Machiavelli's mind is nothing

Fast-paced action! Mind-boggling! No, I do not use these words to describe a forthcoming movie. Far from it. Neither do I refer to another work of Robert Ludlum, whose death not very long ago, has not diminished a bit the lure of reading his explosive last few fictions. I ascribe these to the multi-pronged machiavellian approach adopted by Malacañang in its glaring attempt to overcome the ever increasing number of Filipinos who have become so disenchanted with Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo that they want her to leave the presidency.

Since the time the Hello Garci tapes inflicted a political wound (which I believed to be mortal) on the presidency, Malacañang has taken so many moves designed for Pres. Arroyo to evade the misfortune and ignominy of being ousted from office even if, ironically, that should mean saving an institution, and perhaps, a country. For instance, there were published reports of her dangling irresistible sweeteners to her allies in the lower house whose committee was busy looking for a reason to use the Lozano impeachment complaint instead of the one written by the opposition. Somehow, subsequent events seemed to validate the reports when sheer numbers of Honorable Congressmen babied the Lozano papers as they denied the impeachment articles prepared by the opposition its first base.

In another point, Garci himself mysteriously vanished from public eyes. Despite his alleged role in the perceived electoral fraud in 2004 being the powder keg of upheaval, he was nowhere to be found. His absence could not appease a troubled society and by easily eluding the summons of the House of Representatives, the latter's institutional image had been, to my mind, irreparably damaged. Garci's sudden appearance in Singapore, confirmed by the Singaporean government no less (but denied by his oath), lent credence to the rumor that powerful strings were pulled to spirit him away from the maelstrom. Indeed, when he surfaced at a time of his own choice, with a kind of security blanket which was tighter than that of the president's, he gave away the meaning of res ipso loquitor in providing substance to the ugly talks.

Then, we were entertained by the creation of the Consultative Commission. Surely, the presidential advisers knew it was a constitutional aberration, to say the least, but they insisted on its organization being ordered by the president. What for? As a diversionary tactic, I suppose. And look what happened? Malacañang succeeded. Instead of our saying that the constitution does not provide a legal basis for the Con-com, many among us are precisely debating on the Con-com's proposals.

More recently, the sitting elected officials, after a series of meetings with the president, have made noise on the move for charter change via the "initiative". Advocating for a constitutional change of a fundamental nature like switching to the parliamentary form of government from the current presidential, local officials claim that this is timely and necessary. Of course, they are not saying that while there may be a change in the system, the people manning it are the same.

And now, congress is on the brink of discussing constitutional amendments either those submitted by the Con-com or those which it may choose to push as a constituent assembly. In other words, our legislators, feigning that they are not in cahoots with the president, are poised to amend our fundamental law. What, to me, is more repugnant about it is that all of these are pure cover up to the ultimate objective of perpetuating Pres. Arroyo to 2010. Niccolo Macchiavelli is nothing. I foresee that sooner, thanks to these fact-paced and mind-boggling moves of our demi-gods, we shall have our minds engaged and energies focused on the constitutional amendments forgetting that the cloud over the legitimacy of Pres. Arroyo's election is the fodder to our political instability rather than the vagaries of a governmental system.