My column for today is The 2010 Movement . It’s in response to Jesuitic placebo by Manuel Buencamino and Filomeno Sta. Ana III, which appeared in yesterday’s Talk of the Town. See also Communal action must target Gloria by Leloy Claudio. While my personal position is for the President’s resignation, I support both proposals criticized by Buencamino and Sta. Ana: impeachment and an independent counsel. Impeachment, because I have been convinced for some time that it is the preferred option for most people (or a large chunk of the public, anyway), and a special prosecutor, as I’ve outlined in the past, because it will, indeed, strengthen institutions and accountability.
Whether those advocating impeachment in October are doing so out of sneakiness -it will just postpone things until the crisis solves itself on June 30, 2010- or out of a genuine belief that we shouldn’t burn down the barn to get rid of a rat, is, of course, another question altogether.
Of course, if the Supreme Court weighs in, we could have an impeachment, sooner than in October. Hope springs eternal.
In the column I also refer to trench warfare, wars of attrition, etc. So you might want to visit First World War.com.
Yesterday, Teodoro, Esperon ask Arroyo to pardon 9 junior officers although the Inquirer editorial said, it’s time to Pay the piper. It will be interesting to see how the President’s boosters justify a pardon without bringing up uncomfortable (for them) reminders of the President’s pardon for former President Estrada. With regards to the professional officers’ dilemma concerning dissent, Dissent and Strategic Leadership of the Military Professions by Don M. Snider makes for relevant reading. See pub849.pdf
still at it, huh guys? impeachment is out of the question unless you can present a complaint, sufficient in both form and substance, and convince at least 1/3 of all the members of congress, that an impeachable offense has probably been committed by the respondent. convincing 83 or so congressmen would be a miracle. given the present composition of the current lower house, it is highly improbable. it would take irrefutable evidence, e.g. the respondent being caught in flagranti delicto or giving voluntary confession, to achieve that.
if the case reaches the senate, the possibilities are a little more murky. convincing 15 or so senators would not be an easy undertaking assuming that a majority of the whole chamber still retains some measure of statesmanship and open-mindedness. again, in that event, a very strong evidence of culpability, properly presented and admitted, need be produced to convict the respondent. at this juncture, i believe we don’t have that at hand.
i think the idea of a “special” prosecutor is not too bright. as somebody stated here before (was it upn student?), the ombudsman is an independent, constitutional officer who, like justices, is not beholden to any other official. how can a statutory creature (special prosecutor) trumps a constitutionally-created authority?
I agree with the Inquirer. None of the 9 officers — not this year, not next year — should be pardoned. The seriousness of the actions of the officers must be remembered.
still at it, huh guys?
Bencard, look at the post’s title. Your comment is superfluous. We’re Pinoys. To paraphrase The Matrix, “Hope, the source of the Filipino’s greatest strengths… and his greatest weaknesses.”
It will be a disservice to future presidents if GMA were to pardon this year any of the 9 officers. A pardon is to send a message that the reward-to-risk ratio is high in favor of future coups.
Reward —- A coup d’etat is a way to get elected congressman or senator.
GMA must affirm that the coup actors will get sent to jail for years.
@ mlq3
Nice piece, Manolo. Well written and, IMHO, both illustrates the situation quite well AND provides ideas on how to resolve some outstanding issues.
I also visit the World War I site you mentioned above. Wonderful resource, prior to my buying John Keegan’s wonderful book on that conflict.
@ bencard
If you’ll remember, bencard, Erap had a more solid (nga ba?) hold on the legislature during his tenure, but somehow not only were the signatures found, it was also transmitted to the Senate. Took some… creativity in the part of then-speaker Manny Villar, but, haha, that was quite the surprise.
Also, I think the reason the Little Girl refuses to have it sent to the Senate is because, in her mind, she’s already guilty there. It’s not a case anymore of the prosecution proving its case to a Senate that, in Gloria’s mind, has convicted her already; the burden of proof in a Senate Impeachment Trial is actually with her, to prove, ala-Napoleonic Law, that she isn’t guilty of the things she is accused of.
For a well known micro manager, she has her fingerprints all over the place: diosdado macapagal hi-way, hello garci, palace gift bags; nbn-zte; china deals-announced scrapped billion dollar deal with china in exchange for a million hectare for sorghum planting- now the same proponent is carping on land conversions,eih?! You are again taking all of us for fools.
Let’s focus on nbn-zte, we have witnesses and the supremes falling all over themselves are clear proofs of guilt beyond reasonable doubt. The collusion to commit a crime, the collusion to erase all the trails, the collusion to coverup failing to obliterate the trails and the witnesses, all point to a grand scale state effort to conspire against the Country and the Filipinos
Interesting confluence of positions. Bencard is practically on the same side as Manuel Buencamino (broadly speaking, of course).
cvj,
for once Bencard and I agree on an issue, although our motives may be different.
