GMA sprawls again / So the uproar goes on

Hardly had this writer left the belltower in high praise of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for her decision to withdraw the Philippine contingent from Iraq than when she sprawled and had mud all over her face. I don’t understand. She didn’t have to do that. And not this clumsily. But when Malacañang announced a few days ago she and Brother Eddie Villanueva had agreed to organize a government of "national unity", that was a damned dirty lie.

True, they had midnight trysts in the Bulacan residence of Brother Eddie May 27 and July 5. True, they discussed issues of national importance two hours the first time. True, the president offered the well-known preacher and evangelist a top adviser position and cushy government jobs for his possible nominees. But it was not true they agreed on anything of substance. What was true was that Brother Eddie just politely listened. But in both instances, he gave GMA the evangelical eye and flatly and courteously rejected her proffer.

I should know.

Brother Eddie told me shortly after the meetings with PGMA he could never accept the president’s proffer for many reasons. First, he tenaciously stuck to his conviction his Bangon Filipino party was massively cheated during the May 10 elections. Thus, the implied assumption sticks that GMA was and remains a "bogus president, " a pretender to power. Second, he had to consult the three major groups constituting the core of Bangon Filipinas.Not to mention his closest confidants in JIL (Jesus is Lord), reputedly the world’s seventh biggest evangelical organization.

Brother Eddie disclosed the Big Three of Bangon were not likely to accept GMA’s proffer because they were "cheated massively" by the government during the May 10 elections. And they were still "boiling mad." Again the angry refrain: In many towns and cities, thousands of registered Bangon voters disappeared from the electoral lists. And could not vote.

During the two meetings with GMA, Brother Eddie said he strongly protested the zero scores sufffered by his Bangon Filipinas party during the elections even in Bulacan towns where he had a heavy religious and political following. Brother Eddie was grit-jawed when he recounted this to this writer. Not in one instance did he take back or soften his moral outrage against the GMA regime. He was also steamed up because of the Palace steamroller that he claimed flung his son against the wall in the Bulacan elections. And finished him.

Not in one instance did he indicate any willingness to join GMA in a government of national unity.

So where did the spin masters of Malacañang get all that silly and slimy sirocco that GMA had "won over" Brother Eddie Villanueva?

When you come close, the whole thing stinks. Why was there only a unilateral statement from Malacanang? On such an important issue, there should have been a joint statement. There was none. Why? The two meetings were held in his Bulacan residence, not in Malacanang. How come Brother Eddie was not even accorded the courtesy of issuing his own statement? Was he shanghaied through presidential legerdemain even in his own abode? Did he fall into a Palace bear trap?

Sister Dorrie, wife of Brother Eddie, in a separate statement, confirms all the allegations of this writer. In fine, she said, Brother Eddie "just advised GMA to show sincerity in instituting genuine reforms and BANGON will be a righteous opposition."

Finally, after many days of reflection, Brother Eddie broke his silence and in effect dismissed the Malacañang tale as "hogwash".

In the face of all this, there seems to be no doubt President GMA, while seemingly sweeping the field clean in the May 10 elections, badly wants to win over Brother Eddie, virtually the lone formidable rival and protagonist standing in her way. Although Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ) too has not conceded to GMA, Da King has shriveled to the size of a political dwarf, and hardly anybody today thinks he can be a serious contender again. Even his top advisers have already abandoned him.

But not Brother Eddie. His Bangon Filipinas party and JIL largely remain intact. This is what GMA fears. The ground under her feet has never really remained solid. Problems en battalia confront her, more than they have confronted any past Filipino president except Ferdinand Marcos. She has seemingly lost or temporarily alienated America, her strongest ally, by withdrawing the Philipine humanitarian contingent from Iraq under terrorist threat to behead Angelo de la Cruz.

Her nightmare: Brother Eddie crouching in the shadows, ready to pounce with his millions if GMA should badly falter in the near future.

She needs footing, strong footing. This she can only achieve if she can wade into the political ring with the nimble lyrical legs of soccer prodigy John Beckham and the murderous fists of a truculent Mike Tyson. That flap with Brother Eddie, so far some weak and flimsy appointments to the cabinet, the "betrayal" of Dinky Soliman, the return to power of two highly controversial Comelec commissioners, proves meritocracy is still far from her mind. Electoral debts are being paid.

She still has a penchant for palookas.So far, her First One Hundred Days have not proved impressive.

* * *

The subject remains very much alive and so we will wade in again. We are of course referring to all the swirling, dizzying whoop-de-do about Angelo de la Cruz. You still hear the razzmatazz the Philippines was a wimp in reportedly fleeing from Iraq just because a few terrorists held a knife to the truck driver’s his neck. Now let me dig my knife further.

The bottomline has to do with America’s war on Iraq.

Events have proved beyond any doubt that war was not America’war, but George W. Bush’s "war of revenge" based on premises the US citizenry now rejects, and the US Senate en banc has exposed as a fraud.The doughty Senate now declares after a thorough inquiry the war on Iraq was based on lies, lies, and more lies. . If that is so, our enrollment in that war was also a big mistake. And if it was a mistake, our government must rectify that mistake by pulling out. And so it has pulled out. So many other countries have pulled out like Spain, Nicaragua, Honduras. Thailand wants to pull out along with several others.And don’t believe the canard the Philippines will pay for that "betrayal". Betrayal, my Aunt Matilda’s foot!

In the swim of the great, the powerful, their clashes, their battles, the Philippines does not count at all, or not very much.

And yet, whatever its frustrations, America will still need the Philippines for its geo-political designs in Asia. Our sea lanes still remain strategic and indispensable for naval and commercial navigation. Our land area for US troop withdrawal, training,and maneuver cannot be replaced by Indonesia or Malaysia, which are Muslim countries. Washington urgently sought return for its combat troops to the Philippines more than three years ago for joint maneuvers close to China and along the South China Sea. And also to combat terrorism.

We didn’t, we never asked for them,

So forget all that hot and pretentious hoosh America is going to punish us. In fact, all this sound and fury about Angelo de la Cruz will become forgotten three months from now. The trend in Iraq is towards evacuation by US and coalition trooops. And an eagerly awaited thankover of government by the Iraqis themselves. Get out before it becomes another Vietnam. Another Angola. And yes, Mr. US Ambassador, we do know how to distinguish our friends from our enemies.

Troop Security For SONA. I am afraid we may be gradually turning into a garrison state. The police say they have readied more than 5000 regulars to secure GMA’s State of the Nation Address. Of course, the 5000 will be armed with tear gas, water cannon, truncheons, rubber bullets, real arms if need be, not to mention the swastika zeal of Gen. Ricardo de Leon and his gorillas.

I wonder. Are the Filipinos who will stage street demonstrations during the SONA considered enemies of the state? Even without a permit, they have a right to protest non-violently. That’s par for the course in many other countries. So what if they insult the anti-riot police to their faces? I would, if I were there. That’s part of their job. After all, they are defending a government that has long trampled on the rights of the citizenry. And they deserve a continuing rain of rotten tomatoes on their kissers.