{"id":9584,"date":"2017-08-02T12:52:53","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T04:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.quezon.ph\/?p=9584"},"modified":"2022-05-17T16:45:16","modified_gmt":"2022-05-17T08:45:16","slug":"the-long-view-the-north-remembers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quezon.ph\/2017\/08\/02\/the-long-view-the-north-remembers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Long View: The North remembers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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THE LONG VIEW<\/div>\n
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The North remembers<\/h1>\n<\/hgroup>\n
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By: Manuel L. Quezon III<\/a> – @inquirerdotnet<\/a><\/div>\n
Philippine Daily Inquirer<\/a> \/ 05:14 AM August 02, 2017<\/div>\n
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That was the title of a newspaper ad that appeared in the papers when Gov. Imee Marcos was scheduled for her showdown with Majority Leader Rodolfo Fari\u00f1as. Designed in the unique title font of the cable show \u201cGame of Thrones,\u201d it thanked the governor \u201cfor RA 7171 projects!\u201d on behalf of \u201ctobacco farmers, vegetable associations, Ilocos Norte zanjeras.\u201d Predictably, the ad drove fans of the show crazy, but proved Governor Marcos\u2019 shrewd ability to use pop culture for her purposes. Who can forget the video of her brother, dressed in Jedi Knight robes, waving around a lightsaber on the famous sand dunes of Paoay?<\/p>\n

The Fari\u00f1as vs. Marcos showdown has engrossed political observers for months. The intricacies of Ilocos Norte provincial politics aside, something bigger was read into the conflict beyond it being merely the breakdown of the old division of territory between the two families: Laoag is supposed to be the Fari\u00f1as bailiwick while the province is the Marcos\u2019.<\/p>\n

That bigger thing was whether Rudy going after Imee had the blessings of the President or not. While the Majority Leader has always someone all administrations are keen to have on their side, he has become particularly essential at present, helping to smooth relations and crack the whip when required (which seems to be often considering the slender bonafides of the Speaker). This suggested to observers that Fari\u00f1as was in a position to act with relative impunity against the Marcoses, because the Palace needs him quite badly indeed. Another point of view suggested that the President\u2019s enthusiasm for the Marcoses had waned, as he warmed to the job and stopped viewing his own presidency as a transitional one in place merely to pave the way for a Marcos restoration. There is no greater tonic for self-confidence than wielding the powers of the presidency. This view suggested that having discovered himself an essential man, the President would neither relinquish his office ahead of the expiration of his term, or be so imprudent as to actively promote the replacement of the current Vice President after he had quickly, and thoroughly, taken her measure and found her utterly non-threatening. Besides which, any political debt he owed to the Marcoses could be deemed paid off with the burial of the Great Dictator in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, as Onofre Corpuz once observed in his Roots of the Filipino Nation, \u201c[I]t is still a truism in modern-day Philippine politics that no President of the Republic gains anything by interfering in contests between provincial political \u2018chieftains\u2019.\u201d Better to keep not just both sides guessing as to whose side he was on, but everyone else wondering what, exactly, might be up his sleeves\u2014even if it might be nothing. Perception is King, and keeping everyone guessing is as good a way to prop up the throne as any.<\/p>\n

For a time it seemed Fari\u00f1as, too, had taken the measure of the Marcoses and found them weak. The zeal\u2014and zest\u2014with which he made his case, corralled low-ranking provincial bureaucrats, conducted hearings with the requisite combination of verbal fireworks and skillful use of subpoenas and detention orders for contempt, and had the Speaker and his fellow representatives tag-teaming to take on all comers, whether in the form of possible relief in the courts (hence the Speaker\u2019s fight with the Court of Appeals) or at the hands of the Marcoses (hence the threat to declare her in contempt if she not only failed to appear at the House proceedings, but refused to answer the committee\u2019s questions), all these were signs of a man on the up-and-up, doing victory laps.<\/p>\n

But he failed. Many wondered why, instead of say, Estelito Mendoza, Mother and Daughter Marcos brought Juan Ponce Enrile with them to the showdown in the House. You only have to remember the impeachment of Renato Corona and how Fari\u00f1as would genuflect, almost daily, before Enrile, to know that here was a man who, for whatever reason, the fearsome Fari\u00f1as held in awe. His presence was enough to put the Majority Leader on his best behavior; his strategic whisperings to the governor were enough to attribute the governor\u2019s answers\u2014so sorry, we meant well, do you hear the people sing, singing the songs of grateful men?\u2014to his legal wisdom and deny Fari\u00f1as grounds to further detain the bureaucrats or continue tormenting Imee.<\/p>\n

In the end, without a case, only face-saving rhetoric was left for Fari\u00f1as. The main point had been made: Marcoses do not lose. They do not undergo detention. They take on all comers. Their arsenal may be antique, but it works.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n