Punchline
After JDV, Archbishop Cruz is next
By Ermin F. Garcia Jr.
In case you are not aware yet, the vengeful yet threatened Arroyo government has been flexing its muscles looking at its targets in Pangasinan straight in the eyes, promising dire results. The Malacañang operators have discerned that their notorious carrot approach (P.5M inside paper bags) apparently can work wonders with most of our elected officials in the province but not with a few who dare stand up to the government who insist on ferreting out the truth.
The first to take a totally unexpected and politically debilitating stab in the back was former Speaker Joe de V. Nobody had expected Mrs. Arroyo and her cabal to strike him down the way they did especially not after he was assured publicly that she would not allow her allies to instigate his ouster.
Joe de V’s unceremonious removal from his post
cost him his political fortune for now, and the Arroyo administration is visibly intent on keeping him down as a spent political force.
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The Arroyo government’s next target prominent yet hated victim from Pangasinan is Archbishop Oscar Cruz.
The persecution squad led by DOJ’s Raul Gonzalez is out on a clear mission. It does not hope to send our outspoken bishop to jail because it knows its libel case does not have a chinaman’s chance of winning. What it will seek to do is to humiliate our retiring bishop by presenting a host of paid witnesses who will insist that he is a politically-biased, immoral and unfit man of God.
It will not matter to the Arroyo government if its witnesses will be credible or not since the opportunity to malign the bishop in a court of law without risk of being legally censured is all that it seeks to achieve. For a government that has gotten away with a series of lies, I don’t even think that it cares how it will be perceived for wrongfully charging a well-respected member of the clergy in court.
But through it all, I know the good archbishop will thoroughly enjoy this close encounter with Mrs. Arroyo’s attack dogs.
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THE CONTROLLED PANIC FOR CHEAP RICE. There is a food crisis in underdeveloped countries. In some countries, it means the diminishing supply or the absence of food. Not enough rice, not enough bread, not enough fish.
The Philippines, being an underdeveloped country, is feeling the pinch as well. But until last week, there really was no food and rice supply crisis, not yet anyway. Ours was largely a pricing crisis. Food items are available everywhere, the only problem was that the price tags have been changed much too often.
But wait, a rice shortage is now becoming a reality. A shortage of cheap NFA rice not caused by a serious lack of supply but a sudden surge in demand for it.
We are seeing a demand for the commodity by a public that is in panic mode
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There are now long queues for NFA rice in Metro Manila and in some towns in the province as well. The curious thing was the lines suddenly started to appear even when NFA rice was still in abundance!
Until two weeks ago, Pangasinan and in other provinces outside of Manila reported having ample stocks of NFA rice in warehouses. No lines were seen at anytime until panic started to set in close to home. With incessant media reports of long lines in Metro Manila, it was a matter of time before Pangasinenses started forming their own queues to get their cheap rice. Families started to wonder and worry if their regular suki rice dealer will still have ample supply of cheap rice for them. But the dealers are adamant in denying that there is shortage and what we’re seeing is an abnormal demand that’s creating pressure on the supply.
It does appear that the situation has been calibrated to create panic-buying for NFA rice whose objective I suspect has something to do with current political events.
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From where I sit, and based on reports about supply on the ground, I cannot but suspect that this dangerous play of people’s emotions is a high-stakes game of brinkmanship being played by Malacañang.
Going by past events, there was always an issue of crisis proportion each time the national government was hounded by a national scandal on corruption. Remember the timing of the Glorietta explosion? It temporarily and effectively diverted attention away from the resurgence of calls for “Gloria Resign” after the NBN-ZTE was first exposed and the expose of Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio about the P500,000 “gifts” from Malacañang amid reports filtering out from the army of its growing discontent over the failed promises of President Arroyo.
Listening to NFA officials in Pangasinan and elsewhere, they who are apparently in the dark about the hidden agenda behind the ‘rice shortage’, they are clearly dumbfounded how the long lines came about, further lending credence to the supposition that all these are stage-managed.
Is it possible that the “Save the Queen” squad concocted the ‘rice shortage’ which they evidently predetermined can be made temporary yet can be stretched over a long period, long enough for the public to forget and shun senate investigations on Lozada’s expose?
And, as if on cue, the complaint against former DOJ Sec. Hernani Perez was suddenly revived by the ombudsman like it was needed for added insurance. Again, I cannot but suspect it as another ploy since the case was filed 3 years after the complainant, Mark Jimenez, desisted and, therefore, the furor over it has been calculated to be short term and controllable.
My prognosis, therefore, is the ‘shortage’ will last depending on the public’s interest in the senate investigations on corruption. It will end once the public interest on the senate investigations wanes.
Wanna bet?
(Readers may reach columnist at punch.sunday@gmail.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/punchline/
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