Think about it
GMA’s staying power
By Jun Velasco
GMA’s staying power in Malacañang is the favorite guessing game of most Filipinos these days.
The fact that they are making these guesses reflects the sad side of this republic. The catchword is political instability.
The cynics would shrug, “since when has there been political stability in this country”?
We have to give it to Ate Glo, her super skills in staying put. That, everybody agrees, is political ingenuity.
But the democratic ideal would require the expressed concurrence of at least 51 percent of the governed. Most people doubt GMA enjoys even 30 percent public approval.
Nowhere in recent history probably have we gone through this climate of uncertainty since the ousters of President Marcos and Erap Estrada. But GMA is a most careful student of history, skillful and clever in her grasp of mass psychology.
That is why at this writing, we give the PGMA-Ouster Group tug-of-war a 50 – 50 affair. If it were in Erap Estrada’s regime, we would now be inaugurating a new president.
Pray that a regime change would result for the best interest and welfare of our nation.
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One reason JDV was not able to hold on to the speakership, says an observer, is that he has been there for too long. Five terms is not a joke. He must have been the best speaker, as Dr. Ado Duque used to say, too long in it could usher in political boredom. Money changing hands became a matter of course.
For us in Pangasinan, JDV is an indelible name in Philippine government. He was the author of the Philippines’ economic survival, having sired the overseas workers law, the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) Law, and lately was the spirit behind the inter-faith dialogue, the debt-to-equity law, the One Billion Trees Law and other landmark laws without which the country would have collapsed a long time ago.
In her televised speech before top business leaders last Friday, GMA said: “We want to fight corruption.” Of course, there’s a whale of difference between wanting to stamp out corruption and actually stamping it out.
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Hail to two outstanding ladies — television’s Maki Pulido who won a most coveted world award recently, and Councilor Farah Decano for her election as president of the all-lady solons of the country. We thought Gloria Arroyo was at the back of their minds when they aspired for honors in this male-dominated society. PGMA’s influence on the two ladies must have gone in different directions.
(Readers may reach columnist at junmv@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/think-about-it/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)
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