Martial bonds

YOU DON’T use a .45 to kill a fly.
I remember reading that from a mimeographed sheet that came out of Fort Bonifacio in 1972 shortly after Ferdinand Marcos put the entire archipelago under martial law. The statement was supposed to have come from the incarcerated Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino.
Ninoy’s contention was that martial law was an inappropriate reaction, nay, an overkill, to the socio-economic and political problems besetting the country.
Summed up Proclamation 1081: “…WHEREAS, the rebellion and armed action undertaken by these lawless elements of the communist and other armed aggrupations organized to overthrow the Republic of the Philippines by armed violence and force have assumed the magnitude of an actual state of war against our people and the Republic of the Philippines;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested upon me by Article VII, Section 10, Paragraph ('2) of the Constitution, do hereby place the entire Philippines as defined in Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution under martial law and, in my capacity as their commander-in-chief, do hereby command the armed forces of the Philippines, to maintain law and order throughout the Philippines, prevent or suppress all forms of lawless violence as well as any act of insurrection or rebellion and to enforce obedience to all the laws and decrees, orders and regulations promulgated by me personally or upon my direction…”
“An actual state of war” against the republic, Marcos justified his martial law. A perpetuation of himself in power, so Marcos did with martial law.
Fast forward now to the present. “An overreaction.” So yelled former President Fidel V. Ramos at President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Proclamation 1959 that imposed martial law in Maguindanao.
“Heavily armed groups in the province of Maguindanao have established positions to resist government troops… the condition of peace and order in the province of Maguindanao has deteriorated to the extent that the local judicial system and other government mechanisms in the province are not functioning, thus endangering public safety…” So asserted GMA’s proclamation.
“A rebellion was in the offing.” So seconded Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera. To dummies, GMA’s martial law is a pre-emptive strike against a rebellion that is yet a-brewing. Which broke altogether whatever legal leg it stood on.
The erudite Christian Monsod stressed that the “imminent danger” clause of the 1935 Constitution that Marcos abused had been excised from the 1987 Constitution precisely so it would not be taken in vain again. Monsod knows whereof he speaks, being one of the framers of the fundamental law now in effect.
By making a “looming rebellion” as justification for GMA’s martial law, the government raised the ghost of a dead constitution, and along with it the phantoms of a Marcosian past.
Indeed, the spectre of the Great Ferdinand is beginning to haunt and hound our days.
No-election scenarios with GMA holding on to the presidency after June 2010 are given renewed vitality in coffeeshop talks.
“An emerging Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo dictatorship” the Filipino people should resist with all might, said the militant bloc of Congressmen Satur Ocampo, Teodoro Casiño, Liza Maza, et al.
This, even as they re-affirmed their principled stand that Proclamation 1959 was neither constitutional nor necessary given that there is no rebellion or invasion in Maguindanao, and that a state of emergency had already been declared in the area providing the armed forces, the national police and other government agencies with enough powers to deal with the aftermath of the Maguindanao massacre.
“We believe Proclamation 1959 is meant to be a precedent. It is an attempt to impose martial law even without the requirements specified in the Constitution. If GMA gets away with this one in Maguindanao, she can get away with it in any other province or the whole country,” they warned in a statement.
Raised too were the ghosts of an elections past – 2004’s to be exact.
“One possible reason for the martial-law declaration might be to cover up the massive fraud that marred the 2004 presidential and 2007 senatorial elections in the province.” So said Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. “President Arroyo and her cohorts are afraid the Ampatuans may expose the rigging of election results in Maguindanao that enabled her to win over opposition challenger Fernando Poe Jr. in the 2004 elections, and administration candidates to sweep the senatorial polls in the province in 2007.”
Seconded Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay: “There have been reports that the Ampatuans have threatened to make the Arroyo administration pay by telling all they know about the massive cheating in the province during the 2004 presidential elections…(if such reports are true) then this reduces the martial-law proclamation into a hunt for evidence of election fraud. It would now appear that the Arroyo administration is using the full might of the state—the Armed Forces, the police and all agencies of government—to recover original election returns or certificates of canvas reportedly in the possession of the Ampatuans as a state of martial law will allow the administration to conduct raids and searches without going through the courts.”
Binay decried the Arroyo administration for “exploiting the nation’s outrage to cover up another serious crime, that of stealing the 2004 elections.”
Nunquam iterum. Never again to martial law. Never again to a Marcos!
Unlearned of our past, we are a nation damned.

