GMA gathers her forces / Whither Third Force?

It s a quirk of our history that 19 years after EDSA, 22 years after Ninoy Aquino’s martyrdom, the two major forces that succored the republic are now backing the presidential bid of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Voila! – the Roman Church and the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Archbishop Fernando Capalla, incoming president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) recently called on the faithful to trigger "creative responses" to GMA’s call for "reform and reconciliation." We have long known that the formidable military establishment – except for a few recalcitrant young rebels – has cast its protective shield over GMA. Even as GMA pampers her generals, particularly Angie Reyes, who was stripped of the defense portfolio. But notice the irony. She promoted him to the republic’s anti-terror czar.

And yet, it’s not exactly history repeating itself. Far from it.

The Church in 1986, through the protean voice of Jaime Cardinal Sin, could summon the millions to defy Ferdinand Marcos and stream to EDSA in a human flood and bring a hated dictatorship to its knees. Today, a seriously ill Jaime Cardinal Sin has faded from the scene. Today, the Church’s stature, once compelling, can no longer summon the people to gather in great numbers at the EDSA Shrine. In many cases today, the Church is held at arm’s length, held in contempt, its men in the cloth suspected of sexual hanky-panky.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines, the bulk that rebelled against President Marcos led by then Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile and deputy chief of staff Gen. Fidel Ramos, still possesses the military might but no longer the stature it enjoyed at EDSA. Morally, it is perceived as a spent force. From all sides, it is being cudgeled as a corrupt cabal of generals, waging war in Mindanao more for self-aggrandizement than for love of country.

And yet, weakened as they may be, the Church and the military can mean the difference between defeat and victory in 2004. Dans le royaume des aveugles, les borgnes sont rois. In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed are kings.

Look at how the nation has declined since 1986. Where we could still look up to some of our political leaders as giants or redeemers, today what do we have? The most resonant names for 2004 are absolutely and preposterously comic – Noli de Castro, Fernando Poe Jr., Panfilo Lacson, Eduardo Cojuangco. The nation is at war with its most dreaded enemies – corruption and crime for one. The battle is for national survival. And what do we have? These so-called presidentiables are certified pygmies and midgets, and I recoil in shame they should even aspire for the presidency.

No wonder Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, for all her infirmities, for all the crushing stigma of Jose Pidal, for all her failures and peccadilloes, for all her myriad promises gone berserk, remains the choice of the Church and the military. The point that is labored here, I suppose, is that the nation has to survive and we must now throw out this chance in 2004. Better a run-down rickety, stinking house than a house on fire.

The crash of cymbals in favor of the GMA presidency is expected to occur October 18 when President George W. Bush comes over to anoint GMA. Already, the love feast started when the bullet-riddled remains of Al-Ghozi surfaced just two days ago. This was the offering to prove GMA was doing her job, offering the head of Al-Ghozi. Dubya Bush would shower her with superlatives. And this would possibly be accompanied by a gift bag of American goodies, military hardware as well as financial and economic incentives. In this day and age, at least in the Philippines, it pays to be the Gunga Din of Uncle Sam. Six more years of GMA, meraviglioso!

See another difference?

Today, political parties don’t mean anything anymore. Sen. Loren Legarda dives out of Lakas-CMD, where she is the prima ballerina, and joins the opposition. Veep Teofisto Guingona bolts out of Lakas-CMD, relinquishes its presidency. Who really cares? They are opportunists? Of course they are. With rare exceptions, every politicians is a rank opportunist, seeking the upper reaches of Philippine politics. There lies more fame, more glory, the lodesteone that matters most – money and riches. Power.

Give it to GMA. She is the survivor par excellence. Unelected, catapulted to the presidency by EDSA II, she eventually turned her back on Erap Estrada, cunningly rode the tide of People Power. She alternately wooed and spurned civil society factions like Copa and Kompil, divided and marginalized them. She also did the same thing with mass media. Then she delivered her masterstroke. When nobody else could or would at the time, this wisp of a woman, sided with America in its war against international terror. And now, she sits cozily, trenchantly, triumphantly on Uncle Sam’s laps, the best place to be when you are ambitioning the presidency in 2004.

This broad is smarter than all of us put together.

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And now, let me ponder an issue that could either make or break the citizenry, lead us out of the wilderness, or lead us into a heroic but futile stab at national redemption. Is the nation ready for a grass-roots national movement? A rally? In the words of some, a Third Force? Do some of our leaders and leading citizens have what it takes to break the crust? To come close to the monster, blind its eyes and eventually break its spine?

More than a year ago, I came out in this space with the concept of a Freedom Force. This would enrich the conscience of the middle forces, civil society so to speak, enable them to organize and snatch the Philippines from the approaching jaws of a communists revolution on the one hand and a military dictatorship on the other. This and the eruption of our society into factional violence and civil war.

The concept of Freedom Force caught fire. Hundreds took up the cry. A manifesto launching it was about to be published in full-page ads. Then the whole thing exploded when Cardinal Sin, who initially approved the concept, backed out. In a letter to this author, copies of which were handed out to all of media, the good Archbishop of Manila questioned the bona fides of Freedom Force. His acolytes, namely Bishop Soc Villegas and Dody Limcaoco, were behind or were perceived as being behind false and absolutely malicious accusations that Freedom Force had connived with a passel of military generals to seize power. That was absolutely bunk. But the damage was done. An old and trusted friend of this writer, the ailing and now erratic Cardinal, it seemed, had fallen into the hands of the Church’s radical right, whose holier-than-thou ideology barred the veterans of EDSA I and II from access to the EDSA Shrine.

Thus betrayed, the millions of men and women who bore People Power to the Shrine, now look at the Church with great suspicion.

Anyway. Is it right, as some commentators say, that anything like a new or resurgent nationally rally, a Third Force, is doomed to failure? The broken dreams of Claro Recto, Manuel Manahan, Raul Manglapus, are now brought to the fore as incontrovertible evidence. They tried and failed. The citizenry, these commentators say, are averse to a Third Force, and strongly prefer the status quo.

I would beg to strongly differ.

The 1950s, even the ’60s, no longer serve as object lessons. Those were the placid even promising decades. The Philippines since then has morphed into a frightening political monster. Then there were no great insurgencies, like the resurrected CPP-NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army) today, the Muslim rebellion or rebellions in Mindanao. Poverty had yet to grow into a boa constrictor coiled around the population. Crime and violence, ditto. Graft and corruption, ditto. From populations then of about 25 to 40 millions, total population today has swollen to 83 million, and mass starvation, even possibly famine, lurk in the bushes.

Our old respected political leadership, culled from the days of the Commonwealth and just beyond, has perished. And the only man who dared to renew it was Ferdinand Marcos, whose regime had to kill Ninoy Aquino and Evelio Javier to bring out the gorgon head of dictatorship. The Philippines will be great again, oh my good God!

I say, I dare say it’s time for national renewal. And the only way this can be achieved is for a few good men to dare the Fates, challenge the Powers, hack at the dense and polluted foliage to open a new way. Ninoy Aquino tried and failed. But the dreams of nationhood did not end with his death. Nor did they end when Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Apolinario Mabini, Emilio Aguinaldo, Gregorio del Pilar, fell on their swords before they could rendezvous with history. And they did not end just because Claro Recto and Manuel Manahan failed to set up their Third Force.

The tone of an aggrieved society today is beginning to close in on makibaka rather than makisama. We only had squeaks during the ’50s and ’60s. It’s time to throw that stone again into the pond. Who knows this time they will produce waves?