Campaign fever

While FPJ supporters were amassing around the Supreme Court premises when the hearings on the disqualification of the movie actor were about to begin, top officials of the Philippine National Police were briefing media women on peace and order maintenance.

Director-General Hermogenes Ebdane, PNP chief, said, this was being achieved with the deployment of some 3,000 members under the Civil Disturbance Management Control (CDMC) around Manila to ensure that the pro-FPJ rallies did not get out of hand.

PNP personnel numbering 114,000 all over the country will be kept busy keeping the peace in the coming may elections – quite a big task, for sure.

General Ebdane came across as embracing the belief that his law-enforcement agency has a positive public image. He recounted how poorly people looked at policemen. Remember the song, "May pulis, may pulis sa ilalim ng tulay"? The song talked about law enforcers taking grease money in dark corners, like under the bridge. But this has drastically changed, according to him.

He said when he took over as PNP chief two years ago, policemen had low public perception, and that the police could not be relied upon to apprehend drug pushers. Measures to turn the image around have been instituted. On the matter of rampant carnapping in the Virra Mall shopping area, he asked the establishment‚s management to organize a parking system, and when it agreed to institute this initiative, carnapping practically ceased, and the concessionaires reported a big increase in sales.

The talk veered to politics. The general said soldiers are not obligated to vote for the present administration. He said, "Everyone is free to vote for the candidate he wants, but personally, I am for GMA."

The general will be installed as grand master of the Philippine Masons next month. The conversation lingered around masonry, and he sounded very pleased talking about the organization. He belongs to the Dapitan Masonic Lodge. One does not apply, but is asked by members, to become a mason; a requirement is that he believes in God, whether it is the Christian God or Islam’s Allah. There are about 10,000 masons in the Philippines, Okinawa and Guam.

The general added that presidential candidate Ping Lacson did not apply to become a member (nor was he asked). Senator Gringo Honasan applied – "but his application was blackballed."

Going back to peacekeeping activities, the general said the mass movements do not pose clear and present dangers. Unlike before, when rallies were ideologically based, today’s rallies are not. The rallyists are paid, and given money for transportation and food.

Quietly but surely, large groups of women making up the Kagabay (Women for GMA) have been meeting every Thursday in a building on Ortigas avenue, to make plans for reaching out to voters as well as monitoring polling places so that there is no cheating in the voting and counting of votes. One will be surprised at the diversity of these pro-Gloria women – university professors, successful businesswomen, medical practitioners, lawyers and matrons from plush villages, market vendors and street sweepers and building janitors, some of whom smell of perspiration and well-worn clothes. Their common goal: vote GMA to the presidency.

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