Here and There
Unwitting punchline from imperious MLQ
By Gerry Garcia
AS expected following the trouncing defeat of pro-administration senators in the last polls, opposition senators are preparing to reopen the investigation of the “Hello Garci” vote-cheating controversy again, only three years remaining before the presidential elections in 2010.
Revival of the “Hello Garci” scandal would likely spur the filing of another impeachment complaint against PGMA, the third one which is viewed “untimely” in the wake of the nation’s focus on the fight against terrorism and the La Niña phenomenon.
Administration, on the other hand, is building up its case against oppositionist Lacson to abet his indictment as co-conspirator in the US espionage case.
These disheartening exchanges, charges and anti-charges, typical of our free-wheeling style of democracy, are also a consequence of decades of government run like hell by Pinoys which echoes the historic pronouncement of the late great President Manuel L. Quezon.
Quezon’s pronouncement in full: I would prefer a government run like hell by Filipinos to a government run like heaven by Americans which probably betrayed Quezon’s fears of America taking over and colonizing the islands.
So it was a statement made in haste, mistakenly understood to be more patriotic than anything else.
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Quezon’s fears were baseless. During the American regime here, there was much opposition in the United States to annexing the Philippines. First, the American Constitution did not provide the acquisition of territory; it was against American ideals.
Second, it was impractical. The Philippines was 6,000 miles from the Pacific coastline of the United States.
It was then US President William McKinley who said “It will be the policy of the United States to consult the views and wishes of the Philippine people.”
It was also the American Commission headed by Jacob Gould Schurman, president of Cornell University, who declared that self-government for the Philippine Islands should be the ultimate goal.
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/here-and-there/)
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