Whistling in the dark

Will it happen today? The chairman of the Commission on Election himself has said that the lead of Oakwood leader Antonio Trillanes over the two other senatorial bets in the lowest rungs, is already "insurmountable." Trillanes has a lead of 272,670 votes over Koko Pimentel, and there is no way that he can be overtaken, even if that naughty election supervisor, "Linteng" Bedol, relents and confesses where he hid the Maguindanao election returns.

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So today, 9 in the morning, they say, Trillanes will be proclaimed a winner and a duly-elected senator of the Republic of the Philippines, the country whose leaders, he once tried to depose. And he has made no bones about his plan to make another try, this time by legal means, when he is in the Senate. No wonder the military has been conducting surveys all over its camps, trying, I'm sure, to catch the ones who had backed Lt. Trillanes.

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Frankly, I never thought Trillanes would have a chance, and believed it was quixotic of him to even file his certificate of candidacy. Who would vote for a rebel, a trouble-maker, especially if his revolt had collapsed? But it now turns out that the guy had a bigger following than the 300 or so cornered with him at the plush condominium in Makati. Of course some millionaire and some rebels (of the other kind) reportedly aided him. How they fooled even the most popular pollsters, who didn't seem aware of the groundswell for him. I wish I knew.

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So now the administration has to bite the bullet and have Trillanes proclaimed. It has to, depriving him of that will cause more trouble than letting him in. If, as they say, there are more ways than one of killing a dog (not cats, because they have nine lives), there will also be ways of still keeping him out of the office. In the first place, he is under detention, and our laws do not say that one should be freed if one wins in a national election.

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Meanwhile, two young men, both bright and promising, will be watching with moist eyes as Trillanes takes his oath before Abalos today. Bar topnotcher Koko Pimentel, whose dad is also a senator, and Rep. Miguel Zubiri, whose father also used to be a congressman, will probably have lumps in their throats, wondering why they, who had been so law-abiding and tractable, did not get as much support from their people. Well, as another saying, not Filipino, goes, that's the way the cookie crumbles. Sorry, boys, but I feel in my bones that you both have a long way to go yet before this issue is resolved, as you both nope.

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By the way, Trillanes, who is reportedly 35 years old, is believed to be the youngest in this batch of senators coming in. Well, they will probably make allowances for him, being their "Benjamin". So far, he has made some rather imprudent statements, but, being intelligent, he'll soon adopt the lingo. And you can't begrudge him for stressing that his success is a vindication of the aims of his group, the redoubtable Magdalo.

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It's not only Trillanes who is the detainee prominently in the news this days. There is former Congressman and sportsman Romeo Jalosjos, a life convict, who was granted a commutation of his sentence the other day by the President. Instead of the maximum of 40 years that he is supposed to serve, he may be freed after only 16, if it is true that he will be released in 2010. So far, he has only been in prison 13 years, and this development has greatly angered the lawyer of his victim. I wonder what she can do about it.

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Freed, or at least acquitted for tax evasion charges, was Madame Imelda Marcos who will now have only 46 more criminal cases to deal with, from the 100 or so she started with. An over made-up Imelda, in a knee-length pink outfit, with her signature scarf, was seen clapping in thanksgiving and entoning tearfully that there is a God who is truth, and truth will prevail. Attagirl!

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Another VIP who is yet to learn whether he, too, will be detained some more or be free, is former President Joseph Estrada, whose sentencing in that plunder case is expected to occur soon. Both he and son Senator Jinggoy claim to be 100 percent sure of acquittal, but they could be whistling in the dark, you know.*

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