I guess it only proves one thing. You don’t need to have the same point of view to see something as patently stupid as the Jesuit guidelines.
Hope comes if one has faith. In this particular context the last flicker of faith in institutions is still dependent on the SC acting on Zamora’s petition to visit the process of the last so called impeachment attempt. It is flickering but she might have a perfect pretext with the ongoing food crisis to take matters in her own hands. Nothing works in these crucial times like demagogic populism most especially from an anal retentive egomaniac.
The clear and present attempt of the military to consoldiate its forces in wish for the president to grant pardons to some of those who broke away from the chain of command is clearly meant to further isolate those who still are holding out. The Queen in waiting and her subjects are clearly clearing the decks of serious opposition within the military.
They have no clear opposition figure to rally around and will soon be marginalized.
Once it clear in the minds of the Queen in waiting and her loyal subjects that the military is truly free of major oppositors to her rule than they will move to cement her rule post 2010.
The head of PAGCOR said it recently. He needs time to shepard his grand project in the Manila Bay Area that will take 10 years to set up.
Cory had her overpasses on Edsa after her term, FVR had his MRT and now the Don and Dona will have their grand project the Manila Bay Complex. Highways, bridges and roads are not as sexy.
http://www.inquirer.net/specialfeatures/riceproblem/view.php?db=1&article=20080414-130208
If this is the case, then the Church is to blame for all the corruption and they should look at the desserts in their own souls to change this nation. Hope Bishop Rosales reads this.
the desert not the dessert.
MB, the assessment that resorting to Constitutional and legal avenues is futile, coming from Malacanang’s de-facto spokesperson in this blog, is indeed significant.
impeachment is a PURELY political question..
its a numbers game, pure and simple..
i’ll be damned then if it’s impossible to get the numbers. either these congressman are dumb or blind or both…
@ Nash:
could be more like “…or bought”
“Nograles then reiterated his call for big profitable corporations to go into corporate farming so they could feed their own employees.”
from
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080414-130280/Food-riots-in-Philippines-an-alien-concept–solons
The Speaker’s take on the rice crisis. Just a stupid and pathetic remark like this is enough for me to lose hope.
Oh boy, Prospero, tell that to the thousands of hardy and street smart Filipinos who have continue to survive, thank you very much without government help, from scrounging left over food from garbage. Not that’s what I call resilience. But what Fallow calls damage culture.
Who goes really hungry in the Philippines for long? There will be no famine or food riots in this country, unless the government itself manufactures it from a situation like this. There has always been more than enough left over food by the rich and the well fed. Burp, sabay hagis ng tirang butong may laman-laman pa and then ABS-CBN labels this as charity.
“Not that’s what I call resilience.” — > Now that’s…
“But what Fallow calls damage culture.” — > … damaged culture.
The damage comes from our blind faith that this country is a country of 90 million Filipinos. No, it’s a country of a million thieves and 89 million indios.
Mga kastila, ibalik nyo lupa namin! Lahat sa kongres kastila! Ang presidente kastila, and senado kastila. Mga pari, mga Spanish friar mga yan, as in Kastila din! Sino pa dyan kastila, lumabas kayo!
One of the authors of the Jesuit guidelines for action has sent around an e-mail defending his paper. It’s a long letter but here’s the part i found noteworthy:
“The call for both an independent counsel and for
a genuine impeachment process, as part of the range or continuum of
options the Guidelines endorse, must be seen in the light of the most
important goal of getting people politically engaged and building
organizations and institutions for the medium to long-term.
Admittedly, the mechanics for both proposals still need to be fully
worked out. But that’s also part of the call for political
engagement, to get various groups to contribute their share in the
effort to make such institutions work despite their flaws, which truly
requires communal action and new forms of people power.”
So here he is, along with his Jesuit comrades, suggesting a course of action that “Admittedly, the mechanics for both proposals still need to be fully worked out.”
Anong katarantaduhan ba yan? They should have worked it out first before they told everybody that their proposal was the right thing to do!
What a fucking waste of time!
Mga kastila din ang mga heswitang yan.
BrianB,
Si Gloria hindi kastila. Sa katotohanan ang tawag sa kanya ng asawa niya ay “Igorota.” Basahin mo yun affidavit nung dating kabit nung lalake.
Si Nograles hinsi kastila kaya nga Boy Nogie ang tawag sa kanya. Nogie ay hind short form ng Nograles. Nogie ay short form ng Nognog.
