ASEAN Summit
postponement - lame excuses

Members of the ASEAN Summit secretariat squirmed in their seat as they explained in a press conference the reasons for the postponement of the Cebu ASEAN Summit.

They did not know that while invoking Seniang, they may have overlooked that the PAGASA had earlier told TV audiences that the typhoon notwithstanding, the summit could push through. Later the explanation had to be amended to include the national perspective - i.e. the host president should also devote part of her time trying to handle the extensive damage and lost of lives by typhoon

Reming and whatever may be the result of Seniang's visit. But they immediately distanced the decision from the political turmoil brought about by the House-led Charter Change amendment. Although that was not factored in the decision, explained the secretariat which included Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia, that's the most incredible assertion.

For the first time, the CBCP and Catholic organizations came out openly in rebellion against the arrogance of the House majority which rammed through the chamber its resolution to change the rules of the House to pave the way for a proposed Con-Ass.

Although the call was for prayers and peaceful protests, there is no gainsaying that represented a major turnaround that could trigger a host of trouble for the President. Consider also that the entire business community was also plunged into an uproar over the brazen House steamroller. The most eloquent and brilliant legal brains of the majority, despite their reputation, often resorted to ugly language and called for the exercise of the tyranny of numbers to snow under the opposition. The most pathetic picture was that of Speaker Jose de Venecia.

The House leader, even when confronted with questions touching other topics, simply robotically played his mantra about the virtues of a unicameral parliamentary system.

God, indeed, writes in mysterious ways. The Con-Ass train roared ahead. But they started it to flounder. The Senate refused to be converted. And then some of the Metro Manila solons rejected the most enticing gift that sold them to Con-Ass, they thumbed down the No-El ploy which had been proposed to be postponed to November.

Then the fatal mistake. This time by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, herself. The distribution of Christmas envelopes to Western Visayas mayors in Iloilo City. Several mayors admitted they had received from P20,000 to P30,000 each. Not to sign the manifesto of support for GMA's Con-Ass position.

It was no deal, declared some of the recipients. But nobody believed that lame excuse of Christmas being a time for sharing. Rudy Parreño retorted that anybody could sell his soul for a pittance.

That incident fueled the outrage. While the President had consistently protested lack of any benefit from the Con-Ass this sounded hollow in the face of what she just did. Worse, the gifts were distributed at the time the victims of Reming in Bicol were complaining about the lack of relief assistance and have started to question on the whereabouts of even foreign aid given to Bicol for the previous natural calamity.

Then yesterday, rumors and news tidbit circulated. The President and administration leaders had decided not to push through with Con-Ass. A surprise, the Senate had obdurately stood pat against meeting with the House to discuss a compromise formula that could have bypassed the constitutional issue of each legislative chamber voting separately. Even pro-administration stalwarts stood up to sign the Senate manifesto.

It immediately echoed what Bishop Vicente Navarra had termed the arrogant display of the power of numbers - tama na, garapalan na.

I am no conspiracy theorist. But I suspect that GMA may have played a coy game with Speaker De Venecia. She must have allowed him enough rope to hang himself in his obsessive ambition to become the national leader - by hook or by crook. And so the plot played on. Until a majority solon blurted out - now we can tell the people, you will no longer choose the President. We will be ones who will pick who he will be.

The mistakes became evident from the very start when Sigaw ng Bayan rammed through the signature campaign sans actual consultation with barangay voters. In Bacolod, most of the barangay voters denied ever having been consulted about the proposed amendments and their views about it. They were only asked to sign the manifesto for Sigaw.

But in a way, that also focused public attention on what was going on. I think Sigaw and the House members later helped educating the public on the vital importance of the Constitution and why changing it by a select group of politicians, hungrily forcing through the Con-Ass resolution.

Never before in the country's history has there been as much concern for the basic Charter as now. And it is but that the administration decided to discard the obsessive vision of Con-Ass advocates and their unarticulated goal of seizing almost total control of all lovers of power in a democracy.

Filipinos, it seems, still treasure democracy and decency as well as political morality.*

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