Of ladies and gentlemen

I am not about to dwell on the honorable members of Congress in the subject matter of ladies and gentlemen because most of them, I am sorry to say, have not acted that way before televised hearings they conduct on the wiretapping and alleged jueteng payola scandals rocking the Arroyo administration.

I was glued to the television these past few days, watching and listening to the drama unfolding before my eyes.

I’m sure many people watched as both President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and actress Susan Roces, widow of the late presidential candidate, actor Fernando Poe Jr. or FPJ, appeared in separate fora, talking about their respective spouses.

The main characters are two strong-willed women. But the comparison stops there.

The first episode showed President Arroyo bravely fighting her monumental ego and did what she must last Monday night, face the nation in live broadcast from her living quarters at the Palace, obviously reading a prepared statement of apology before the cameras.

After quibbling and even very feisty when the wiretapping scandal broke out three weeks earlier, Mrs. Arroyo finally got discernment and asked for the people’s forgiveness for the impropriety of her actions.

I dare say President Arroyo did her best to say "sorry" and emote this with sincerity for what she termed as "lapse in judgment" on her part to call up several times an election official even while the official results of the May 2004 presidential elections have yet to be declared.

No amount of award-winning film artistic craft by my good friend, TV/movie director Lupita Kashiwara, could soften the cold, steely eyes of President Arroyo.

Though no fault of anyone, it’s simply because Mrs. Arroyo is no actress. She is an economist, a technocrat who deals with cold facts and numbers, and a leader of more than 80 million who has to govern the country with her emotions as the least of her considerations.

On Wednesday noon, President Arroyo spoke before local and foreign businessmen at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City where she announced the voluntary self-exile abroad of her husband, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo who has been her lightning rod ever since she entered politics.

This time, I saw a President Arroyo apparently fighting off tears and she really spoke from the heart as she read a personally written speech about a family decision.

A few minutes later, I watched at the same ABS-CBN ANC News Channel aired live from Club Filipino in San Juan the fiery speech and press conference afterwards by Mrs. Poe.

While seated and listening to the prepared speech delivered by Mrs. Poe, something struck me while I watched in awe how well she delivered a nicely crafted script, excuse me, I mean speech, with so much ease and flair of a true drama queen.

Poe’s widow was mouthing the very words, mostly in Tagalog, that I always hear from the former President, Joseph Estrada every time I have the opportunity to talk with him over cellphone from his rest house detention in Tanay, Rizal.

In particular, among the more distinctively Estrada words that Mrs. Poe delivered were: "Every Filipino, rich or poor, being equal in stature only every election time, when each can cast just one vote." "She (Mrs. Arroyo) stole the presidency, not once, but twice!" "She is out to cheat and manipulate the people again."

Such lines sounded familiar as words coming from her late husband’s bosom buddy, their compadre Erap.

Mrs. Poe accused President Arroyo of being a liar, saying she saw her lie through the latter’s eyes.

"Eyes can give you away. Ikaw, feel mo?" Mrs. Poe pointed out.

Mrs. Poe’s testy retorts in the ensuing press conference showed the actress was at her usual "taray" movie image.

"Ikaw ang nagsabi niyan, hindi ako," Mrs. Poe snapped, after being asked if she would lead a people power revolt against President Arroyo.

"Umpisahan mo, tatapusin ko. Atat na atat ka na yata eh!" she snarled at reporters.

I thought I have recovered from my initial shock. The next day, I heard opposition Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson in a radio interview saying he would rather see the constitutional process of succession to prevail rather than another people power revolt to change the leadership in the country.

Lacson expressed his not being averse to the idea that Vice President Noli de Castro is the constitutional successor should President Arroyo heeds calls for her to resign or be impeached or removed from office.

Lacson though qualified his position that this is in the absence of proof that Kabayan has done some cheating and election fraud and did not, in fact, participate in it.

Surprisingly, while he refused to join forces with Poe to run under a unified opposition banner during the May 2004 elections, Lacson said he is ready to give way to Mrs. Poe should there be any snap elections. That is when I snapped out.

But I must admit I was more saddened to watch on TV yesterday Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap announcing his resignation from the Cabinet after having a heart-to-heart talk with President Arroyo.

I was very much impressed by Yap’s own supreme sacrifice by resigning from his post to help President Arroyo whom he fondly calls her "mother," she being his mentor in economics at Ateneo.

The 37-year old Yap is a very, very loyal Cabinet member and insisted his resignation from the Cabinet is "not vaudeville act to distract from the tape" scandal.

I remember ribbing him in the past for saying he would do anything to spare his surrogate "mother" from all the controversies hounding her administration.

This after Yap was linked to the alleged murder earlier this year of freelance journalist Marilyn Esperat. After that, tax evasion charges were filed against Yap and his father on an unpaid capital gains tax which should have been paid by the buyer of a property sold in 1998 by his family-owned corporation.

Yap has every right to feel bad for this underhanded manner by which his name was being dragged into criminal acts.

And the last straw was a statement coming from a member of the so-called "economic managers group" of President Arroyo, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda of including Yap’s name with those having links with the First Gentleman must also get out of the picture to save the administration from annihilation.

This was really unfair to Yap because while he may have indeed been an Ateneo law graduate like the First Gentleman, the DA Secretary is really a blue-blooded GMA man and trained as a technocrat like her.

If it is any consolation, I would like to share to these ladies and gentlemen these wise words from an unknown source: "A man who surrenders when he is wrong is honest. A person who surrenders when not sure is wise. A person who surrenders even when he is right is a husband."

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