Arroyo will have to speak up soon

The wacky weekend extended to Monday – giving President Gloria Arroyo breathing spell from the political swirl of jueteng and wiretaps. A bishop sprang to the rescue of an army spy from a Makati seminary where, his wife sobbed, Opposition handlers were keeping him against his will. The full tale of why Sgt. Vidal Doble was holing up with retired NBI officer Sammy Ong has yet to be told. But his initial version has dented denials by Ms Arroyo’s foes of plotting a coup ironically last Independence Day.

Doble, it turns out, has long known Ong, tainted in the NBI for ties with candidate Panfilo Lacson in last year’s presidential polls. He was the hooded guy on video whom Ong said had given him wiretap tapes of Ms Arroyo phoning Comelec’s Virgilio Garcillano to rig the canvassing. Doble had raged in the clip that he was doing it for love of country. Reunited with family Monday night, however, he said Ong merely had him read from a script, with plum posting as reward under a "revolutionary junta." Lacson sneered that Doble is reminiscent of Udong Mahusay’s "rescue" from a Tagaytay hotel, also upon appearance of a wailing wife, after stating that First Gentleman Mike Arroyo was keeping an alias bank account. But he only spun the illegal bugging operation around himself. More so since Doble had served as chief wiretapper in his notorious Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force under Joseph Estrada. Among their victims then were Estrada, his mistresses and their critics.

The decision of Ms Arroyo’s son Rep Mikey to go on indefinite leave also diffused tension. Amazed allies hailed his statesmanlike sacrifice for an unbridled probe of his alleged jueteng payolas. Critics too were taken aback. Breaking from pals howling for Mikey’s – and Ms Arroyo’s – resignation, an Opposition congressman said the leave was premature since the claims in the Senate by confessed bagmen had yet to be substantiated. It sets a bad precedent of legislators having to go on leave on mere accusal, said Vincent Crisologo, "what if the Administration were to mount a similar campaign against us?" He in effect admitted the slimy politics behind the Senate jueteng inquiry gone wild because slyly diverted to tarnish the First Family.

Despite the turn of events Ms Arroyo is not yet out of the woods. She faces rough sailing and tough deciding in days to come.

For one, while forces gun to depose her by extralegal means, she as Commander-in-Chief must select a new AFP head. Gen. Efren Abu will retire in eight days at mandatory age 56. Reports have it that, of 18 three-star generals, Ms Arroyo’s choice is down to Army chief Lt. Gen. Generoso Senga or Navy chief Vice Adm. Ernesto de Leon. Loyalty to the command chain will be of top consideration. Yet she must gaze beyond crisis to pick somebody adept to fight communist rebels and to reform the military, and acceptable in high domestic and international circles. Too, the choice must be one who was never close to a series of AFP comptrollers from the Army who enriched buddies and themselves.

As well Ms Arroyo needs to steer fast from the jueteng mess. Already she has ordered Justice Sec. Raul Gonzalez to turn over the investigation to the independent Ombudsman. With Mikey so far on leave, allies will have to get Ms. Arroyo’s brother-in-law Rep Iggy to follow suit because similarly implicated in payoffs. Then they can discuss with Administration senators ways to put the inquiry back on track, with sane rules against hearsay and unfounded testimonies, and serious study this time on how to lick the 200,000-strong syndicate of cabos and cobradors.

Finally, Ms Arroyo must confront the wiretap issue. Critics demand that she state once and for all if it’s her voice or not on CDs foisted by Press Sec. Ignacio Bunye and Estrada’s lawyer Alan Paguia. She’s in a bind. Beyond her control, copies and transcripts of the CDs have been posted for download from the Internet. To make matters worse, Bunye had stated at first it was Ms Arroyo’s voice alright in an original and an altered version, then backtracked days later saying he was unsure of it all. And Gonzalez has been warning prosecution for treason of anyone who plays the CDs in public – when Ms Arroyo has said nothing about the wiretap, Garcillano has denied it is his voice, and political aide Gary Ruado has said it probably is his voice in it. A Malacañang lawyer sighs that Gonzalez indirectly has confirmed that the President was wiretapped, thus opening scrutiny of its contents. Ms Arroyo’s continued silence can be read as guilt of poll fraud.

Another lawyer says any indictment for illegal wiretapping requires a complaining victim. Too, any evidence that was illegally extracted should never be considered. Nobody has come forward to complain, while the CDs are being passed around. Paguia claims it is Ms Arroyo, Garcillano, Mike, ex-senator Robert Barbers, and Mayor Gerry Espina – all Lacson foes – in it. Many civil-society supporters of Ms Arroyo are inclined to believe him. The issue has turned from legal to one of credibility.

A Palace aide mumbles that, assuming a phone chat of Ms Arroyo and Garcillano indeed was bugged, there still is no tinge of poll cheating. Administration Rep. Joey Salceda adds that the towns mentioned in the eavesdropped tapes were in fact where Ms Arroyo lost miserably. If so, they must explain to civil society that only Lacson’s maneuverings made everything sound illegal. It is this organized segment of the middle class that had supported Ms Arroyo’s rise to power in 2001 and election in 2004, and is capable of a people-power uprising. Unconvinced, it might mount an oust-Arroyo move – with no need for Lacson and other traditional pols. * * * E-mail: [email protected]