Six years and two days 01/22/2007
TODAY IS NOT A RED-LETTER DATE IN THE calendar, but it is a red-letter date in the mind. Today, Jan. 22, 2007, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will have been in Malacañang for six years and two days. She was sworn into office by Hilario Davide on Jan. 20, 2001.
The only one who has served longer than GMA since 1986 is Corazon Aquino. Cory was president from Feb. 25 1986 to end of May 1992, a total of six years and three months. Since you can safely bet your life and those of your children and children’s children that GMA will not be hit by a thunderbolt of enlightenment and give up power willingly three months from now, by end of April this year, GMA will have occupied Malacañang the longest since Ferdinand Marcos. Don’t worry, I’ll remind you of it this April. But for the nonce, today, Jan. 22, GMA has occupied Malacañang longer than any of the elected presidents of this country.
As I said last December, that is one for Ripley’s. GMA will have been president of this country longer than any elected president of this country since 1986 without having been elected president of this country.
Cory herself wasn’t. Or at least it’s debatable whether she won the snap elections or not. In any case, the snap elections were the dirtiest in local politics up to that time, which voided them completely. The record would be broken only in 2004 when the incumbent would steal the votes wholesale. But quite apart from that, Cory’s legitimacy did not owe to the elections. It owed to a far more direct and elemental expression of the sovereign will. That was People Power.
Throughout her term, Cory would never be bothered by widespread—or near-universal—perception, of being an illegitimate ruler. Other than from completely delusional military upstarts and one Ponce Enrile who imagined themselves the true authors of Edsa. On the contrary, Cory would have both the moral and legal right to be president. Morally, she was the one who inspired, gave shape to and led the struggle that resulted in People Power. She was the heart of People Power, a fact the coup plotters could challenge only by arms and not by principle. Legally, well, it was more than that she was proclaimed president of this country at Club Filipino following all the protocols of law; it was that she was recognized so by all the world, a fact that would be upheld by the conscience of the human race, specifically by other peoples’ efforts to duplicate People Power elsewhere.
If GMA’s legitimacy is less than tenuous, never mind ironclad, only Raul Gonzalez knows about it. Throughout her term—whose expiry date lapsed long, long ago—she would never be seen as having the moral and legal right to rule. She was not a leader of Edsa II, she was a side effect of Edsa II—one that would completely reverse its curative powers. Morally, well, the very word would be anathema to her rule. Legally, she would proclaim herself president while the country slept, only to be slapped in the face a year later by the sound of two words. Those two words would ring—quite literally in cell phones—deafeningly across the land. They were “Hello” and “Garci.”
Different folks, different strokes; different natures, different futures. For those who think legitimacy is a small matter, one that should be superseded by more important ones, think again.
Because Cory was legitimate, she went about restoring the foundations of democracy, or at least the kind of democracy we paradoxically, though quite accurately, call “elite democracy.” Though her rule was marred by humongous corruption and human rights violations, she gave the democratic institutions the space and nourishment they needed to assert themselves. And affirming in the end that it was those institutions—and not any savior, real or self-advertised—that assured this country of a future, she willingly gave up power in 1992.
Because GMA is fake, she has restored the foundations of dictatorship, the barbed wire rolled out across the country now showing visibly amid the cover of elections. What’s the point of elections where, as in Marcos’ time, the results will be counted by people who do not know how to count? Indeed, what’s the point of elections when elected officials can be booted out later on some pretext or another? Force is the handmaiden of illegitimacy, coercion the natural reflex of usurpation.
There’s a difference even in the corruption. The corruption during Cory’s, Ramos’ and Erap’s time merely meant the theft of the nation’s body. The corruption during Marcos’ and GMA’s time meant the theft of the nation’s soul. The latter is corruption in the deepest sense of the word—in the sense of things decaying and rotting. We are not just seeing the plunder of the nation’s wealth, we are seeing the plunder of the nation’s values. As in Marcos’ time, we now live in a world where right is wrong and wrong is right, where evil is rewarded and good punished, where honesty is a crime and lying a claim to the crown.
The story is told that when Cory went to Ramos’ inauguration in June 1992, she insisted on riding on the family-owned Toyota Crown instead of the Malacañang-issued Mercedes-Benz and stopping on red in intersections notwithstanding that it was a security nightmare, to show the world that she was now just Citizen Cory. I don’t know about you, but I can’t see that the official Mercedes-Benz will be the only thing GMA will be loath to part with in June 2010. You’ve been president longer than any other president of this country since 1986 without ever having been elected president, what’s to prevent you from wanting—and having—more?
