A new dawn?
A new dawn?
Updated 11:46pm (Mla time) Jan 16, 2005
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the January 17, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
EX-PRESIDENT Joseph Estrada returned from Hong Kong on Saturday with new, titanium knees and old, leaden rhetoric. His 19 days in the former Crown Colony, he said, had given him strength of will and clarity of vision. To do what, precisely? "To unite the people and set the path for them to see a new dawn."
A new beginning? Apparently, Estrada did not only undergo knee surgery; he also had a heart transplant. How else explain his change of heart? After whooping it up in Hong Kong as if there were no tomorrow, he is now ready for the rigors and rapture of the Second Coming.
"I have returned as promised to fulfill a sacred covenant with our people. I have returned to the country and the Filipino people whom I love, stronger, and more determined than ever to restore hope that has been lost; to fight for a better future; uphold the Constitution and restore the rule of law," Estrada said.
This is phrased to appeal to everyone, perhaps as a basis for "uniting the people." But the last four clauses are all code for undoing the work of People Power II, including the unanimous rulings of the Supreme Court in 2001. To address only one of Estrada's key assumptions: The rule of law has in fact already been restored, precisely through People Power II and the key events that followed. The rupture took place when the criminal game of jueteng was centralized in Malacañang during his term; the repair proceeded furiously when he was arrested and made to account for his conduct.
But we have already gone through this; the country has already come to terms with People Power II and its aftermath. Any attempt to restart the debate by recasting its terms does not herald a new dawn, but a return to old, discredited ways.
"My unconstitutional removal from the presidency in January 2001, as history shows, had clearly opened a Pandora's Box: One that contained social divisiveness as the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen; hope has been lost, being transformed into disillusionment on promises made, but not kept by the de facto administration."
Estrada seeks to place the blame for the political turmoil that followed his ouster on those who deposed him. But in truth it was he who turned the key in the lock of Pandora's Box. When he toyed with presidential privilege, to the point of running a criminal enterprise from the Palace, he did not take into account the people's absolute unwillingness to suffer another corrupt president.
It is true that a sense of drift seems to mark the national polity. It is also true that the gap between social classes seems to be widening. But any attempt to politicize this divide, by an ex-president who was the first to run for office on class politics, will not guarantee a new dawn, but a return to old, discredited ways.
Is Estrada promising his own brand of people power? He sees equivalence between the charges against him and what he describes as "the unrestrained corruption in all branches and levels of government." He also places special emphasis on the Arroyo administration's dismal survey numbers.
But, on the other hand, he has been categorical about not joining any destabilization attempts. And there is also this crucial sentence in his arrival statement: "I have returned to do what the Constitution has tasked me to do in June 1998."
This is the sentence that has given some of his supporters clammy hands and sudden palpitations. On June 30, 1998, Estrada was sworn into office as the country's 13th president. What the Constitution tasked him to do that fateful month, therefore, was the honorable discharge of his duties as president. Does the statement mean that he still considers himself the rightful president?
Despite his pointed insult about a "de facto" government, even Estrada cannot avoid the terminal fact. The six-year term he was elected to expired in June 2004.
The sentence, therefore, and thus the entire statement, can be read as a tantalizing hint about running again. Estrada may believe that the legal consensus on whether he can run for president again is still fluid. We can be sure that he will test the waters. He will call it a new dawn, but we only see a return to the old and discredited.
Updated 11:46pm (Mla time) Jan 16, 2005
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the January 17, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
EX-PRESIDENT Joseph Estrada returned from Hong Kong on Saturday with new, titanium knees and old, leaden rhetoric. His 19 days in the former Crown Colony, he said, had given him strength of will and clarity of vision. To do what, precisely? "To unite the people and set the path for them to see a new dawn."
A new beginning? Apparently, Estrada did not only undergo knee surgery; he also had a heart transplant. How else explain his change of heart? After whooping it up in Hong Kong as if there were no tomorrow, he is now ready for the rigors and rapture of the Second Coming.
"I have returned as promised to fulfill a sacred covenant with our people. I have returned to the country and the Filipino people whom I love, stronger, and more determined than ever to restore hope that has been lost; to fight for a better future; uphold the Constitution and restore the rule of law," Estrada said.
This is phrased to appeal to everyone, perhaps as a basis for "uniting the people." But the last four clauses are all code for undoing the work of People Power II, including the unanimous rulings of the Supreme Court in 2001. To address only one of Estrada's key assumptions: The rule of law has in fact already been restored, precisely through People Power II and the key events that followed. The rupture took place when the criminal game of jueteng was centralized in Malacañang during his term; the repair proceeded furiously when he was arrested and made to account for his conduct.
But we have already gone through this; the country has already come to terms with People Power II and its aftermath. Any attempt to restart the debate by recasting its terms does not herald a new dawn, but a return to old, discredited ways.
"My unconstitutional removal from the presidency in January 2001, as history shows, had clearly opened a Pandora's Box: One that contained social divisiveness as the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen; hope has been lost, being transformed into disillusionment on promises made, but not kept by the de facto administration."
Estrada seeks to place the blame for the political turmoil that followed his ouster on those who deposed him. But in truth it was he who turned the key in the lock of Pandora's Box. When he toyed with presidential privilege, to the point of running a criminal enterprise from the Palace, he did not take into account the people's absolute unwillingness to suffer another corrupt president.
It is true that a sense of drift seems to mark the national polity. It is also true that the gap between social classes seems to be widening. But any attempt to politicize this divide, by an ex-president who was the first to run for office on class politics, will not guarantee a new dawn, but a return to old, discredited ways.
Is Estrada promising his own brand of people power? He sees equivalence between the charges against him and what he describes as "the unrestrained corruption in all branches and levels of government." He also places special emphasis on the Arroyo administration's dismal survey numbers.
But, on the other hand, he has been categorical about not joining any destabilization attempts. And there is also this crucial sentence in his arrival statement: "I have returned to do what the Constitution has tasked me to do in June 1998."
This is the sentence that has given some of his supporters clammy hands and sudden palpitations. On June 30, 1998, Estrada was sworn into office as the country's 13th president. What the Constitution tasked him to do that fateful month, therefore, was the honorable discharge of his duties as president. Does the statement mean that he still considers himself the rightful president?
Despite his pointed insult about a "de facto" government, even Estrada cannot avoid the terminal fact. The six-year term he was elected to expired in June 2004.
The sentence, therefore, and thus the entire statement, can be read as a tantalizing hint about running again. Estrada may believe that the legal consensus on whether he can run for president again is still fluid. We can be sure that he will test the waters. He will call it a new dawn, but we only see a return to the old and discredited.
posted by Dante at 2:15 PM
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