FVR won’t sink this country

Opposition strategists need to crank up more creative ways to entice former President Fidel V. Ramos to join their repeated attempts to oust President Arroyo. Although a military man most of his life, the guy is such a certified democrat to even think of doing anything that could possibly sink his beloved country to the depths.

Consider that he had repeatedly spurned the call of his former Defense chief, retired Gen. Fortunato Abat, for them to join forces in kicking out President Arroyo and forming a civilian-military junta. And then, there’s his laconic reply to an ANC interviewer’s question about his forming a tripartite alliance with former Presidents Cory Aquino and Joseph Estrada, as speculated on by Partido ng Masang Pilipino stalwart and Erap loyalist Horacio Morales.

"There is no way that will happen," FVR declared quite emphatically.

Obviously directing the question to Morales and others in the opposition, the former president retorted: "You want me to join you? Why don’t you do something better? You join me in trying to create a one, national Philippines."

Now, that sounds categorical enough, doesn’t it? It’s as good an indication as any that disunity is repugnant to FVR. And that, indeed, is something infinitely better.

That should put to rest any speculation that something is a-brewing from FVR’s meeting with Senate President Franklin Drilon and former Sen. Tito Sotto.

Drilon is, of course, president of the Liberal Party while Sotto is close to Estrada and headed the campaign team of the late Fernando Poe Jr., the main opposition bet who posed the strongest challenge to President Arroyo in the 2004 presidential elections.

The opposition’s spin is that FVR is now consorting with the anti-Arroyo forces after the President allegedly ignored his call for her to publicly reject by January 1st the recommendation of the Constitutional Consultative Commission to scrap the 2007 elections. But that’s something that FVR flatly denied and rejected.

And what if, instead of purportedly trying to run down the Arroyo administration, FVR is actually attempting to strike some sort of modus vivendi between the administration and the opposition? Or better still, trying to convince the main opposition political parties to heed the call for national unity, reconciliation and the healing of the wounds of Edsa I, II and III?

That would be in character with the role of elder statesman that he has been playing since he ended his watch. A dream? But why not? If Morales and his kind can dream (hallucinate?) of coming back to power on the coattails of Erap, why can’t ordinary citizens like you and me dream of a Filipino leader trying to "create a one, national Philippines" as FVR puts it?

Last month, Team Philippines, fighting for flag and country, surmounted the pessimism of many Filipinos, and emerged overall champion of the 2005 Southeast Asian games. If we can overcome the difficulties in a multi-disciplinary arena like sports where we had to compete with 10 other nations, why can’t we do it in the fight against disunity where we only have the demons in politics to contend with?

It’s now 2006 and the time is ripe to take a more purposeful aim at national unity.

Enough of divisiveness and political bickering and one-upmanship. Enough of killjoys like Morales spoiling the upbeat spirit of the New Year.

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I AGREE with Mark Jimenez’s plea for all Filipinos to forego divisive activities and unite to help the country move forward. Cooperation as a prerequisite to achieving national unity is the urgent call at the moment.

What Jimenez did for his kababayan during their return flight from the US to the Philippines speaks of his generosity and sincere desire to help others in crisis situations. We learned that right at the airport in Detroit, so many Pinoys mobbed him during the four extra hours he spent at the terminal that the escorts provided him by the US government had to cordon them off after a while.

The flight was delayed because a faulty lavatory in the airplane had to be fixed first. Despite the delay, Jimenez was in high spirits, joking with fellow passengers while awaiting boarding. The delay was nothing compared to nearly half-a-day’s delay the flight had in Japan. Also, strong winds caused the Northwest flight to be diverted to the Narita airport instead of the scheduled stopover in Nagoya, Japan.

As has already been reported by the press, at Gate 25 of Narita, the Japanese passengers were hustled into buses, presumably to be taken to hotel rooms to wait out the bad weather. To the Filipino passengers’ dismay, they were left on their own, without the courtesy of being informed when the flight would resume and where they could stay for the time being. It was very cold in Narita and the Filipinos, including young children and babies, had nowhere to go. They were not provided food, not even cookies, and the pleas for disposable diapers fell on deaf ears.

It was at that point that Jimenez confronted the Japanese personnel of Northwest as to why no accommodations were being provided the Filipinos. He was curtly told that airlines do not provide accommodations to passengers if a flight’s delay was on account of bad weather.

Jimenez, who was with two congressmen, was so feisty in demanding equal rights to the Filipino passengers that the airline produced pillows and blankets, and later on some food. Jimenez was overheard asking the Japanese personnel of Northwest whether they still considered themselves as "conquering forces of Filipinos in World War II." The personnel, in an apparent effort at damage-control, offered each of the passengers a $500 cash voucher. Jimenez tore the voucher offered him.

Jimenez and the two congressmen surfed the Internet using laptop computers to look for hotel rooms in and around Narita airport. They found a hotel, but since only four rooms were available, they decided to have families with very young children given priority. MJ chose not to stay in one of the rooms, and he took it upon himself to be the one to alert those in the rooms as to the schedule of their departure for Manila.

Two lessons are to be learned from this episode: Filipinos should not allow themselves to be given poor treatment, and second, that the Filipino traits of pagiging matulungin at makatao should be shown through as in the actuation of Mark Jimenez.

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ON DR. AMELOU Benitez Reyes’ study favoring the parliamentary form while rejecting the presidential form, reader Johnny Lopez e-mailed me that Reyes’ parliamentary form is the unicameral variety. "I do not see any alleged superiority of this type over the presidential." A roll call in the economies of nations with a unicameral legislature will show it to be no guarantee for economic prosperity, he wrote. Such countries as Albania, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan have a unicameral system since the early nineties with economies at par or less than our own.

"To say that the presidential system has failed us in spite of various presidents, is . . . confusing the argument. Remember, our presidential form as practiced here in the Philippines is a far cry from that in the US… "The main reasons why our economy appears to go as it has is because of lack of national unity and cooperation. Why? For one, we in the far-flung provinces appear not to be given our due. Another, which is seldom mentioned, is the application of rules and laws selectively. This again breeds discontent and non-cooperation. Another is the lack of political will and honesty of our government officials, from president to senators, congressmen, provincial, city, barangay and all government bureaus."

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