palace, thought he owned it, owned the country and fell flat on his face. They switched to you for that, too, was their job. But the people had already accomplished the mission of disowning him, abandoning him, feeding Erap Estrada to the wolves. And limbo.

When the military came in, it was a fait accompli.

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Well, it looks like it’s going to pour in. Hardly a day had passed since my last column Friday than contributions to my Fund Campaign for Justice started coming generously. As you recall, I decided to launch this campaign to raise P3 to P5 million for the private prosecutors who have joined Ombudsman Aniano Disierto in the gathering legal gauntlet to prosecute ex-president Joseph Estrada for plunder and other crimes. We didn’t get justice in EDSA I although we toppled the dictator Ferdinand Marcos who hightailed it to Honolulu. This time, EDSA II, we are determined to get justice. Katarungan.

But justice comes at a price. It will cost money for that brave band of private prosecutors who are giving their services free but will need our contributions just the same for, as we said before, office rental, staff services, office equipment, transportation and communications expenses, and miscellany. This is the second half of EDSA II, which EDSA I missed, the criminal proceedings against a fallen and disgraced president and his notorious cronies. We have to prove this time that crime does not pay, particularly when committed by the highest and mightiest of the land.

Let’s have a look at our initial contributors.

From Bert Galla in Seattle, Washington (M.L. King Jr., South Way) comes the amount of P5022.00 (the original must have been in dollars), with no note or letter. Thanks a lot, Bert,and please request fellow Filipinos in Seattle to do likewise. Next is Dell’s Restaurant Associates, Inc. (Pacific Center Bldg, Ortigas Center) with a P3000 cheque. Thank you. Ah, Fr. Nico Bautista, the first to call me Friday morning and interview me on his radio program on what the Fund Campaign was all about. Fr. Nico sent in a P2000 cheque with the note that the donation was "for the cause my parents strongly believed in." Mr. Ante Cruz Roque (620 Raymundo St., Cavite City) sent P1000 in cash "of my hard-earned money." Thank you. M. A. Gatmaitan of Triumph International gave a P1000 cheque and asked if Rolly Vinluan could be one of the private prosecutors. Coincidence. Rolly happens to be The Philippine STAR lawyer and mine, too. From Brig Gen. (ret.) Manuel F. Bruan, AFP, we have a P500 cash contribution. From Capt. Gerry Gorospe of PPA we also have a cash P500 contribution. Hey, that’s the military coming in. From "Batang Blumentritt" P200 in cash. I understand the STAR desk has had a lot of phone calls from potential contributors. One wanted his donation picked up. Well, bless all of you.

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Now I’d like to issue some clarifications.

All contributions and donations to the Fund Campaign for Justice, while addressed to me, should be in the care of Ms. Millet Dioso who stands sentinel herself at the STAR offices. She will acknowledge receipt. Another thing, and this is important. The Council on Philippine Affairs (COPA) of which I am a founding member last Friday launched its PISO PARA SA KATARUNGAN of which I am the trustee. But the mechanics will be complicated. The intention is to instal drop boxes in the big malls and supermarkets in Metro Manila and all over the country. This is for the piso-piso contributors. That will be a heck of a job and a COPA secretariat headed by Oscar Orbos is slated to handle it. A bank or banks or a financial institution will have to be brought in, methinks. But the names of donors will still have to be communicated to this column.

In the meantime, until further notice, we go full speed ahead with this column’s Campaign for Justice. So keep your contributions and donations coming. That fat is in the fire. Soon the Ombudsman (aided manfully by the private prosecutors) and the Sandiganbayan headed by Justice Francis Garchitorena will get their act together. All this phonus-bolonus about Erap Estrada still being the president and GMA a temporary fill-in will be thrown by the Supreme Court into the garbage heap, where it belongs.

I find it pathetic that a quondam comrade of this writer, Atty. Rene Saguisag, now takes the legal cudgels for Erap Estrada. Once a Sir Galahad for the poor, the exploited and the downtrodden, Rene talks a lot of stale spaghetti for rich clients these days. He says Estrada will decline the presidency even if this should be restored to him by the Supreme Court. This is about as likely to happen as Catherine Zeta-Jones escorting me to the Louvre when I next visit Paris. Hey, that girl is a knockout.

Well, to the hounds, the legal hounds as they sniff at a mass of evidence leading a probable verdict: Guilty of Plunder.