Today, thanks to the stupidity of Filipinos, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been in Malacañang for six years and two days. And counting….
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=44751
The only one who has served longer than GMA since 1986 is Corazon Aquino. Cory was president from Feb. 25 1986 to end of May 1992, a total of six years and three months. Since you can safely bet your life and those of your children and children’s children that GMA will not be hit by a thunderbolt of enlightenment and give up power willingly three months from now, by end of April this year, GMA will have occupied Malacañang the longest since Ferdinand Marcos. Don’t worry, I’ll remind you of it this April. But for the nonce, today, Jan. 22, GMA has occupied Malacañang longer than any of the elected presidents of this country.
As I said last December, that is one for Ripley’s. GMA will have been president of this country longer than any elected president of this country since 1986 without having been elected president of this country.
Cory herself wasn’t. Or at least it’s debatable whether she won the snap elections or not. In any case, the snap elections were the dirtiest in local politics up to that time, which voided them completely. The record would be broken only in 2004 when the incumbent would steal the votes wholesale. But quite apart from that, Cory’s legitimacy did not owe to the elections. It owed to a far more direct and elemental expression of the sovereign will. That was People Power.
Throughout her term, Cory would never be bothered by widespread—or near-universal—perception, of being an illegitimate ruler. Other than from completely delusional military upstarts and one Ponce Enrile who imagined themselves the true authors of Edsa. On the contrary, Cory would have both the moral and legal right to be president. Morally, she was the one who inspired, gave shape to and led the struggle that resulted in People Power. She was the heart of People Power, a fact the coup plotters could challenge only by arms and not by principle. Legally, well, it was more than that she was proclaimed president of this country at Club Filipino following all the protocols of law; it was that she was recognized so by all the world, a fact that would be upheld by the conscience of the human race, specifically by other peoples’ efforts to duplicate People Power elsewhere.
If GMA’s legitimacy is less than tenuous, never mind ironclad, only Raul Gonzalez knows about it. Throughout her term—whose expiry date lapsed long, long ago—she would never be seen as having the moral and legal right to rule. She was not a leader of Edsa II, she was a side effect of Edsa II—one that would completely reverse its curative powers. Morally, well, the very word would be anathema to her rule. Legally, she would proclaim herself president while the country slept, only to be slapped in the face a year later by the sound of two words. Those two words would ring—quite literally in cell phones—deafeningly across the land. They were “Hello” and “Garci.”
Different folks, different strokes; different natures, different futures. For those who think legitimacy is a small matter, one that should be superseded by more important ones, think again.
Because Cory was legitimate, she went about restoring the foundations of democracy, or at least the kind of democracy we paradoxically, though quite accurately, call “elite democracy.” Though her rule was marred by humongous corruption and human rights violations, she gave the democratic institutions the space and nourishment they needed to assert themselves. And affirming in the end that it was those institutions—and not any savior, real or self-advertised—that assured this country of a future, she willingly gave up power in 1992.
Because GMA is fake, she has restored the foundations of dictatorship, the barbed wire rolled out across the country now showing visibly amid the cover of elections. What’s the point of elections where, as in Marcos’ time, the results will be counted by people who do not know how to count? Indeed, what’s the point of elections when elected officials can be booted out later on some pretext or another? Force is the handmaiden of illegitimacy, coercion the natural reflex of usurpation.
There’s a difference even in the corruption. The corruption during Cory’s, Ramos’ and Erap’s time merely meant the theft of the nation’s body. The corruption during Marcos’ and GMA’s time meant the theft of the nation’s soul. The latter is corruption in the deepest sense of the word—in the sense of things decaying and rotting. We are not just seeing the plunder of the nation’s wealth, we are seeing the plunder of the nation’s values. As in Marcos’ time, we now live in a world where right is wrong and wrong is right, where evil is rewarded and good punished, where honesty is a crime and lying a claim to the crown.
The story is told that when Cory went to Ramos’ inauguration in June 1992, she insisted on riding on the family-owned Toyota Crown instead of the Malacañang-issued Mercedes-Benz and stopping on red in intersections notwithstanding that it was a security nightmare, to show the world that she was now just Citizen Cory. I don’t know about you, but I can’t see that the official Mercedes-Benz will be the only thing GMA will be loath to part with in June 2010. You’ve been president longer than any other president of this country since 1986 without ever having been elected president, what’s to prevent you from wanting—and having—more?
Today, thanks to the stupidity of Filipinos, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been in Malacañang for six years and two days. And counting….
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=44751
posted by dqfan06 @ 2:48 AM
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