What’s not clear to me is when the Jesuits and/or the others from the ‘Wait for 2010’ crowd say they favor impeachment, does that mean that (1) they are going to actively work to make impeachment happen or (2) they just want the anti-GMA to limit their actions to working for impeachment?
yeah, jeg. never say die. patience is a virtue but pig-headedness is a is a defect.
cvj, resorting to constitutional and legal means is futile, as far you and your kind are concerned, only because there’s no real hard evidence to prove gossips, conjectures, speculations, and never-ending allegations of “scandals”. you see, law works only for the accusers when they are able to prove their case. i think, this is were m. buencamino and i differ.
upn stude, i join you in vigorously opposing pardon for the convicted rebels. it’s about time these traitors pay their dues. the infamy of erap’s pardon should remind us of how our justice system is trampled upon.
“House resolution granting Arroyo emergency powers filed” – inquirer.net
Mr. Efren Bata Reyes would call this “preparasyon.”
btw, cvj. i don’t know about the others, but when i say “wait for 2010”, i mean wait for gma’s constitutional term ends before you guys even think of replacing her “by hook or by crook”. that is not a request to tolerate her, rather that is the right thing to do. unlike you, i don’t think there’s any reason for her to resign, be impeached, or driven out of office through extra-constitutional means. you better believe by now that is not likely to happen.
Bencard, I see that you’re back to your old self again. I admit that it was a bit disconcerting to read a reality-based comment coming from you this morning (at 11:08 am) so now the balance of the universe is restored.
I’m going to have to agree with bencard on this one. Another “EDSA” would not work at present time, since the youth can be so pessimistic at times (me included), especially now. People seem to be clamoring for waiting to 2010, because impeachment would not work, since Gloria has the congress under her foot at the moment, no matter if it has irrefutable evidence.
So I have to say 2010 is the best way we can kick her out legally or else… we’d have to have our hopes down. Impeachemnt is really a numbers game.
Three things would make impeachment a process worth pursuing regardless of the outcome. First, something has to be done about that crazy interpretation of when an impeachment is deemed initiated. Second, a period for joining, consolidation, or amendment of complaints has to be allowed, say up to the second committee hearing. The first-come-first-served rule is utter nonsense. Third, the impeachment rules of the House of Representatives have to be changed to allow complainants to present their evidence before any vote is taken at the committee level on sufficiency of substance.
Besides being a numbers game, timing is crucial. There’s not much time. The 2010 elections are what, 24 months away?
The congressmen will be courting the favors of the Palace, come hell or high water, for their CDF (pork barrel) to ensure their re-lection or those of their spouses/sons/ brothers/etc.
At this point, time is on GMA’s side. The best time to impeach her was in 2006, during the Garcillano episode.
“impeachment is out of the question unless you can present a complaint, sufficient in both form and substance..”
That’s the easiest part, the presenting of a complaint sufficient in both form and substance considering GMA’s track records.. The greatest obstacle are the majority of the house who are used to another form, the envelope, with all the thick substance inside. Still who knows what tomorrow would bring. Hope springs eternal. We should not let the flicker die.
cvj, the whole problem is you believe your own fantasies that you are “disconcerted” when reminded that you are in the real world. time to grow up, old boy.
philwospeditor, in 2010, there’s no need to “kick” her out. she has to go like everybody else who finishes his/her term. if not, that’s the time to talk about kicking her out.
A “Cornered” Gloria Pidal is dangerous.What do you expect her to do in the coming months?
She has 806 days to go…
she can resign…
do a Marcos(emergency rule or martial law)…
do a gloria(let’s dance cha-cha AGAIN)…
business as usual…
que sera,sera..
@ Equalizer
I think she is not cornered anymore. She has weathered the internal political storms, so to speak. Mr. Jun Lozada et. al have been neutralized.
If the government handles the rice crisis well, who knows the masses might just want her back. A stretch?
External developments have helped GMA. The ugly pictures of the food riots in Haiti and Somalia have “painted a thousand words” (from the Bread song ‘If’) that we are better off here in the Philippines. That the food situation in RP is well under control. Which could very well be.
Of course, reality is: we are worse off compared to our ASEAN neighbors. Oh well.
@manuelbuencamino
“Si Gloria hindi kastila. Sa katotohanan ang tawag sa kanya ng asawa niya ay “Igorota.â€Â
As an Igorot, I can say that GMA is NOT an Igorota dahil kaming mga Igorot ay may sense of shame…(as opposed to saving face ha)
rob’ ramos, erap’s case is a different animal altogether. passion against him was nationwide and most congressmen were under irresistible pressure by their constituents “to do the right thing” or else. not so in gma’s case. evidently, the desire to remove her is not shared outside ncr, even outside metro manila. she may be unpopular in commercial surveys (a kind of victory her detractors can brag about for want of anything else), but it seems the nation is unwilling to “kick” her out.
i don’t know where you get the gall to call the president of your country the “little girl”. she may be physically smaller than you but i bet you cannot light a candle to her intellectually. at any rate, do you really think it’s all up to her to send an impeachment complaint to the senate? your warped reasoning is that she is guilty because she doesn’t want to be found guilty, or to be put in jeopardy of being found guilty. where did you get the idea that the accused has to prove her innocence without the accuser first showing that she is culpable?
