Much ado about dinners

The media exposé on President Arroyo's travel expenses in the US seems to have gone overboard. They have not only played up the tab paid for each dining event but also disclosed how much was spent for each item in the restaurants where the presidential party dined. To add emphasis to these disclosures the payments were translated into pesos, which of course, under the current exchange rate, seems excessive.

Moreover, the press has also come up with the total travel expenses of the President from 2002 to the present (P 2.5 billion more or less) and revealed that this amount overshot the budget allotted for the purpose. The catch is clear: To send a shock wave into the nooks and crannies of the country, where grinding poverty prevails, on the President's spending spree.

To counter the burgeoning controversy, Malacañang came up with explanations among which was that some congressional members of the presidential party picked up the bills. Another was that while it was true that the restaurants where the alleged feasting bacchanalia took place were luxurious, this was justifiable considering that among the diners was the highest official of this country. For her and company, how could the stateside equivalent of our fast-food joints be decent enough? says Malacañang.

But these explanations have fallen on deaf ears, especially to the opposition media outlets, and especially too to the anti-administration die-hards in Congress. A probe, they have called for, and a probe there is likely to be in the Senate, a body which takes great delight in legislative inquiries, more so against the Executive Office.

Not to be outdone, militant groups are surfboard riding on the crest of the controversy like sharks smelling blood about the seeming indiscretion of the administration. Indiscretion or not they have been taking great joy in keeping at bay whoever heads the state for such has been their mandate-to stir up social discontent. The other day they broke into the gates of Malacañang as they did their thing in Mendiola street, and engaged the security officers into a bone-crunching scuffle. This of course gave them an excellent tv mileage, to the delight of their leftist patrons in Congress.

Sad to say, while all these are happening the country is neck-deep in trouble. The economy is floundering, what with the global crisis impacting upon its industrial sector. Peace and order is in shambles as terror-sowing Islamists rampage in our southern backdoors. And for the catastrophies global warming has brought about, we have yet to tinker our own defense. Yet the worse is still to come, scientists say. The glaciers are melting faster than expected and the degree of warming is certain to be higher than the current estimate. When this happens in a couple of decades or more, how many islands in this archipelago will go underwater?

Presently, killer floods and giant waves spawned by super typhoons have been taking their tolls in human lives. On the other extreme, drought has been forecast to hit the country, thus threatening the productivity of our farms. Grains shortage would of course result and hunger would be the lot of millions of Filipinos.

Against these threats to our very survival, there is an urgent need to get our acts together. Unity is a crying need, but with politics getting stuck in the system of our decision makers, unity is an illusive thing. Take the case of President Arroyo's administration. From the start of her term sometime in 2002, she has been the target of concerted attacks from the opposition. They have thrown almost all the foul stuffs against her, some based on mere hearsay, although some with seemingly convincing evidence, others borne out of unfounded observations. Whatever the nature of these lampoons, one can see a clear objective: To destroy her credibility and impair her leadership.

In fact, the series of impeachment charges was an indication that the opposition wanted to short-circuit the constitutional process of leadership change. This was done to ex-president Joseph Estrada-could they not do it also to PGMA? It was also an attempt to stir up people power, the very instrument that toppled the martial law dictator. Yet against all these PGMA prevailed.

And democracy also prevailed. For if a leadership can just be easily dismantled through mass actions, where is democracy? There's the law of the land and that law says that only the ballot should effect regime change.

Nine months from now ballots will be cast to pave the way for that change. Right now faces are seen in ethically dubious "informercials" which are actually political campaigns. These are fresh faces promising good governance. But once one of them gets the mandate, what will happen? A mayhem of destabilization would be launched to discredit the new leadership. Politics-driven skirmishes would ensure, and the country would be back to the usual cycle: Disunity fomenting bad governance, bad governance fomenting disunity.

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