Babel

“GMA’s CANDIDACY widens gap in Pampanga clergy.” So screamed the banner of Punto! Friday last week.
“Let us be fair to the people and to the teachings of the liturgy,” said Fr. Jun Mercado, parish priest of Barangay Lourdes Sur, Angeles City, in reaction to parishioners who expressed to him their disappointment over alleged statements issued by Auxiliary Bishop Pablo Virgilio David during Masses at the Holy Rosary church against the candidacy of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for the 2nd district of Pampanga.
“The Mass is a liturgy of unity and love, and not one of protest and dissension… It would be wrong for the bishop to make political statements during Mass,” Mercado remarked.
While Mercado himself crossed the partisan divide and asked the people of the second district to support GMA, he did so “outside the Mass,” at the church patio rally before the President filed her certificate of candidacy last Tuesday.
In that same Mass, homilist Fr. Roland Moraleja made an analogy of GMA’s “going down” from the presidency to Congress with that of Jesus Christ’s “taking the form of a slave to serve mankind.”
"Be not afraid,” so Moraleja addressed GMA. “To serve, we must humble ourselves,” and invoked a passage in the second chapter St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians citing Jesus as God humbling himself by taking the form of man.
“You have served Pampanga well and they still need you in Pampanga, regardless of what people say. If other people put you down, we Kapampangans will put you up.” So Moraleja elevated the President to gloria in excelsis. So was it written in our editorial here the following day.
“Blasphemy,” cried Bishop David at Moraleja’s statements.
Not quite, countered Mercado, saying Moraleja’s homily comparing the President’s decision to run for a lower post with Jesus Christ’s assuming human form was devoid of political undertones.
“Even Fr. Moraleja’s statement that Kapampangans would lift up the President when other people try to bring her down was in the context of the gospel,” Mercado affirmed.
On his alleged politicization of the pulpit, David said: “I don’t make political statements in church. I am a pastor, not a politician. I only preach on God’s word and relate it to current spiritual and moral issues.”
On GMA’s running for congresswoman, David had this to say : “I have come to the conclusion that PGMA is a big lawbreaker. “She breaks the spirit of the law but she has enough paid lawyers to justify her conduct as in keeping with the letter of the law. This is precisely what ails our country…(GMA) is now giving a very bad example to ordinary citizens on how to treat the law. Hanapan mo ng butas ang batas para makalusot (Seek a loophole in the law to get by it.) This behavior is sinful. We are all capable of it, humans as we are, but Jesus has given us an example on how to rise above it.”
Even at the once of speculations that GMA would run in the 2nd district when her hometown visits became frequent, the bishop already issued a statement asking her not to run “in the name of decency and for the sake of propriety.”
Of accusations that he uses the Mass for political commentaries against GMA, David urged Mercado to air his grievances to higher Church authorities rather than the media.
Sadly, the higher Church authorities are themselves enmeshed in differences of their own where GMA’s candidacy is concerned.
“Addiction to power…(GMA) exhibits lack of propriety and remains fixated to have a Cha-Cha – once elected – as soon as possible, to target the Office of Prime Minister.” So was GMA archcritic Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz quoted in the media, adding that the framers of the Constitution did not think of imposing a ban on an outgoing president running for a lower office simply because it was unthinkable.
“There appears to be no reasonable cause for such a constitutional prohibition as really there is no person in his or her sound mind who will do
such a funny and demeaning political circus.” So was Cruz quoted as saying.
Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said: “I wholeheartedly suggest she give others a chance to serve and not give in to the temptation of power.”
Catarman Bishop Emmanuel Trance: “She would have shown some statesmanship or political delicadeza if she does not run.”
“It’s not proper for a former president to seek a lower position,” said Basilan Bishop Martin Jumoad. “(GMA) is already in the category as an elder adviser or statesman of our nation,”
Laoag Bishop Sergio Utleg said GMA “should retire.”
Legazpi Bishop Emeritus Lucilo Quiambao said GMA’s “self-demotion” as a congressional candidate “might be interpreted (as an act) to cover up for something.”
At the other end of the political spectrum in the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines rise:
The venerable Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal: “If somebody wants to serve the people, who can stop her? Provided the Constitution allows that.”
Virac Bishop Manolo Delos Santos, saying that since there was no legal impediment for GMA to run as congressman, “let her constituents decide.”
Bontoc-Lagawe Vicar Apostolic Beltran: “That a President should, immediately after her term, seek a lower office is unusual ... but it is not for that reason immoral. It is possible for motives less noble and worthy to be considered, but it is also a principle of ethics that one should never presume evil or malice of others.”
Bishop Beltran called “conjectural” critics’ warnings that GMA was setting the stage for a parliamentary shift in government and her ascendancy as prime minister.
“It is the sovereign people who, by exercising the power of the ballot, must decide whether or not to allow her to assume office. And whether or not she becomes Speaker ... is for her peers in the House of Representatives to determine by the processes that are legal and fair,” he said.
Bishop Marquez of the Diocese of Lucena: “I should not stifle people’s clamor for any public servant to serve and represent them in government.”
A Babel of tongues GMA’s running has caused among churchmen. Whither goeth the faithful now?

