Presidential gambits

Two recent events revolved around the perceived efforts of her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to remain in power. I call them presidential gambits. One was apparently a product of long and deliberate planning and the other arose from chance. The first was her filing her certificate for candidacy for a seat in the lower house. She hopes to represent a congressional district of her home province. The second event was her issuance of Proclamation No. 1959, declaring Martial Law in Maguindanao.

I share the belief of some incorrigible administration critics that the president intends to stay in power. Such objective could have been directly and immediately achieved, with past cha-cha attempts, or accomplished circuitously via a constitutional convention after the 2010 elections. Of the many reasons advanced by critics for this presidential obsession, that of retaining her immunity from suit, as head of state, stands as very compelling. And it is precisely for this reason that I feel that the move of the president, if true, is most appalling and utterly disgraceful.

There seems to be no explicit constitutional bar to the president’s running for congress. Yes, there is a provision that disqualifies a president from “any re-election” and this is also cited by those opposed to the re-election bid of former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada. The way this proviso is written, however, does not square with the situation of Pres. Arroyo. Because the president does not seek to be re-elected, she, I believe, can skirt around the letter of the law.

But the presidency is the highest position in the land anyone can ever dream of. Unless the chief executive has ignoble intentions, it is unthinkable for him (her in the present case) to contest other aspirants for a much lower office. I surmise that it is not greed alone that pushes the president to get elected as congresswomen. She must have in mind a scheme to enthrone her, at a later time, to a position not quite different from being president again.

Her filing her certificate of candidacy for congress gave substance to the earlier suspicion of her taking the initial step of executing the hidden agendum for a later charter change to make her prime minister. So exposed, she kicked an unprecedented howl of public outcry. Her foes have a field day castigating her that some of her friends, fearing a groundswell of massive indignation, can only feign unaffected.

Facing escalating public anger, the president found the situation in Maguindanao a window of opportunity. A declaration of Martial Law in that part of the country would serve as the magnet to attract all of our attention. True enough, our verbal firepower is no longer trained on the indecency of her running for congress. The front has changed. We are now consumed to fight the monster called military rule.

Anyway, with due respect to the legal minds in Malacañang, I do not find in the constitution enough basis for Proclamation 1959. I see, however, an opportunity for high officials to use military regime for less patriotic motivations. Let me explain.

In the 2004 elections, we heard of the “Hello Garci” tale. It revolved around an alleged call from the country’s highest official to an election operator (euphemism for a political cheat) to ensure victory. If such story were pursued, electoral documents must have been doctored or manufactured and such effects of the crime stashed somewhere in the custody of political warlords of the place where the fraud was committed.

Fact one. The whole world is outraged by the alleged recent murderous act of the warlords. In a civilized society, that mass killing was barbaric. Fact two, the latter’s benefactor flip-flopped. At the outset, it seemed undisturbed by the unimaginable crime, then, when worldwide censure started pouring in, it tried to keep distance. In this late view of things, it would not be totally unexpected for the warlords to dangle the criminal effects of the 2004 poll fraud to call the benefactor’s political debt.

Given that situation, a military rule is a convenient cover. The declaration of martial law can be used to provide chances to conduct covert operations to get rid of all damning pieces of election cheating. In all likelihood, this is what Proclamation No. 1959 is about. At its end is still the preservation of political power. Grrr.

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