The amazing shrinking leaders

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
1/9/2006



It used to be that “dwende” meant only Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, dimunitive in physical stature and political mass base. She’s used lies, deceit, cheating and bribery of business, military and police groups to get the political power she’s desperately clinging to now. A bunch of other leaders helped Gloria, one was Cory Aquino who was thought of as a giant when she wrested power from Marcos. Then she anointed Fidel V. Ramos whose West Point credential gave him McArthur like stature. Now it proposed that the three of them to help in ganging up on one detained leader – President Joseph E. Estrada.

Five years after Gloria, Cory Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos combined all their forces and used all the Machiavellian techniques to depose President Joseph E. Estrada, including “false flag terrorism” blamed on nebulous Indonesian Jemaah Islamiah elements (the 2000 FIDEL bombings Cory blamed on Estrada), and they announced the political obituary of the elected President after a two-and-a-half year government. They inaugurated and swore in the “dwende”; little did they know then that it was not just “dwarfism” the little girl had but political leprosy and it infected Cory and FVR.

Political leprosy eats up the flesh of the politician infected, as Cory Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos are beginning to see. Their political constituency has been eaten up by the virus and they are shrinking, just like the man shrunk by a ray gun in the sci-fi movie “The Amazing Shrinking Man” I saw before my teenage years. Fidel V. Ramos is the most detested political leader around according to the surveys, and Cory Aquino’s nemesis Marcos overtakes her in the surveys rating the “best president” the country ever had. President Estrada already outranks Aquino in the surveys by miles.

Cory Aquino has not said if she’s accepting Gloria’s invitation to a meeting of the Council of State, a council that has met several times before but producing only much fart, but I’d really like Cory to attend so as to expose the entire farce about her “apology” and her “mistake” for helping Gloria in 2001. Mr. Ramos true to his real form, which is that of a senile old man in his second childhood, behaves like the cry baby that he is – bawling and wailing when he doesn’t get what Gloria promises him, in this instance his last chance to become prime minister through the Cha-cha and Gloria’s abdication.

Cory is in a no-win situation, attendance would demolish her while non-attendance will put her in limbo. She has lost her Drilon option as the slob has turned his back on the Black and White coup against Gloria. Cory Aquino will be left with nothing. If Fidel V. Ramos attends the Council of State meet of Gloria he will further erode the thin thread of credibility he has left with the public and the military grown tired of the corruption and perfidy under Gloria. If Fidel doesn’t attend then it simply extends their impasse with Gloria resulting in greater public annoyance.

President Joseph E. Estrada is the biggest winner, with an invitation floated from the Urban Bank meet of FVR, Drilon and Sotto, to participate in a coalition council or transition government. This was followed by a float of an invitation for President Estrada to be part of the meeting of Gloria’s Council of State. Estrada rejected the coalition government formula and acceded to continuing the dialogue with anti-Gloria forces as well as expressing openness to a political alliance instead of a constricting coalition. And they once said in 2001 Estrada is no longer a factor!

How can Estrada continue to be a political factor despite detention and being restricted from public view for five years? There is no question that Estrada is the main factor, just consider the November 2005 report from PCIJ of the Pulse Asia survey on who the Filipino today prefer to lead them after Gloria exits (I quote PCIJ only because it is anti-Estrada): “…The findings show 19 percent favoring De Castro; former President Joseph Estrada, 14 percent; Sen. Panfilo Lacson, 13 percent; and Arroyo, 12 percent.

Quite discernible is the declining preference for De Castro, from 26 percent last July to 19 percent in October. Preference for Lacson likewise slid, from 21 percent to 13 percent.

Besides Arroyo (40 percent) and Ramos (39 percent), also high in the list of individuals considered as not acceptable to lead the country were Eddie Villanueva, 34 percent; Susan Roces, 29 percent; Lacson, 25 percent; Estrada, 20 percent.” In all categories, Estrada leads.

What PCIJ did not elaborate on is that preference for Estrada to lead after Gloria is gone rose from 9% to 14%, the only leader whose rating improved over time rather than declining. What accounts for this? Credibility, that’s what. Estrada never lied to the people and the people have started appreciating this after seeing all the other politicians fake piety, honesty, connubial loyalty, intelligence, dedication to democracy and the people, and what not. Estrada truly caring heart for the people and steadfast adherence to his principles has show the contrast from the others – and he’s winning.

President Estrada’s political stock is growing while the other political pretenders are shrinking. Estrada is right in rejecting compromise with these political lepers.

(Tune in to 1098AM, Mon. to Fri. 5-6am and 6-7pm)