“Mga kastila, ibalik nyo lupa namin! Lahat sa kongres kastila! Ang presidente kastila, and senado kastila. Mga pari, mga Spanish friar mga yan, as in Kastila din! Sino pa dyan kastila, lumabas kayo!”
Huwag, Brian, baka pati kami matilamsikan ng dugo!
Nasubukan na ata ang lahat sa atin. “special prosecutor” and Ombudsman ay special prosecutors na ang responsibilidad ay magprosecute nang Public officials at Public Servants na kasala laban sa Batas..wala rin nangyari..Mayro-on din tinatawag na Special Court, di kailan lang nagimbento naman nang HONEST MISTAKES Para pakawalan si General Garcia..Honest Mistake my foot!!! Ang Hindi pa Natin nasubukan and tinatawag na Genuine Na “Revolutionary Court” na ma-ari kung sakali magkaro-on nang Revolutinary Government, baka yon sakali, sakali lamang maging epektibo…samantala sa ngayon, Ginto at Dolyar (puede rin peso) ang nagtatakbo nang Governance…
Sabi ko nga mga kastila lahat yan, ayaw nyong maniwala. Actually, my family is from Bilbao, e-espayne, so I myself, am not of Castillan stock. Heh.
As for the rice crisis. It’s more beneficial to Gloria than to her critics. remember people, this is a very competent politician we’re talking about. And the people will not just blame her. I’ve said it before, Filipinos actually have long memories and they will remember why we’re having a crisis now… decades of neglect.
‘Nasubukan na ata ang lahat sa atin. “special prosecutor†and Ombudsman ay special prosecutors na ang responsibilidad ay magprosecute nang Public officials at Public Servants na kasala laban sa Batas..wala rin nangyari..’
Kung nangyari ang lahat ng ito noong rebolusyon, di magtatagal at si A….o ay tinadtad na rin ng mga Macabebe. Si G……s at P..o malamang tinamaan na lang ng ligaw na bala at tapos na usapan.
yeah, jeg. never say die. patience is a virtue but pig-headedness is a is a defect.
Ahhh, but Bencard, this is a battle between good and evil, not between legal and illegal. And in such a battle, there is no pig-headedness for the forces of good. Only patience.
Pabayaan niyo na si Bencard, this legalese stance of his is simply because he wants to protect the business of law…siya na mismo nagsabi na illegal yung pagtawag ni GMA sa punyetang garcillano pero hindi pa rin impeachable para sa kanya ito.
cheers
Maitanong nga, ano ba ang ginawa ni Bill Clinton, bakit sya na Impeached? Kasing Lubha rin ba nang ginawa ni GMA? Halimbawa, calling Garci, hello Garci!! At Iaprove mo, pabaya-an mo yan si Abalos, (partner ni Mr. ko yan ah, ano ka ba?, sa golf pala, hehehe, mali)
Jeg and Bencard, don’t think lowly of a pighead, masarap pulutan iyan, lalo kung lechon sa turbo, malutong balat, sawsawan ketsup. Uhmmm, yummy!
“Kung nangyari ang lahat ng ito noong rebolusyon, di magtatagal at si A….o ay tinadtad na rin ng mga Macabebe. Si G……s at P..o malamang tinamaan na lang ng ligaw na bala at tapos na usapan.”
Malamang-lamang ang asawa ni A…o ay nataga ni Bonifacio sa leeg.
Bencard says:
————–
erap’s case is a different animal altogether. passion against him was nationwide and most congressmen were under irresistible pressure by their constituents “to do the right thing†or else. not so in gma’s case.
——————–
How do we determine objectively or empirically the existence and extent of this irresistible pressure?
How do we put an objective number on the extent of the nationwide passion against Erap?
‘most congressmen were under irresistible pressure by their constituents “to do the right thing†or else.’
Kailan pa nakinig ang mga congressmen sa mga tao? Pagkatapos ng election siga na ang mga yan. Lumapit ka sa mga yan at M-16 ang kakausap sa ‘yo.
duck vader, supremo: the fact that more than the required number of votes in congress (in which erap had a “solid” hold according to rob’ ramos above) voted for his impeachment showed that local constituents’ collective sentiments had prevailed. it proves that so-called solid support becomes tenuous when the public (the real one) is convinced that a president really deserves to be impeached. congressmen are, more often than not, pragmatic players. they know in which direction the political wind is blowing.
jeg, in the natural order of things in a free and civilized society, most that are legal are “good”, while most that are illegal are “evil”.