Credit downgrade and financial disarray were provoked by the political troublemakers

Manila’s late Mayor Arsenio Lacson, who truly deserved his affectionate nickname "Arsenic" owing to his pugnacity, abetted by an acerbic tongue, used to say: "I believe in calling a spade a damn dirty shovel."

Well, calling a spade a spade, the failed Cabinet "revolt" attempted so clumsily and sneakily by ex-Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, ex-Education Secretary Butch Abad, ex-DSWD Secretary Hinky-Dinky Soliman, ex-Trade and Industry Secretary Johnny Santos, and their sanctimonious crew, has wreaked havoc on our international credibility and our financial stability. To paraphrase "Arsenic", it was damn dirty. The troublemakers who tried to mask their ambition with protestations of seeking only the people’s welfare, and wrap themselves in the false flag of ersatz "patriotism" failed to topple their Boss, namely President GMA, but may have succeeded in scuttling the economy.

The political turmoil they engendered with their foiled try to install Vice-President Noli de Castro in the Palace by humiliating the President, and striving to shout her into "resignation" (she flatly refused) has given the Philippines the black eye of instability in the eyes of the world. Mumblings about a possible military coup attempt or mutiny, spread by discontented groups, plus the laughingly minuscule but annoying rallies and demonstrations staged by the Opposition and the Radical Left (strange bedfellows), have created the picture – misleadingly worrisome – of a nation in conflict. The result: our country is being regarded not just as the Sick Man of Asia (an old pejorative) but as the most hopelessly self-destructive nation in the region.

I’m tempted to dramatically assert that "foreign investment" is fleeing – but the truth is that there is very little foreign investment left to flee.

It was inevitable that the credit rating agencies, like Fitch, have quickly downgraded our ratings, citing the Supreme Court TRO freezing the E-VAT as one of the triggers of the crisis. In sum, there’s too much pomposity, hypocrisy and egotism in our land. Those who cry loudest about patriotism and nationalism, and, Sanamagan "sacrifice", are the most blatant violators of what they preach.

It’s time we took a hard, second look at ourselves. Only then can we move on.

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It took this writer a day to read, backwards and forwards, the condemnatory speech given by former President Corazon C. Aquino last Monday, July 11, at De La Salle. By now, everybody’s taken a swing at Santita Cory for her remarks in which she repudiated the decision of the Bishops not to demand the resignation of GMA, but of course in polite but stubborn fashion, and continued to insist on GMA resigning.

Cory kept on invoking prayer – as does, by the way, GMA, her bete noir. By gosh, with all those conflicting prayers, if God were not all-wise, all-knowing and almighty, He might have gotten confused. That the besetting sin of those who would be sanctified seems to invariably blame God.

Anyway, Mrs. Aquino – private citizen – is entitled to her opinion. Her own Presidency, truth to tell, was plagued by all sorts of corruption and graft, failures and shortcomings. The nation, if anything, was much too generous in dealing with the Cory regime’s shortcomings and evils, and with the transgressions of some of her own family members, which were very grave. In turn, I think that Mrs. Aquino should be equally generous in respecting one of her successors, President Macapagal-Arroyo and giving her due respect as president, giving her time to deal with her shortcoming and failure. Most of all, the constitutional process must be respected – and this means not insisting that GMA be "forced" to resign.

But I hesitate to say more. Cory sued Luis Beltran, myself and The STAR for criminal libel, went twice as President to testify against us in court, made life a sort of hell for both of us and this newspaper (imagine being bashed by a President). Beltran and I were convicted to two years in jail. By the time we formally won our case, acquitted by the Court of Appeals and declared innocent, Louie was already two years dead. He had died of a heart attack. I trust that former President Cory will not be as unbending this time.

I say no more about Tita Cory. I don’t wish to sound prejudiced. But I believe she’s wrong.