That accursed Cha-cha / Focap: State of Nation

It’s close to shambles, a political system long groping for a Richard the Lion-Hearted. All it’s been getting for decades is largely a bunch of patsies, thieves, derelicts, criminals and bimbos. And misgovernment dripping with decay, graft and corruption. And crime crawling up and down your spine everyday. So what’s the cure? Speaker Joe de Venecia who has spent a lifetime talking crap says the system has to be changed from a presidential to a parliamentary form of government. Really?

Listen to Joe de V: Pagod na ang mga tao sa kasalukuyang sistema. Meaning that if you would leave the issue up to the people, they would decapitate the present presidential system in nothing flat. Again crap. A very recent survey of Pulse Asia states that close to 60 percent of the citizenry are right now against tampering with the Constitution. A determined Senate majority will slam the door against converting both houses of Congress into a Constituent Assembly so the Charter can be amended. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines has rolled up "prayer power" to stop Joe de V and company.

President GMA won’t talk. She says all this is politics. And she foreswore politics when last December 30 she announced she was not running for president in 2004. Actually, very few people give a damn about parliamentary. They are largely feeling the ground under their feet. It has been shuddering for some time. The feeling is that if it shudders some more, the "strong Republic" GMA has long dreamt of will be in the pits.

So why the persistence of Joe de V and his colleagues in the House?

Simple. They are all scared of the elections in 2004. The ruling Lakas-NUCD is bereft of leadership, what with GMA giving 2004 the boot. Joe de V in desperation now floats the name of Sen. Juan Flavier as his presidential choice. The latter brusquely turned away, knowing fully well he didn’t have the chance of a popsicle in purgatory. Joe de V got burned in the 1998 presidential elections and has learned his lesson. So? So, he zeroed in on parliamentary. The Constituent Assembly, under his baton, would amend the charter, freeze all elective positions until 2007, GMA included.

Then Joe de V would make sure he would be the prime minister under the parliamentary set-up and happy days are here again. Who would be the figurehead president? Maybe GMA? Maybe somebody else.

Neat. Very neat. Patronage politics would remain. Pork barrel would rule the roost. The whole of parliament, actually a unilateral body, would be a huge bazaar, everything bought and sold. The same old crooks would be around, the same old thieves and criminals. And what’s more, the parliamentary deputy with all the moolah at any given time would be prime minister. Political parties would be the excuse for setting up political satrapies, with about as much conviction and integrity as a sitting mule.

Give it up, Joe de V.

You and your ilk have had their time. Go gently and non-violently into the night. Don’t tempt the fates. Don’t wait until the time tens of thousands storm the streets and boot you and the present system out. There is now the loud ticking of the clock (or is it a time-bomb?) which very few people heard before and now hear with trepidation. Many are now deciding with their feet, thousands of Filipinos leaving the country everyday convinced there is no longer any hope here. With you in power still around, more will leave, better still more will flee like stricken geese.

You are about the only optimist left, Joe. It’s time you realized history has passed you by, as it has passed Joseph Estrada by and Ferdinand Marcos. Your brand of politics, my dear friend, has completely lost its relevance. Cut your losses. Accept the world is changing, and in this change, what you were before has been transformed into driftwood.

Let me rewrite what you said about pagod: Pagod na pagod na ang mga tao sa kasalukuyan pagnanakaw, pandarambong na politika. Tama na, sobra na, palitan na!

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There was a full attendance at the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (Focap) anniversary bash Monday at the Grand Ballroom of the Mandarin Oriental. Well, this brings a sparkle to this columnist’s eye. Against all odds, against the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, and with the assistance of some brave Filipino foreign correspondents like Gaby Tabuñar of CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System), I set out to organize Focap in 1973. Non-Filipino foreign correspondents readily joined, and there we were – a barricade against the dictator’s battering ram to crush any media resistance to his strongman rule.

And it worked. The Focap became the only watering hole in town where the few brave members of the opposition like S.P. Lopez, the Laurels, Homobono Adaza could gather and throw all the spitballs at Mr. Marcos, Imelda and company. In any other place, they would have been arrested and thrown into pokey. Indeed, Baldomero Olivera of PLDT and formerly AP found himself in gaol after saying (to explain what succession under martial law was) the distance between the dictator and his ambitious wife was a straight line. The dictatorship took it from here and Toto Olivera instantly found himself in detention. And the poor guy thought he was just trying to be funny.

Anyway, Monday’s Focap affair highlighted three things.

First, it brought on track for international consumption Raul Roco’s declaration he was running for president in 2004. Second, US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone sounded off quite standoffishly on that US advisory about American travel to the Philippines and quite copiously (in admiration) on the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Third, Sen. Edgardo Angara announced he was not running for the presidency in 2004, which I didn’t think was journalistic great shakes. Senator Angara told me that at a private dinner three weeks ago, and between the two of us it was a foregone conclusion.

Raul Roco’s speech and the open forum after was the piece de resistance of the Focap anniversary gathering.

He did not distribute advance copies of his speech which he delivered extemporaneously, which was all to the good. He exhibited his literary flair by quoting from the classic Waiting for Godot apropos the mystery of human fate and politics. He expounded on change. He said nothing could happen unless change took place in the heart and mind of an individual. He underscored education and health as the two factors that could rescue the Filipino from his present plight.

Asked why he thought he would make a good president, Raul Roco, throwing all false modesty aside, hit the bull’s eye. He replied without batting an eyelash that he was an outstanding congressman, an outstanding senator, an outstanding ("too outstanding," he added) secretary of education, referring of course to his short stint in the cabinet before GMA rudely showed him the door. And, he concluded, he could probably be the most outstanding president of the Philippines.

Well, we should leave that last one for posterity to decide.

The fact is, qualification for qualification, none among the presidential aspirants comes close to Mr. Roco. In a presidential debate, Fernando Poe Jr., if nominated by the opposition, would dangle helplessly like laundry on a clothesline during a storm. Sen. Panfilo Lacson, likewise, would crack like Parañaque pottery under a descending sledgehammer. And, I remember even GMA asked me to prepare her thoroughly for a debate with Roco during the 1998 presidential campaign.

Ambassador Ricciardone missed the point completely. Yes, he was right in saying the US advisory simply warned American tourists to stay clear of such places as Basilan and Jolo. Even Filipinos avoid those places, he said. Again, he was right. But the question is: Did the United States of America have to issue that advisory? Even the moderate way it was worded, the advisory hit the Philippines pride like an ironball. After all, the Philippine government stood second to none in cooperating with America in its war against international terrorism, threw the country wide open for US military operations, and stinted on nothing to please America. Couldn’t America at least have the good grace to spare the Philippines from a public advisory?

The rationale is that the nation is badly bleeding. American and foreign investors are not coming anymore. The economy could be headed for a tailspin. Briefly, we Filipinos have the staggers. Couldn’t America be a little more helpful and sympathetic? That advisory was no longer necessary. Foreign tourists were avoiding the Philippines, preferring China, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, etc.

Why stick the blade deeper? That was the crux, Mr. US Ambassador.