Mortally wounded

Blurb: 'To me, she may be reeling from jueteng and Gloriagate but until and unless the ranks of the opposition and "those of her allies" can come up with a leader and a hero in the mold of Ulysses, the president is not yet "mortally wounded"'

In my high school literature, we were assigned to read a part of Homer's Odyssey. I could not comprehend the book. It was too heavy reading for me. My recourse was to listen intently to my teacher, who, in discussing the epic adventure, spoke of how Ulysses, using guile and cunning to save him and his men from becoming the food of the cyclops, convinced the latter he was Noman. With the cyclops drunk out of the grape wine produced by Noman's men, Ulysses "mortally wounded" it and made good their escape. When the other cyclops came, there was "no man" to take revenge on. Quite honestly, I don't remember my teacher discussing anything more than the "mortal wound". While no mention was made of the cyclops being, in fact, dead, there was an abundant assumption that its death followed. That's my recollection of the term "mortally wounded" to mean an assumption but not a proof of a fact of death.

I heard again this classic term recently. A friend, who runs by the family name Gagelonia, referred to the political situation of Her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, in the following quote: "Many of her allies believe she is 'mortally wounded'". However, Gagelonia added the caution that his bit of information, while emanating from unimpeachable sources, probably from one among those who attended an alleged June 15 Malacañang top secret meeting, had to be validated because it would be flatly denied by those concerned.

Cyclops existed as a legendary monster but it was "mortally wounded" by a human being. I use the epic today not to analogize our beloved sitting president to the Cyclops' monstrosity. With the Supreme Court deciding the legitimacy of Arroyo's assumption to power to finish the term of Ex Pres. Joseph Estrada, there was nothing monstrous in her presidential succession. Rather, I use this story to highlight on the opposition's need to find a Ulysses.

The opposition and "many of the President's allies", if Gagelonia's sources were to be believed, have assumed that the president is, politically, "mortally wounded". The improvised bow and the huge arrow, to continue with Homer's tale, are the jueteng charges and the wire-tapped conversation. As a cause for an ignominious removal of a president, jueteng alone is enough. It proved its weight when Gov. Singson used it as the initial step to force Pres. Estrada to come down from power.

The alleged conversation revolved around the plan to commit massive electoral fraud. Its wire-tapped copy, assuming it exists, has a trans-national parallel in the Watergate scandal for which reason it has evolved to be known as "Gloriagate". Maybe, it's coincidental that Mr. Felt, the former FBI "deep throat" and alleged source of the information of Pres. Nixon's alleged illegal activity, surfaced at about the same time when, Atty. Sam Ong, his equivalent in the Philippine setting, is doing a reprise. If the Watergate scandal forced an American president to resign, its parallel could achieve no less result.

In all probability, this is what has been referred to as the "mortal wound" of the president. With jueteng, like in Estrada's case and Gloriagate, similar to Nixon's fiasco, the opposition and the president's allies, whoever they are, must have felt that the chief executive is "finished". Her resignation, to their minds, is just a matter of time.

Remember that in Odyssey, the wound was assumed to be mortal and the fact of the cyclops death, though not proven, was perceived to occur because the focus of the story was on Ulysses, the leader. Odyssey's plot revolved around a hero. This is the point where the president's situation is better. To me, she may be reeling from jueteng and Gloriagate but until and unless the ranks of the opposition and "those of her allies" can come up with a leader and a hero in the mold of Ulysses, the president is not yet "mortally wounded". When that kind of a leader steps forward, and the people rally around him, then and only then can we perceive that the political wound of GMA is indeed mortal