People want to know who their president is
People want to know who their president is
Posted 02:27am (Mla time) Jan 21, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the January 21, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
WITH FERNANDO Poe Jr. dead, should his election protest against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo be continued? There are legal experts who believe that the poll protest died with FPJ, but there are also those who say it can, and should be, continued. In fact, there are precedents wherein the Supreme Court allowed the running mate of a protesting loser to take over the poll protest when the principal died before the case was finished.
This was the topic of the Kapihan sa Manila last Monday where Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos and lawyer Romulo Macalintal took opposing sides. Macalintal, who is President Arroyo's counsel, said the case should be dismissed outright and buried with FPJ. Marcos, on the other hand, said that on the contrary, there is now a more urgent need to determine who really won the election. She said the tens of thousands of people who flocked to FPJ's wake and funeral and the thousands more who signed the petition urging his widow Susan Roces to take his place in the protest, show how great is the following of FPJ and who believe that their idol won the presidency but was cheated.
I personally believe that President Arroyo's popularity rating is on a crash dive because of this belief-not only of FPJ fans but of a majority of the population-aside of course from the fact that the living conditions of most Filipinos are getting worse and that President Arroyo's promised reforms are not getting off the ground.
If President Arroyo is to recover her approval rating, she has to prove that she did not cheat and that she won fair and square. The only way to do that is to go ahead and hear FPJ's protest.
Indeed, if I were President Arroyo and I know I did not cheat, I would like nothing better than to prove my detractors wrong by pushing for the recount. For that is the only way I can remove any doubt in the minds of the people of my legitimacy.
On the other hand, if I know I cheated, I will do everything in my power to stop the recount because I will be found out.
So if she blocks the protest before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (her counsel has already filed a motion to dismiss), the people will think President Arroyo is afraid the truth will come out. And if the PET votes to dismiss the protest, the people will believe that it is part of the conspiracy. Tragically, collateral damage will affect the Supreme Court and the whole judicial system, now already rocked by a number of scandals.
Looking back, it is clear that President Arroyo is deathly afraid of the popularity of the movie idol from the very beginning. Instead of facing him squarely before the electorate, she tried to have FPJ disqualified by producing falsified records tending to show that he was not a Filipino citizen. In the counting of votes for president and vice president, her allies in Congress successfully blocked every attempt by the opposition to look at the statement of votes to determine conclusively the number of votes that the candidates garnered.
When FPJ died, President Arroyo showed that she was more afraid of him dead than alive. She barricaded herself in Malacañang on the day of his funeral, as if expecting an invasion, and pitifully pleaded with the military "to stand by" her and not to desert her as it did to President Joseph Estrada during Edsa 2. In Shakespeare's play, Macbeth is terrified by the ghost of Banquo because he knows he is guilty. He had had Banquo murdered by his hired assassins. Is the same feeling of guilt behind President Arroyo's fear of her dead rival?
FPJ is dead; he cannot take over the presidency anymore. Why bother to go through with the recount? Because the people want to know with certainty who won the election. Leave them in doubt and President Arroyo will be saddled with a handicap. People will doubt she is the legitimate president. The notion that she stole the presidency from Estrada and then stole it again from his friend FPJ will gain credibility.
As Marcos said, it is no longer just FPJ and his followers who want to know. It is the people. Susan won't take over the presidency if FPJ wins in the recount. The people just want to know.
The PET should not hide behind technicalities. For the sake of the stability of the nation, it should exercise "judicial statesmanship" and satisfy the craving of the people to know with certainty who is their president.
* * *
Don't forget the formal inauguration of the Front Page piano bar and Plaridel's art gallery and clubhouse on T.M. Kalaw Street (opposite the National Library), Manila, this coming Monday, Jan. 24, at 6:30 in the evening. All journalists and their friends from the government, business, public relations and the diplomatic corps are invited.
An exhibit by two artists, paintings by Malang and sculptures by Julie Lluch on a common theme, "Women," will open at the third floor gallery on the same day. Malang and Lluch are two of the foremost interpreters of a popular subject in Philippine art, the Filipino woman.
Famous impersonator Willie Nepomuceno and a new President Arroyo look-alike (down to her size) plus celebrity singers will entertain the guests during the cocktails.
Manila Mayor Lito Atienza will head the guests of honor and induct into office the new officers of the Samahang Kartunista ng Pilipinas.
* * *
KAPIHAN NOTES: Guests at the Kapihan sa Manila this coming Monday are MMDA Chair Bayani Fernando and PNP Director General Edgar Aglipay. Topic: You guessed it, MMDA's controversial "wet flag scheme," the traffic anarchy and Aglipay's "misunderstanding" with Sen. Jinggoy Estrada.
