Last resort for ‘survival’?

By Gerry Garcia

THE paranoid’s obsession for PGMA’s impeachment dating back to days after the ’04 presidential elections when she was pitted against the immensely popular but rather reluctant bet FPJ . . . is, hopefully, on the way out following the 2nd impeachment complaint’s being junked by Congress again. This despite still adamant opposition being mounted against it by opposition minority leader Rep. Francis Escudero and company and seconded by Ilocos Rep. Imee Marcos, the late Dictator’s eldest daughter.

It has rather been a nauseatingly long and monotonous fight, at least to the masses in general, especially outside imperial Manila. The score was lopsided: 173 against 32 attained after a marathon all-night session in the House of Representatives last Thursday. Pangasinan’s pride, Speaker JDV, was triumphant and glorious when he said, “common sense” won.

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Most Pangasinenses after all, who have been the late FPJ’s kababayan, have been flabbergasted over the long drawn impeachment campaign relentlessly pursued on the strength of electoral-cheating claim  made  by pro-FPJ against GMA… even long after the former screen action star has died from a heart attack shortly after the elections  in May, 2004.

Election cheats are a dime a dozen in the kind of Pinoy elections we’ve been having after the Commonwealth era when manual counting of the votes has been the rule.

And it seems odd that only the victorious presidential bet is singled out in most post-election protests against poll-cheating. What about the other winning bets for positions lower that the presidency? Are they not also vulnerable, as the presidency, to charges of election fraud?

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The presidency, admittedly the premium plum in the country’s national elections, has been drawing applicants from unlikeliest sources, like filmdom for instance.

Even moneyed and influential bets outside of filmdom, even if they have the requisite qualities for effective leadership, have only a Chinaman’s chance of winning against a newcomer from Pinoy filmdom who has what the latter obviously lack — adoration from the masses or   popularity.  Money is no problem, especially if he or she has the backing of wealthy but frustrated trapo-gatecrashers.

That’s why we think JDV has a point in seeking conversion of our presidential bicameral type of governance into a parliamentary federal type of government. And we have no cause to believe JDV can go wrong. JDV had been a journalist himself, is currently an economist, foreign policy expert, moving spirit behind economic reforms legislation and Speaker of the 9th, 10th and 12th Philippine Congress.

     We also see hope in some concerned groups’ plan to file a petition before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to amend the ’87 Constitution through a people’s initiative… to end what they think is “60 years of failed bicameral presidential government.”

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