The ‘aborted’ march on Malacañang: Is Erap just a pawn in a bigger power game? - BY THE WAY by Max V. Soliven

The big buzz when this writer arrived from Hong Kong close to midnight Sunday was that the huge crowd at EDSA was "all set" to march on Malacañang. It didn’t happen – but this is no guarantee that it won’t happen, given the angry mood of the pro-Estrada protesters who’ve been whipped up into a frenzy by the rhetoric of rabble rousers in the Opposition and other power brokers with their own personal agendas.

How can we deny that we’ve got EDSA TRES on our hands? Sunday night, the EDSA rallyists must have numbered half a million, if not more. In sum, the crowd has been getting bigger since Wednesday night, when the former President was arrested, and the nightly rallies – enlivened by the appearance of showbiz personalities and Opposition candidates and grandstanders, quick to advance their own fortunes – don’t seem to be dwindling.

His Political Turbulence Jaime Cardinal Sin made matters worse by issuing a nasty pastoral letter last Sunday and demanding, as well, that the demonstrators stop "desecrating" the EDSA Shrine which he claims to be church property. Let’s face it. As we warned at the height of EDSA DOS and the so-called People Power II, which "ousted" Estrada, if you keep on calling the mob into the streets and glorifying that as "People Power", the time will come when the mob comes even if you don’t call for it – and, in fact, even a different if as numerous a mob as before. If ten million voters swept Erap into power in 1998, couldn’t his accusers see what will happen if his supporters – in a backlash to his arrest and ill-conceived humiliation – decided to strike back at the self-righteous people who manifested their "power" to topple him from office?

"People Power" is a double-edged sword which cuts both ways. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, the outraged Cardinal and his bishops are pissing on the "other" People who’re now exhibiting their Power. Are the pro-Estrada demonstrators pissing on the sacred EDSA Shrine, too? If there aren’t enough portalets or portable toilets to go around, that, too, is inevitable. Sorry, your Eminence, Tita Cory, FVR, and all you assorted "civil society" cohorts who let the genie of People Power out of the bottle once too often: This time the genie is spitting at you.

We’re not alone, of course, in our folly. History is full of such mob scenes. If you peruse the faces of the common folk who’re there for Erap, you’ll find the same visages the French aristocrats must have contemplated to their horror when the Paris mob stormed the Bastille to release a small bunch of petty crooks, and one madman (consigned there by his own family), tore the warden and jailers to shreds – and were "honored" in song and legend, and the fierce national anthem, the Marseillaise, as freedom fighters for liberté, egalité et fraternité. What that Paris rabble, indeed, instigated was The Terror, and the setting up of guillotines that separated from their torsos the heads of a King, a Queen, thousands of the nobility, then thousands of innocents, and, finally, running out of victims, began lopping off the heads of the original leaders of the Revolution as well.

It was utter stupidity, of course, to have publicly humiliated Erap, a former President, then multiplying his humiliation by permitting the sending of TV sequences of the ex-chief of state being photographed for "mug shots," being fingerprinted like a common criminal, then thrown into a dingy cell, and forced to sleep on a narrow prison cot. Now, it has to be said, Erap has been transferred to the Veterans Memorial Hospital in Quezon City (they hope "out of the reach" of the mob of his furious supporters) where, at least, he now occupies the Presidential Suite.

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By the way, where is former President and General Fidel V. Ramos, Erap’s mortal enemy, who’s credited with convincing President Arroyo as her Rasputin into taking a hard stance against Mr. Estrada? Now that loose talk is going around about a planned "coup" against GMA, and a mob march on Malacañang, Steady Eddie, with his unlighted cigar as his Marshal’s baton, ought to be seen as guarding the barricades on Mendiola, and cautioning the troops and policemen to remain steadfastly in the President’s camp.

Only Cardinal Richelieu . . . oops, Sin, is in evidence and provocatively so. Tita Cory Aquino, it must be said, is at least on hand, too. But when a daily newspaper published a photographed of President Arroyo, joined by Cory, and other prominent belle dames (sans merci?) piously praying "the rosary for peace" (and to ward off the assault of the Barbarians?) in the Mt. Carmel Church in Quezon City, why was Mrs. Aquino in the center, and not President GMA? I think it’s time President Arroyo acquired enough of a sense of drama and the stage presence to position herself in center-stage, so she won’t appear dominated by ex-Presidents like Cory and FVR, or the generals in her retinue.

