Karma against GMA and Inday Sara

Whatever goes around comes around. Whatever you do unto others shall be done unto you. The law of karma is another version of the Golden Rule. Don’t do unto others what you don’t want others to do unto you. GMA has inflicted so much pain on so many people. What was done to her by the House of Representative was a small measure of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." May would say she deserves it.

The demotion of GMA from the largely honorific title as senior deputy speaker was a small backlash of what she did to Erap, Bebot Alvarez, FPJ, and many others who were at the receiving end of her many unjust decisions and untoward actions. Karma, according to beliefs of the Hindus, is the sum total of a person's actions and decisions in one’s previous life that would determine the future one faces. Karma is a universal rule of nature for everyone to reap whatever he or she has sown. Perhaps, God is allowing this to happen in the name of natural justice.

I was amused to learn that my former student in the UST College of Law, Congressman Lorenz Defensor of the third district of Iloilo, was the one who made the motion to dethrone GMA. Defensor is also a deputy speaker and the brother of Iloilo governor Art Defensor Jr. They are sons of the former Deputy Speaker and former Iloilo governor Art Defensor Sr., who used to be a close ally and friend of GMA. In politics, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies, only permanent interests. It was already 7:40 p.m. on May 22 and there were only a few congressmen in attendance when Congressman Lorenz stood up and made the motion. Nobody questioned the lack of quorum.

Congressman Lorenz was, of course, following a script, prepared by the Office of the Speaker. We were not born yesterday so as to believe that the motion wasn’t orchestrated by the speaker himself. It was the uncle-in-law, Congressman Raymond Democrito Mendoza of the party list TUCP who was presiding. He is the brother of the mother of Representative Yedda, wife of the speaker and also a member of Congress, representing Tingog Sinirangan partylist. It's all in the family. And GMA got her punishment from the combination of representatives from Iloilo, Cebu, and Leyte. Good for her. Governor Gwen must have been giggling. She remained loyal to Bebot Alvarez when GMA staged a coup in collaboration with then the city mayor of Davao, and a nemesis of Alvarez.

We all know how GMA grabbed the presidency from Erap. As vice president, she took over the presidency when Erap was still very much alive and didn’t resign. The Supreme Court, with my due respect, anointed GMA by declaring the presidency vacant on the theory of "constructive resignation" or "abandonment" without an animus revertendi which we, in the colleges of law, never accepted as gospel truth. With apologies to my idol, Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. who administered GMA's oath in EDSA, I firmly believe Erap was "robbed" of the presidency. GMA got four years of Erap's six-year term plus her own six, she stayed in the Palace for 10 years, longer than her own father's only four years. During her presidency, she hurt a lot of people, including FPJ. I recall the cries of Susan Roces who alleged her husband was cheated and GMA got the presidency allegedly in unjust ways not once but twice; first from Erap and second from FPJ.

The ouster of Speaker Alvarez was an unfriendly takeover from a fellow member of the administration coalition. That’s why I understand why then Deputy Speaker Gwen stuck it out with Bebot. Gwen is a fair and loyal ally, although the Garcias had strong ties with GMA. But the ouster was like Brutus stabbing Julius Caesar in the back. It was done through the pressures exerted by the daughter of the president who hated the guts of Alvarez. GMA and Inday Sara had a history of coup conspiracy. Now, they got a dose of their own medicine. If I know them, they must be plotting now on how to retaliate

Hell hath no fury like two women scorned, to paraphrase the sage. That was not written by William Shakespeare by the way, but by William Congreve in the 1697 drama entitled "The Mourning Bride". Meanwhile, Bebot Alvarez must also be laughing his heart out in Tagum right now.