03/22/2010
It has slowly been assembled right before the nation’s very eyes: The set-up of a monstrously messy automated election system, along with the appointment of a lapdog military chief, and now, a Supreme Court (SC) blessing the midnight appointment of a Chief Justice beholden to the outgoing power. All these point to the unavoidable conclusion that a perpetuation of the current regime is in the final stages of completion. Civil society groups were reportedly holed up at the SC gates the other day. Winnie Monsod was among those protesting. But wasn’t she one of those who created this monster that’s replicating itself and rooted for the Davide SC’s formulation of a so-called “constructive resignation” dogma back in 2001? How ironic indeed.
Before the protests, an opinion from Gloria Arroyo’s former Ombudsman, Simeon Marcelo, evinced “shock” over the high court decision. He apparently thinks that people have forgotten how he countenanced all those SC decisions since Edsa II that smacked of arbitrariness and abuse and have contravened jurisprudence.
From the Davide Court’s illegal constructions, to its blessings of a declaration of a “State of Rebellion” against unarmed Edsa III protesters, to a “State of Emergency” in 2006 against Gen. Danilo Lim’s “conscientious objection,” up to the controversial decision on Arroyo’s “executive privilege,” it now seems that this erstwhile shapeshifting fixture in Arroyo’s Cabinet is much too late to be complaining about this Gloria Frankenstein court!
Reading Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 19th century novel, one cannot tell who really should be considered the monster — Dr. Frankenstein, who assembled a creature from parts of various corrupted bodies, or that very creature which came to life out of the mad doctor’s violation of the laws of nature.
Seeing that the Frankenstein monster in RP’s current political milieu is none other than the menacing extension of the Arroyo regime to a second dreadful decade, we should be reminded, too, that this monster has its creator.
Edsa II, that black mark in our nation’s history, along with all those who supported it, such as Monsod, Marcelo, and their ilk, plus their collective violation of the laws of the land in tandem with “their” most esteemed high court, created this hideous political monster that we see today.
The Monsods, Marcelos, and, it must be said, the Noynoy Aquinos of the Edsa of yore assembled different corrupted institutions of Philippine society into their Edsa II coalition. That mangled union, sewn together by such corrupt foreign corporatists as Mirant (which siphoned off $10-billion worth of our PPA payments) and AIG; by local oligarchs, as well as, leftist power mongers of various stripes; by treasonous AFP generals with rogue jueteng cops and gambling lords like Chavit Singson; and, last but not least, by the Davide SC, all created this monster that has become the country’s horror story of the past nine years.
Now coming to full term, this monster is ready to give birth to its baby: The third unelected tenure of Gloria Arroyo. This, as the monster child has matured from the first power grab of 2001 to its second more vicious assault that was 2004’s “Hello Garci.”
Strangely, what is happening today in Philippine politics is very much like the way Mary Shelley’s story unfolded, with the monster finally taking vengeance on its creator. Gloria Arroyo is defying the insistence of her masters to cease and desist from power by the end of “her” 10th year.
Clearly obsessed to continue beyond the artificial lease given her, Gloria still tries to dig in, such that even though the monster’s creator in the story hunts it down to finally end its sordid, tragic existence, leading it to run off to the North Pole to disappear, here, the Edsa II monster stays and attempts to consume its creators — like a revolution or counter-revolution gone wrong. So in its demented mind, it’s either the monster stays or it takes down everybody and everything with it.
But what’s even more tragic is that, through it all, we are the hapless victims of this Edsa II monster’s mindless fits and paroxysms.
Mary Shelley didn’t live long enough to do a sequel; but we all would like to have an end to this political Frankenstein story in our shores. The only question is how.
All through the past nine years, calls to end the monstrosity had been consistently and forthrightly issued by Joseph Estrada, while still in detention and upon being freed; by FPJ who could have ended the monster’s reign but was cheated out of victory.
Only when the nation finally learns to heed its true heroes and debunk the Frankensteins of this land can the monster’s savagery be undone. Like the abomination that was in Shelley’s Frankenstein, the monster in our midst is now a wild beast lost in the shivering wilderness. It’s time we put an end to it (and its maker’s monstrous madness)!
(Tune in to 1098AM, Suló ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Global News Network, Destiny Cable Channel 21, Talk News TV, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on “May 10 Elections’ 25% Chance of Success;” also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com) |
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