Misreading Panlilio

“DAPAT BIYASA kang mamasang balat candy. (You should know how to read candy wrappers).”
The allegory – perhaps localized from the idiom of reading between the lines – is a favorite of Senior Board Member Cris Garbo when trying to divine the probable motives behind any pronouncement and every act of Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio. Yes, Garbo finds any candy wrapper more efficacious than tea leaves on that score.
So let me do a Garbo and read the candy wrapper on the governor’s latest pronouncements as they appeared in the papers.
“I will remain a priest because my ordination was divinely instituted, but then I will be deprived of my priestly powers, including the power to administer sacraments.”
Thus said Panlilio after disclosing that he has officially asked Archbishop Paciano Aniceto to grant him dispensation from the priesthood, invoking there the Melchizedek clause of once-a-priest, forever-a-priest.
It would look now that aside from his priestly powers, Panlilio has been deprived his direct line to God. Yeah, the same God who, Panlilio said, called him to run for president but he spurned by giving in to Noynoy. If this God called Panlilio to run again for governor, Panlilio did not say. Enough proof that God is already out of coverage area or unavailable where Panlilio is concerned. This explains why Panlilio had to take a reverend pastor – Marco Lazatin – for vice governor. If only to re-establish communication links with God.
“If I opt to get married later, I could not even get married in church, although it can be done in civil courts.” Why the civil courts only? The altar at the His Life City Church can be just fine, so long as a most distinguished member of their congregation is the not-so-blushing bride.
Yes, and while at it, why not bring back those tarpaulins with images of the Capitol couple in-governance put up at the Arnedo Park by the then-striking Balas Boys. They looked like wedding invitations, Garbo noted then.
On the business at hand, Panlilio said: "In 2007, it was a three-cornered fight. But actually, at that time, the Pineda camp was focused on the Lapid camp until I came in. But this time, it will be me and Mrs. Pineda looking at the Capitol as I have decided to seek reelection and continue our programs of good governance, ethical leadership and responsible citizenship."
Yes, Gov, as it was in 2007, the Pineda camp was focused on the Lapid camp again this time around – Senator Lito Lapid proclaiming in October his intent to seize the governorship anew until he opted (or was he co-opted?) to seek re-election.
Okay, so what does the candy wrapper say about the Panlilio mantra of “good governance, ethical leadership and responsible citizenship”?
Paying the His Life City Church P675,000 for a leadership and worship services seminar its youth arm conducted for the Capitol is good governance and ethical. The separation of Church and State be damned!
Attesting to the P13 million-plus net worth of the putative provincial administrator sans a single centavo for payment from the Capitol for all of 2008. This, vis-a-vis an income tax payment of P12,000 with a refund of over P3,000 is good governance and ethical.
Defying court orders to reinstate the provincial hospital head who was dismissed allegedly on the whim of the Office of the Governor is good governance and ethical.
Dismissing from the service proven performers like social welfare and development chief Luchie Gutierrez and the Balas Boys, hailed as the real heroes behind the tremendous increase in the quarry collections, is good governance and ethical leadership.
The list of instances of Panlilio’s brand of good governance and ethical leadership dating from his admonition to then acting Gov. Yeng Guiao that his was “only a caretaker government” and demanding a stoppage to all scheduled bidding, to his request for “blanket authority” in all Capitol deals that is good governance and ethical leadership.
“Hindi kami papayag na ibigay na lamang ng ganoon sa isang babaeng kandidata ang nasimulan namin ng walang kalaban-laban (We will not surrender without a fight what we have started to a woman candidate).”
Wow, for all his deference to his putative provincial administrator, the dispensation-seeking suspended priest is a certified male chauvinist. Women of Pampanga, unite!

