On Sunday, August 10, 2014 3:27 PM, linggoy de la Cruz <[email protected]> wrote:
“A Year and a Month and Many Tears After!” by Linggoy Alcuaz in OpinYon’s Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, August 11 – 17, 2014. What a difference a Year and a Tear make! More accurately, a year and a month – Thirteen months ago, July 11, 2013, was the eve of the publication of the initial four part series (July 12 – 15, 2013), PDI Expose of the Napoles 10 billion peso PDF/Pork Barrel Scam. That was definitely a different world from today. Just two months had passed since the Monday, May 13, 2013, mid - term elections. Nobody could have imagined that in a year’s time, Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada and Bong Revilla, would be detained without bail in Camp Crame under the charge of plunder. The three Kings of the Opposition UNA – Joseph Erap Estrada, Jejomar “Jojo” C. Binay and JPE, each had a son or daughter run for Senator. The least experienced and known, Nancy, came in fifth, the most experienced and best known, Joseph Victor JV Estrada, came in as # 11. and JPE’s natural son, Jackie, lost (# 14). However, Greg Honasan, almost as good as a son to JPE, came in in # 12 slot. Erap had just beaten the four term Manila Mayor - Alfredo Lim. Disqualification cases filed aginst him based on the conditions of his October 2007 pardon, had not prospered at the level of the COMELEC. His nephew, Laguna Governor E. R. Ejercito, had won re election, while his wife was also reelected as Mayor of Pagsanjan. JV’s mother was re elected as Mayor of San Juan. Jinggoy was then the Senate President Pro Tempore and the Chairman of the Committee on Labour. He had won re election in 2010 coming in in the # 2 slot. He had won fifth place when he first ran in 2004 in FPJ’s slate. He was positioned to be the Opposition’s and Vice President and 2016 leading Presidentiable Binay’s Vice Presidential running mate in May 2016. The Ejercito Estrada Political Clan was not only in very good health. They had a very promising and rosy future. A year and a month later, the patriarch of the clan, Erap, seems condemned to still be the main Locomotive for the Growth and Survival of the Clan. We believe that he will have to and should run for national office in order to vindicate and or bolster and reinforce Jinggoy, JV, E. R. etc ... A year after, many things have turned around. One of the Three Kings, JPE, is under Hospital detention in Camp Crame. The heir apparent, Jinggoy, of the other King is also detained without bail in Camp Crame. The President of the LAKAS, the other (GMA) Opposition, Bong, is also detained without bail in Camp Crame. The three of them face Plunder and Graft and corruption charges before the Sandigan Bayan. Their chief and top lieutenants (Atty. Gigi Reyes, Atty. Cambe and Pauline) are either charged or detained or in hiding. Last week Vice President Binay let the Cat out of the bag. He gave credence to and welcomed the possibility that he might become Noynoy’s annointed and that there could be a Grand Coalition of the Administrtion, the LP and its allies and the Opposition, UNA. This drew dismayed reactions from LP leaders, Senate President Frnklin Drillon and DILG Secretary Mar Araneta Roxas. It had already drawn a pre emptive response from Erap. In an exclusive interview with ABS CBN’s Karen Davila about a month ago, Erap had said that he would support Binay for President in 2016 so long as he, Binay, was not the Administration and LP candidate. In case that became true, Erap said that he would run as the Opposition candidate. Last week, in direct reaction to Binay’s float, Erap said that if Binay became the Administration Candidate, the Opposition would have to look for its own candidate. One of the guests at the CBCP Forum at the Illustrado in Intramuros, Manila, last Tuesday was Archbishop Cruz. He asked me what I thought of the possibility of a Coup de ‘Eta against Noynoy. My answer was too long to fit into the remaining space of this week’s YTT column. We have touched on the topic in my columns of the past few months. In trying to divine what will happen to our country in the near future, we should perhaps take a look at our two neighbours Thailand to the northwest and Indonesia to the southwest. After a decade of disunity, division and political strife, the military intervened for a second time aginst the duly elected government in Thailand. In doing so, the military with the backing of the King again took the side of the Elite against the more popular populist political party. Like here, the color of the Elitist Party is Yellow. On the other hand, the Populist Prty uses the color red. Here Marcos popularized the Red, White and Blue. Erap took the Red from FM, mixed it with the Yellow of Cory and ended up with Orange. In Indonesia, on July 9, Joko Widodo defeated the retired military candidate, Prabowo Subianto, for the Presidency. Joko is 53, born on June 21, 1961. He was the Governor of Greater Jakarta since he was elected on September 20, 2012 and assumed office on October 15, 2012. He was the Mayor of Surakarta, Central Java July 28, 2005 to October 1, 2012. Before entering politics, he was a furniture maker. As a Mayor and Governor, he was populist in attitude, behaviour policies and programs. Is the revelation by Senator Antonio “Sony” Trillanes, that there are retired military officers talking to active military personnel about the possibility of a Coup de ‘Eta, an indication that the country’s politics is moving to the right and back to the military situation during the Cory, Erap and GMA Administrations. We feel that the probability of military intervention is still remote and weak. In the political history of the Philippine Commonwealth and Republic, there has not been a successful classical military coup de ‘eta. What we have had in EDSA I and II were a failed coup cum People Power and a weak People Power with an AFP and PNP withdrawal of support. Both of these combinations were used as models for the failed attempts, conspiracies, plans and plots during the Cory and GMA Administrations. However, there is room and a venue for an alternative and different approach to effect change in our politics and governance. This is a broad, civilian, reform movement based on both the social and mass media. The movement should also resort to popular mass actions sparingly. Since last week, we have been running after Netizens as well as Neanderthals, that we know were connected with and/or sympathetic to last year’s August 26, Million People March, to the Luneta and asking them what will happen on the first anniversary. My cousin – in – law, Monet Silvestre, a musician, replied and corrected me. The holiday will fall on Monday, August 25. Therefore, anything that will happen as a commemoration will happen on the 25thand not on the 26thof August, 2014. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Center for Good Governance" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/center-for-good-governance. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
