The compulsion to confess         

I used  to have a  book entitled “The Compulsion to Confess” written by a famous psychiatrist. It’s thesis is this: There lurks in every one of us, a compulsion to blurt out the truth. In short, to confess our sins.  The compulsion maybe weak or strong,  depending on the person. Apparently, in the case of GMA vis-à-vis the infamous ZTE affair,  she succumbed  to the “compulsion” by admitting that she knew the ZTE contract was overpriced before she went to Boao, China to sign in April, 2007 the ZTE agreement.

          In other words,  GMA uttered a confession that is  in stark violation of her oath of office. She signed the ZTE agreement with full knowledge it is dripping with the ooze of corruption. In fact, GMA’s predilection to confess also surfaced when she made the damning admission  that she talked to  Virgilio   Garciliano in that famous “Hello, Garci” scandal.

          Some people however do not give too much credit for GMA’s admission. They say that GMA is like a kid who got caught trying to extract a cookie from the jar and can only say: “I’m sorry”.         But it is one thing to spill the beans inside a confessional booth and another to say it where media elements can broadcast it to the whole world. A president should be extremely careful what comes out of her mouth.

          That is why people are saying that GMA shot her own foot. While we would not wish to delve deep in the psyche of GMA,  certain questions come to the fore – is there a hidden impulse to self-destruct?

          I am afraid that recent developments,  like the testimony of a new witness, Dante Madriaga, is adding more fuel to the fire.  How long this matter will infest the mind of this nation is anybody’s guess.

          Dante Madriaga is one hell of a witness -- direct, articulate, apparently knowledgeable and with intimate mastery of the details. I fear that his evidence is a huge  additional  nail in the coffin of the administration’s credibility.

          One of the intriguing questions afloat is the idea of a “new” kind of people power. The word new implies a turn-about from the “old” people power

the EDSA type that toppled 2 presidents. The fact is that no president, or more accurately no ordinary president, would willingly step down. You have to force him to flee, as in the case of Marcos and ERAP.

          The idea of a “new” kind of people power plunges us into a vast pit of dark speculations. What precisely is the aim of this “new” initiative?   Is it merely to usher in a moral reformation, something like want happened to Paul on his way to Damascus?  How is this present turmoil going to be directed. And also how are the Catholic bishops going to resolve their conflicting visions about corruption in government?

          The Ghandi type non-violent resistance,  also known I believe,  as civil disobedience is the model that the Indians employed when  they fought the British for their independence as a nation. The only question is that you have to have Ghandi (or perhaps a Sin) whose overwhelming moral force exerts a galvanic effect on the body politic.

          In fact, Cory urged the concept of boycott against businesses that supported the Marcos regime before the actual EDSA I.

          The CBCP, on the other hand, has rejected the call for GMA to resign. Perhaps, most of the bishops in that body believe that a willing GMA resignation is next to impossible. It suggests the curious advice (and even a cockeyed one) that the GMA herself lead the drive against corruption. We are all for a moral revolution but there are likely things and unlikely ones.

          Perhaps, the boiling pot will percolate into something definite. I don’t have a crystal ball, or I may have one but the grime and dust may have erased its clarity. What will happen will not depend on one man or group of men. The pin-ball of history is many times determined by chance, by luck, by genius, by randomness. (Of course, there’s the idea that in the end. Someone Up there, watches and presides).

          There are also persons who seem to be crucial. People who are in the center like Jun Lozada who has become an icon. Joey de Venecia who started the ball rolling.

So watch the ball, man; watch the ball.*  

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