Posted 02:27am (Mla time) Jan 21, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the January 21, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
WITH FERNANDO Poe Jr. dead, should his election protest against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo be continued? There are legal experts who believe that the poll protest died with FPJ, but there are also those who say it can, and should be, continued. In fact, there are precedents wherein the Supreme Court allowed the running mate of a protesting loser to take over the poll protest when the principal died before the case was finished.
This was the topic of the Kapihan sa Manila last Monday where Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos and lawyer Romulo Macalintal took opposing sides. Macalintal, who is President Arroyo's counsel, said the case should be dismissed outright and buried with FPJ. Marcos, on the other hand, said that on the contrary, there is now a more urgent need to determine who really won the election. She said the tens of thousands of people who flocked to FPJ's wake and funeral and the thousands more who signed the petition urging his widow Susan Roces to take his place in the protest, show how great is the following of FPJ and who believe that their idol won the presidency but was cheated.
I personally believe that President Arroyo's popularity rating is on a crash dive because of this belief-not only of FPJ fans but of a majority of the population-aside of course from the fact that the living conditions of most Filipinos are getting worse and that President Arroyo's promised reforms are not getting off the ground.
If President Arroyo is to recover her approval rating, she has to prove that she did not cheat and that she won fair and square. The only way to do that is to go ahead and hear FPJ's protest.
Indeed, if I were President Arroyo and I know I did not cheat, I would like nothing better than to prove my detractors wrong by pushing for the recount. For that is the only way I can remove any doubt in the minds of the people of my legitimacy.
On the other hand, if I know I cheated, I will do everything in my power to stop the recount because I will be found out.
So if she blocks the protest before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (her counsel has already filed a motion to dismiss), the people will think President Arroyo is afraid the truth will come out. And if the PET votes to dismiss the protest, the people will believe that it is part of the conspiracy. Tragically, collateral damage will affect the Supreme Court and the whole judicial system, now already rocked by a number of scandals.
Looking back, it is clear that President Arroyo is deathly afraid of the popularity of the movie idol from the very beginning. Instead of facing him squarely before the electorate, she tried to have FPJ disqualified by producing falsified records tending to show that he was not a Filipino citizen. In the counting of votes for president and vice president, her allies in Congress successfully blocked every attempt by the opposition to look at the statement of votes to determine conclusively the number of votes that the candidates garnered.
When FPJ died, President Arroyo showed that she was more afraid of him dead than alive. She barricaded herself in Malacañang on the day of his funeral, as if expecting an invasion, and pitifully pleaded with the military "to stand by" her and not to desert her as it did to President Joseph Estrada during Edsa 2. In Shakespeare's play, Macbeth is terrified by the ghost of Banquo because he knows he is guilty. He had had Banquo murdered by his hired assassins. Is the same feeling of guilt behind President Arroyo's fear of her dead rival?
FPJ is dead; he cannot take over the presidency anymore. Why bother to go through with the recount? Because the people want to know with certainty who won the election. Leave them in doubt and President Arroyo will be saddled with a handicap. People will doubt she is the legitimate president. The notion that she stole the presidency from Estrada and then stole it again from his friend FPJ will gain credibility.
As Marcos said, it is no longer just FPJ and his followers who want to know. It is the people. Susan won't take over the presidency if FPJ wins in the recount. The people just want to know.
The PET should not hide behind technicalities. For the sake of the stability of the nation, it should exercise "judicial statesmanship" and satisfy the craving of the people to know with certainty who is their president.
* * *
Don't forget the formal inauguration of the Front Page piano bar and Plaridel's art gallery and clubhouse on T.M. Kalaw Street (opposite the National Library), Manila, this coming Monday, Jan. 24, at 6:30 in the evening. All journalists and their friends from the government, business, public relations and the diplomatic corps are invited.
An exhibit by two artists, paintings by Malang and sculptures by Julie Lluch on a common theme, "Women," will open at the third floor gallery on the same day. Malang and Lluch are two of the foremost interpreters of a popular subject in Philippine art, the Filipino woman.
Famous impersonator Willie Nepomuceno and a new President Arroyo look-alike (down to her size) plus celebrity singers will entertain the guests during the cocktails.
Manila Mayor Lito Atienza will head the guests of honor and induct into office the new officers of the Samahang Kartunista ng Pilipinas.
* * *
KAPIHAN NOTES: Guests at the Kapihan sa Manila this coming Monday are MMDA Chair Bayani Fernando and PNP Director General Edgar Aglipay. Topic: You guessed it, MMDA's controversial "wet flag scheme," the traffic anarchy and Aglipay's "misunderstanding" with Sen. Jinggoy Estrada.
posted by Dante at 2:27 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home