The War of the Houses

The battle between the two houses of Congress continues to percolate, and yesterday the entire membership of the so-called Upper House united, for once, and declared that they would never agree to the plan of the Lower House to include them in the numbers they are gathering to justify their version of the change they want to make in the country's form of government. All 23 senators, including maverick Miriam Santiago, firmly placed their signatures on their resolve not to allow themselves to be swallowed by the House of Representatives.

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Anybody, even the ordinary citizen can see that the proponents of this People's Initiative idea appear to have forgotten that we are still in a bicameral form of government, that they have not yet gotten their way - as they apparently believe they will, no matter what. As House Speaker Jose de Venecia confidently said in Bacolod only a few days ago, the new form of government is "no longer a dream" because it will be in place four months from now. The problem is, the ordinary citizen does not also believe that the speaker is not thinking of his own glorification in this change, and that he is now ensuring that he will get the most powerful post himself in the new set-up. Now, if Speaker de Venecia will swear over a Bible, or on the soul of his deceased daughter that he has no such plans, maybe everybody will jump on his cha-cha train.

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Meanwhile, the country's police have more on their hands with the search for another figure considered as a thorn in the side of the administration because of his favorite hobby of being in the vicinity wherever alleged plots or coup d'etats against the government are being hatched. Even with a P5 million bounty being waved for his capture, nobody has yet ratted on former army man and senator Gringo Honasan. Probably in exasperation, the Armed Forces of the Philippines has announced that it is ready to use "appropriate force" on Gringo in case he resists arrest.

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I don't know what is really meant by "appropriate force" since I am not into armyspeak. Does it mean they will muffle him with chloroform if he struggles, or shoot him with a stun gun, as zookeepers do with escaped lions and rampaging elephants? Ah, maybe they will apply what the American troops did to Saddam Hussein, who was said to have been hit with strong sedatives before he was hauled out of that hole where he was hiding out. I'm sure we will see something exciting like that if ever they catch Gringo. There will be no ban on media coverage, you'll see. That will be shown repeatedly for all the country and even the world to see, as another triumph of, er, the military.

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On the other hand, poor Erap, who must be missing the bright lights and the cameras, is not allowed to have his appearance in court covered by radio or TV. Unlike the hearing of the impeachment case against him, which had full media exposure, his trial will be sort of "behind closed doors", coverage-wise. But, you know, times are really a-changing. Now it seems people are no longer so sure that Erap was the worst leader they ever had. And, as far as the media is concerned, they may have helped a lot to pull him down, but they now acknowledge that things were much better for them under him.

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For one, media people never encountered with him the problems they are having now. Whatever his faults were, Erap never thought of issuing a proclamation like 1017, or having the press office of one of their colleagues raided or "monitored" by policemen. No know-it-all cop under Erap had ever warned the media that he was issuing guidelines for them to follow, or else. No police officer ever dared to say media people had to show their work to them first before publishing or airing them. I will not be surprised if some media people, especially in Manila, are silently rooting for Erap now.

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Her new solicitor general must be a man truly after the president's heart. On the case of the strolling scene of former cabinet member Dinky Soliman, the Commission on Human Rights says that the police had committed a violation of her rights, while SolGen Eduardo Nachura says Dinky may be charged with sedition because she and her companions were planning something wicked in wearing those T-shirts with that Patalsikin message.*

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