New party, old principles

BALIMBINGAN, IT is called in the local parlance.
The game of musical chairs, or the dance of changing partners, transposed to politics. So it is euphemized.
Butterflies flitting from one flower to the other, seeking the sweetest nectar. So politicos engaged in it are metaphored. And, put in simile, like rats abandoning a sinking ship, where the administration party is concerned.
Political prostitution. So Sen. Jamby Madrigal went graphically ballistic.
Strange bedfellows politics does indeed make. So sworn foes today are the sweetest friends in the next polls. The party pooper in the last elections becomes the party boy in the next.
Political opportunism, but an aberration in the party politics of the parliamentary system is the very rule of thumb in the Philippine political praxis.
So Ferdinand Marcos left the Liberal Party to be standard bearer of the Nacionalista Party against incumbent Diosdado Macapagal, and won in 1965.
So Fidel Ramos jumped the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino ship after losing the party convention and formed his Lakas-Tao to contest the presidency and won.
In the Senate and the Lower House, at the provincial, city and municipal levels, candidates have changed political colors so often that etched in the national political consciousness is that broad-based multi-hued spectrum, most appropriately termed “rainbow coalition” by the ultimate politico, Joe de Venecia, who in the end was devoured by his own machination. Dedikasyon. Delicadeza. De Venecia. Who do they think they can still fool with that political infomercial? More than a simple oxymoron, the blurb is an idiotic contradiction in terms. Be it applied to either the elder or the younger De V.
Bottom-feeding invertebrate. Parasitic fungus. So we sneer at the opportunist who switches party affiliation at the slightest…well, opportunity for self-preservation, if not self-gain.
The rule among the rare exceptions to turncoatism here is embodied by City of San Fernando Mayor Oscar Samson Rodriguez.
Rodriguez rose and fell with the fortunes of the LDP: winning Pampanga’s 3rd congressional district seat as Cory’s candidate in 1987, losing in 1992 by obstinately sticking it out with Ramon Mitra, even when Cory herself shifted her administration’s support to Lakas-NUCD.
For all his loyalty to the LDP, the party slammed its door on Rodriguez’s face in 1995 when it coalesced with Lakas-NUCD, taking in Mitra as a senatorial bet. Even partyless, Rodriguez won. And Mitra, with two parties, lost. Which goes to show how (in)essential the party is in congressional district contests.
Of course, Lakas-NUCD knew a man of the vote when it saw one and promptly recruited Rodriguez: winning re-elections to Congress in 1998 and 2001, the San Fernando mayorship in 2004, and again in 2007 – against Kampi’s then comebacking Rey Aquino, whose own loyalty, not necessarily to the party, but to some party powers-that-be merited him the Philhealth presidency, so it was whispered within Kampi.
In 2004, Rodriguez declared his intent to run for governor but was promptly prevailed upon by the President, to give in to then provincial Liga ng mga Barangay chair Mark Lapid. The party – so GMA was supposed to have invoked – needed the elder Lapid in the Senate. And she needed the action star Lapid – along with Bong Revilla – to somehow counterbalance the star value of her rival, the FPJ. To the interest of the party – and his President’s – Rodriguez readily subsumed his own, putting on an indefinite hold his gubernatorial aspiration.
All these indubitably proving that more than make Rodriguez, party loyalty unmade him.
Yesterday, Rodriguez took his oath as member of the Liberal Party. More than his whole slate for the City of San Fernando and the votes he would muster for the Aquino-Roxas ticket, Rodriguez took along to the LP his lifelong dedication to popular democracy and unassailable commitment to the principles of good governance as embodied in his article of faith, Magsilbi Tamu – that which has always served him in good stead, that which has served his constituencies the highest degree of excellence. Or have you not been watching the transformation of the City of San Fernando?
Hence, where other new converts could only show form, Rodriguez already provides the LP the very substance of that which the party still dreams of.