Category: gma

remembering Edsa Dos & Tres #CJ impeachment (updated)

not surprisingly, no one cares to remember Edsa Dos, obviously because installing gloria macapagal arroyo turned out to be a grievous mistake, like a giant 10-year step backward.  what if, instead of ousting estrada, we had allowed the impeachment trial of erap to take its course.

if he had been convicted, then gloria would have assumed power legally and constitutionally and would not have owed her position to the hilario davide supreme court that happily legitimized the unconstitutional, and to the angelo reyes military that readily changed sides after some smart wheeling and dealing behind the scenes.  then, maybe arroyo’s 9-, almost 10-year, rule would have turned out differently.  and maybe she would not have been so heavyhanded in dealing with estrada, and Edsa Tres — another major major event that we like to forget — would not have happened.

if he had been acquitted, then what if we had gone to edsa to demand better governance, maybe to insist that gloria accept estrada’s invitation to head the Economic Coordinating Council, or even to take up estrada’s offer of snap elections.  then maybe we would not be where we are now — trying to convict an impeached chief justice who was appointed by gloria and therefore not to be trusted to be impartial when her electoral sabotage case, allegedly weak, comes up before the supreme court.  meanwhile the hacienda luisita ruling is up for “clarification and reconsideration” by the supreme court and the cojuangcos are demanding that the impeached chief justice inhibit himself, hay naku.

the impeachment trial now ongoing reminds too much of erap’s impeachment trial and Edsa Dos.  let it remind too, please, of Edsa Tres, which was not all hakot.  what offends me most is when pundits insist that it’s more a political than a judicial proceeding, meaning that technicalities that work in favor of the defense should be set aside because it is not in the public interest.  this is based, i suppose, on the 70%+ approval rating of the prez, these 70%+ being presumed to be supportive of his campaign to kick out corona and convict gma in line with “daang matuwid”.

so okay, meron ding mass base ang presidente, but i would think that this mass base is a volatile fluid force.  media loves to point out that the masses, based on random on-the-street in-the-palengke interviews, don’t even know who corona is, but hey, they are paying attention to the impeachment proceedings which are not only televised, but covered live on radio and played on buses and jeepneys, and there’s such a thing as a learning curve.  soon they might know enough to make up their own minds, lalo na’t hindi naman sila nagbabasa ng pro-palace spins ng compromised media diyan, mainstream and online.

so ingat ingat lang, senator-jurors who are so early in the game showing your biases and even helping out the surprisingly inept prosecution lawyers (who i guess were more focused on harassing corona into resigning than preparing for trial), like drilon has been doing.  baka sabihin ng masa inaapi si corona, hala!  ingat din, senator-jurors like trillanes who has already said he would be guided by public sentiment.  how to measure public sentiment across classes, short of a referendum?  twould be wiser, and more honourable, to be guided by the evidence, after hearing both the prosecution AND the defense.

armida: what if, people power vs SC

read armida siguion-reyna‘s What people want.  she ends with thoughts of people power.

I’ve been told there are lawyers invoking “the rule of law” and the Philippine Constitution, and I understand where they’re coming from. But, and this is a big but for me, what about the rule of justice? What about what people want? Is the law bigger than the people’s will?

When Corazon Aquino took her oath of office as 11th President of the Philippines, Filipinos generally did not demand for a recount of the ballots cast in the 1986 snap elections because four days of revolutionary people power took precedence over legally cast ballots. Marcos loyalists believed that it was still Marcos who won the vote, pero ang kagustuhan ng lumabas na nakararaming taong-bayan sa Edsa I ang namayani, naluklok si Cory bilang pangulo.

When Gloria Arroyo pledged allegiance on the Bible held by then Supreme Court Justice Hilario Davide Jr., with a crowd much, much lesser than the first Edsa, the duo combined to make legal her ascent into the presidency, kesyo President Estrada had by then already resigned and by that resignation rendered the Office of the Chief Executive vacant, kesyo this, kesyo that. Napamukha nilang legal ang illegal and thus managed to overrule the gargantuan mass that made up Edsa III, much, much bigger than what passed off as Edsa II.

Exactly how many times was the law twisted and flouted to make the nation believe that Arroyo won over Fernando Poe Jr. in 2004? Only God in heaven knows. Still, even without knowing for sure how often the woman has manipulated legalities, the law cannot be bigger than the people’s will.

Bakit hindi magtawag ng tao, sa Edsa kung sa Edsa. Sa Luneta, kung sa Luneta, sa kahit saan, para sagutin ang tanong: Gusto n’yo bang makulong si Gloria Arroyo?

And my goodness, if people come in droves, if, say, two million show up, how can the Supreme Court (SC) overrule so clear a manifestation of popular will? If in the past, fewer numbers installed presidents, surely much larger figures can jail another.

It’s what the people want that matters, it’s the spirit of the law that must prevail over what’s legal or made to appear legal, as here in this case it doesn’t matter who has got more evidence or less of it. Basta’t come hell or high water, eight in the SC will always vote for Arroyo wrong or right, and only five will go against her.

This, unless people power’s truly dead and gone.

mug shots

in the time of erap’s arrest in april 2001, it would seem that his mug shots were not meant to be released to media.  or so i gather from this bulatlat.com article i found while googling edsa tres for my next (and last, promise!) EDSA book:

Pres. Arroyo was flabbergasted when an “enterprising Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) official” sold a video of a humbled Estrada to the local and international media. Estrada was shown in police custody and grim-faced as his mug shots were taken. A noted TV commentator said that the sight was enough to move people to take the deposed president’s side. And, certainly, this was supposed to have given the “EDSA III” instigators the spark needed to start an uprising.

there was another link that named the PAOCTF official, but can’t find it now, kainis, so guess who na lang, public figure din.

what’s interesting now is that the gma camp is begging the authorities not to release her mug shots to the media.  i suppose they’ve given up on the paawa strategy, which is smart of them.  it would seem there is little sympathy from the masses anyway, i guess because they can’t relate to the notion of, because they could never afford, medical treatment abroad.

which is not to say there is no sympathy for gma.  there is, especially from her own class, but who are not wont to expose themselves unnecessarily.  more likely they’re just storming the heavens with prayers that the supreme court regain the upper hand in the unfolding constitutional thrilla in manila.

meanwhile, media must be on tenterhooks:  heed this tweet…

Marvic Leonen @ANCALERTS there is no public interest in the release of the mugshots except to degrade the accused. Her pictures should not be released.

…or be scooped by the competition.  abangan.