In Shakespeare’s Henry the Fifth, hymning the courage of the English King who put the French to rout at Harfleur, King Henry declares in Act III as he rallies his forces before the battle: "In peace, there’s nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility: But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger; stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, disguise fair nature with hard-favoured rage: Then lend the eye a terrible aspect."

Erap probably never read Shakespeare, Komiks were more his style. But GMA surely gets the point.

And who was the idiot in the Palace who described the conference called by La Gloria a "crisis meeting"? This sends the message that the President and her merry men believe there is a crisis threatening her regime. She should, instead, flashed her dimpled smile, shrugged, and asked innocently: "What crisis?"

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The Opposition camp is divided between the Hawks and the Doves.

There was a "crisis meeting", too, in the Estrada residence (minus Erap, naturally) in Polk street, North Greenhills, last Sunday noon. Those who favored moderation were former Executive Secretary Ed Angara, former Executive Secretary Ronnie Zamora and former DILG Secretary Ronnie Puno. But the ex-President’s son, J.V. Ejercito (who’s running for mayor of San Juan), was frothing at the mouth and, as he did later at EDSA, calling for a "march on Malacañang."

The Hawks are composed of Senators Johnny Ponce Enrile, Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan, and Tito Sotto, ex-PNP Chief (General) Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, and former Ambassador Ernie Maceda.

Indeed, there’s said to be a plot within a plot. One faction is calling for the anti-GMA forces to rise up and form a "Revolutionary Government" composed of civic, religious (meaning the Iglesia ni Cristo and El Shaddai), and military leaders. This junta, the plotters, say, must "take over" control.

In fact, former RAM elements are dusting off their old "Save the Queen" plan which was originally exposed during the Cory Aquino regime. The new "Queen", of course, is GMA. The seductive proposal calls for the Armed Forces to step in and take command to prevent the contending political factions kuno from tearing the country apart.

According to insider reports, two prominent solons connected with the defense establishment and the military in the past have been trying to "recruit" support among serving officers of the Armed Forces. The going "rate" being dangled by them is P5 million to P8 million for each battalion commander (whether major or colonel) who joins their conspiracy. Why such a large amount for battalion commanders? Because these are the officers who actually command troops. The purported rate for captains and other company commanders is P500,000.

Mind you, these two and their henchmen aren’t doing all this for Erap, I’m informed. They’re using the "mistreatment" of the former President as their excuse, but their own agenda is to seize power for themselves. They have an armed core of 150 veteran soldiers, already in "hiding" at strategic places, just in case they can organize a strike. But the movement is not "ripe" yet – unless I’m seriously wrong.

Incidentally, it’s unjust and insane for some officers to agitate for the relief of Philippine Air Force Commanding General, Lt. Gen. Benjamin P. Defensor – just because he’s the younger brother of the fire-breathing, incendiary Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago who’s been acting like the Madwoman of Chaillot. Even if, as her critics say, Miriam is afflicted with "mad cow" disease, this does not mean that this is contagious enough to infect her brother.

All those wild charges whispered by envious officers (and those who wish to bring him down), with some snipers even advocating his "arrest" for allegedly trying to recruit fellow officers to join a coup plot, are baseless. Benjie, who brilliantly supervised the "air offensive" in Mindanao that helped crush the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is a true-blue officer and a gentleman. He not only has the unswerving loyalty of all his PAF service commanders, but is Class President of PMA Class ’69 (known as The Fighting ’69), the same class that includes former Rear Admiral Willie Wong, the former Navy Flag Officer in command, and PNP General Tomas Lantion, who’s the right-hand man of PNP Director-General Larry Mendoza in keeping round-the-clock vigil against any mob violence or coup plot.

