Gloria's fears: Gloria's guilt

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/29/2007



“Virtue, dear friend, needs no defense, The surest guard is innocence: None knew, till guilt created fear, What darts or poisoned arrows were” - Horace

Last month, out of the blue a full page ad appeared in all major dailies appealing for calm from the Estrada supporters in the event of a Sandidganbayan decision that would be adverse to them. It cost tens of millions and seemed to be conditioning the public for an Estrada conviction, leading most to conclude it was Malacañang’s work. Last Monday night, August 27 the AFP National Capital Region command of Esperon also suddenly raised the spectre of an “Edsa Tres Repeat” and “violence if Erap is convicted”. They presume Erap supporters guilty without facts to back it up, just as they have convicted Estrada by advanced insinuations of a guilty verdict.

For seven years, the elected President Estrada faced trial under the most iniquitous conditions – special court proceedings organized by conspiratorial Gloria and corrupt generals that deposed Estrada’s government. The accusers who grabbed power organized a special court, appointed its members, put the weight of the entire hostile government behind the case. Still, they expect the people to believe a fair and unbiased judgment can emanate from it? Few believe justice can be done under these circumstances, and the surveys show that over half don’t have confidence in outcome of the trial.

That result of the latest SWS survey, yet to be released, shows over 60% of the people not having strong faith or completely disbelieving the Sandiganbayan’s capacity for unbiased and fair judgment on Estrada. This doubt has been reinforced by the subsequent actions of Glroia’s government in these critical final months of the trial when the judgment is expected –the full page ads in July testing the waters for conviction of Estrada and now the AFP NCR command’s inexplicable and suspiciously timed announcement of its preparation for violent reaction by sending in 2,000 troops: All leading to the conclusion that they are preparing a conviction.

Despite the oppression, President Estrada’s public statements and rare, brief appearances, shows him composed, calm and always level-headed – plus his trademark humor, betraying no fear. He is invariably a picture of Horace’s virtue; but Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has invariably resorted to all the darts and poisoned arrows, aiming and throwing them at Estrada and the people all these seven years without let up – yet, in all surveys, Estrada’s trust rating with the public grows while Gloria’s plummet from survey to survey; and yet again Gloria responds with more and more darts and poisoned arrows. The final arrow may be forthcoming now, in the Sandiganbayan case.

Gloria and her henchmen cannot see anything Estrada and the people do without suspicion, fear and trembling. Even Estrada's aid extended by the Kawal Foundation, established by President Estrada's compassion for soldiers: Gloria and her generals had to interpret the foundation's recent donations to Marines killed in Mindanao as “destabilization” . It is not easy for Gloria and her generals to understand Estrada’s “weakness” which Jean Racine would agree depicts this quote from her: "A noble heart cannot suspect in others the pettiness and malice that it has never felt." Gloria Arroyo cannot suspect nobility and innocence in others because of the pettiness, greed and malice in her.

The innocence of Estrada and the masa, forever in support of him, was exemplified in the Edsa Tres experience: close to a million joined the five day protests at the Edsa Shrine in May 1, 2001 to protest the ouster, mug shots and handcuffing of President Estrada by Gloria’s police generals. The masa expected that with their turnout four times larger than Gloria’s Edsa Dos, democracy’s voice would have spoken louder and their elected leader reinstated. They marched to Malacañang to press the point, hundreds of thousands strong. Unarmed and of high hopes and cheer, they had showed their numbers never expected that their reward would be blood and death.

One newspaper recalls now, “Thousands of Estrada supporters trooped to Malacañang after a four-day vigil on EDSA to demand his return to the presidency. Police and soldiers manning the barricades opened fire on protesters killing four and injuring 113.” But there were more than four who died, a dozen more went to the morgue unidentified. thousands had joined from the provinces and had no relatives to identify and retrieve them. They were all unarmed, yet they are accused s the violent ones by those who fired merciless round from sniper rifles and machines guns perched in nests atop Malacañang roofs– a pattern of blaming the victims Gloria Arroyo is now infamous for.

"The evil-doer accuses first." an anonymous Chinese proverb says. Everything they charge of Estrada the people now know Gloria and her group are most guilty of. The violence the generals accuse Estrada supporters of, the generals are most guilty of. In the people’s eyes and hearts Estrada is the innocent man, like the rest of us victims of Gloria’s tyranny. We say to her quoting Jean-Paul Sartre: "Your entire universe will not be enough to make me guilty. You are the king of the Gods, Jupiter, the king of the stones and of the stars, the king of the waves of the sea. But you are not the king of men."

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