Any move to demote, or even arrest Defensor, who’s widely respected and admired in the Armed Forces, would provoke the very upheaval the government is scrambling to head off and suppress. This is ridiculous: He’s being tarred and falsely accused of guilt-by-relationship (which is worse than guilt by association) – his relationship to his La Boca Grande of a sister, Maid Miriam, whose tirades are nightly becoming more tedious, even though vexatious.

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Senator Vicente "Tito" Sotto’s silly insinuation that the media, including television stations, are ignoring the huge pro-Estrada rallies being staged in EDSA and in Makati because, he claims, media are biased against Estrada, is laughable.

The reason it’s difficult for television crews, news photographers, and journalists to adequately cover those rallies is because many unruly protesters, when they spot newsmen and cameramen, pounce on these media persons and try to attack them or chase them off. As a result, only the Iglesia ni Cristo’s TV Channel 25 seems to have continuing coverage of the EDSA Shrine ululations and speeches. The anti-media actions of the demonstrators, thus, have proven counter-productive.

Some aver that "media" are not welcome because they don’t want it to be seen that certain paymasters are doling out "cash" to rallyists. The rumor is that the pay-offs range from P200 to P300 per "appearance." If there’s some hakot and some payola, that’s par for the course. Many demonstrators have been showing up to sincerely show their support for Erap, it must be conceded, and "protest" as well against the poor being neglected, or marginalized in what they decry as a society dominated by the "rich." This is, deplorably, "class struggle" in its worst form.

Sad to say, Opposition leaders have begun exploiting this theme. The most provocative tirades come from Estrada’s son, J.V. Ejercito, who not only tried to stir up the crowd into marching on Malacañang but, in the early hours of Monday morning, even called on the demonstrators to attack the luxury villages in Makati. J.V. even wants the masa to go looking for people who look Tisoy and punch them in the nose. Sanamagan, what racist and inflammatory rhetoric, bordering on inciting to criminality and violence. Cool off, J.V.! You’re heading for trouble.

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There are certain individuals, on the other hand, who’ve somersaulted and are acting scared.

In a brief interview over Station DZRH at about 2:30 p.m. yesterday, Ombudsman Aniano Desierto "criticized" the treatment accorded former President Estrada when he was brought to the PAOCTF headquarters in Camp Crame and thrown into a dingy cell, after being photographed for mug shots and fingerprinted.

Desierto should be the last person on earth to belatedly express concern over the shabby treatment given the ex-Chief Executive. Prior to his filing of the anti-graft and plunder cases against Estrada and company with the Sandiganbayan, Desierto was on television almost daily trumpeting what his office was doing against Erap. If it was not Desierto himself making the announcements on the progress of these cases, it was his General Deputy Ombudsman Margarito Gervasio, whose appointment to that position was solicited by Desierto from ex-President Estrada, incidentally. I was among the many televiewers who were turned off by Desierto’s "lynch-mob" antics and out-and-out grandstanding.

In fact, Desierto was raring to file the criminal complaints against Estrada even before the Supreme Court could resolve the motions for reconsideration of its decisions on the twin petitions filed by Estrada lawyers Rene Saguisag and Pacifico Agabin. The High Court had to restrain – virtually rebuke – Desierto for his trigger-happy approach. When the plunder cases were finally filed with the Sandiganbayan, the respondents’ right to file their motion for reconsideration within five days from receipt of the Ombudsman’s resolution, finding a prima facie case against them, was even withheld.

Now, is Desierto feeling anxious that he will be set upon by the EDSA TRES mob?

I agree, of course, with President Arroyo that the law is the law and must be observed, and, as President, she has the duty to make certain the law is applied equally without favoring anyone, whether rich or poor, educated or illiterate. However, treating a former President and Head of State with respect and courtesy befitting his previous station is not bending the law to favor him.

What has brought us to this present bitter state of affairs is that too many sanctimonious, self-righteous, and arrogant "victors" have been heaping insult upon insult on their already fallen and prostrate enemy. What did they expect? For the ousted President, humiliated and seeing himself being propelled to a conviction for heinous crime, to take it lying down – or his millions of "former" supporters to be cowed? They’re hitting back.

As for the EDSA Shrine, it may be a holy place as the Cardinal says, but EDSA belongs to the people – all the people, not just to any "holy" or "acceptable" group.