Gloria M. Arroyo

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Gloria M. Arroyo
Sunday, 11 12, 2006

Lawrence Durell once said: “There are only three things to be done with a woman. You can love her, you can suffer for her, or you can turn her into literature.”

So, what have we done with a woman named Gloria M. Arroyo?

Surely, millions of us loved Gloria in 1995 to get her elected senator with the highest number of votes. But the love turned sour in 2001, when she conspired with the military to oust Joseph Ejercito Estrada from the presidency. We hated her even more when in 2004, she managed to steal the presidency for the second time, by drubbing the vastly popular Fernando Poe Jr. by 1,100,000 votes. So where have even half of those over 20 million who claim to have voted for FPJ gone? Have they gone to graveyards, everyone, replaced by forged Election Returns (ERs) and Certificates of Canvass (CoC)?

We love Gloria for her heart-wrenching concern for family, her husband and her son especially, and members of her official family. A wife and mother, after all, has to come to the defense of her brood anytime. But when their indiscretions cost us billions, drag us to the level of second most corrupt country, and give us a slew of negative reputations worldwide, surely that love must reverse itself.

And because we love to hate Gloria, we suffer for — and under — her today.

We suffered for Gloria as she went through the emotional pain of having to say “I am sorry” for her victory through foul means in 2004. But she became insufferable when the apology was exposed as a mere mask of contrition, and the cheating, lying and stealing went on and on and on.

And just when in 2005 the cracks in the pillars of her coalition were breaking wide open — the resurrection of Tito Guingona, the breakaway of Frank Drilon, Cory Aquino’s call for resignation…you know the rest; just when Gloria was about to be blown over to the stinking river by the Palace, an aging knight with a perpetually unlit cigar came to her rescue, blew smoke over our eyes and stilled the rising crescendo for her ouster.

We suffer under Gloria because we cannot muster enough strength to oust her by any means, constitutional or extra-constitutional. Ouster via the route of impeachment in 2005 and 2006 was a distinct impossibility, the power of the purse being indomitable. Even an exercise by the “protectors of the people” is now a remote possibility, they having become the handlers of deceitful and oppressive power. Worse, Gloria’s staying on beyond 2010 is a distinct alternative, thanks to the ambitious obsequy of Joe de Venecia, the warped maneuvers to mangle the Constitution, and the unkind twist of unenlightened minds.

Yes, we suffer under Gloria despite all the reasons she should no longer be in office, no thanks even to the infighting by a divided opposition. And the media, with the exception of Tribune and Malaya, are not brave enough to consistently chronicle the excesses of Gloria. Some god always seems to step in to sow discord among those opposed to Gloria, enabling her to buy time, consolidate her forces, and make us suffer some more.

But amid this gloomy likelihood, let us, in one crazy moment, presume that Gloria decides to step down, out of uncharacteristic delicadeza for what the surveys show: An abysmally low level of affection for the most hated president ever. Should Gloria decide to make the surveys the determinant of her future, all she has to do is heed that very tempting call for redemption by doing one good deed, for once in one’s lifetime. With that, she will bask in the warm praise of everyone, and avoid the embarrassment of ouster by a Senate that will surely sit as an impeachment court, given the certainty of more opposition than administration candidates getting elected to the House of Representatives in 2007.

Doubtless, it will be a sad day for the grifters if Gloria does resign. They will all be beating a hasty exit out of the country — like that bagman applying for political asylum on the funny ground that he is being persecuted by the very same powerful people who asked him to disburse billions to ensure victory in 2004. Gloria, who obviously needs this joker no more than she needs a hole in the head, advised the poor sap to put up a better argument to secure asylum.

Gloria’s handlers who counsel her against resigning must be real numbskulls not to remember the lessons of Idi Amin, Sese Seko, et al., tyrants who all wore out the consent of their constituents, and were consigned to a disgraceful end by an irate populace.

And as long as Gloria runs the government, the haughty visage on that ignoble face of malgovernance stands out as the biggest target for destabilization. Gloria must look at it that way, notwithstanding the possibility of forgiveness for her trespasses in the soft hearts of the Filipino people.

So long as Gloria rules, the opposition has the nation as a forum to pillory her all the more, and those in the opposition, like Loren or Jojo, assume the moral high ground as the best alternative to lead the nation at the next turn. By right to good governance that they crave for, the people will continuously chip away at Gloria’s throne until she would not have any seat left to sit on, and fall sprawling on her cute little butt as she hits the bottom of the abyss of oblivion.

Unfortunately for the country, Gloria believes she needs to be president of a strong republic, to keep the flame for overwhelming power burning. And if only for this, hate literature on Gloria M. Arroyo is now proliferating.

For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph

The Daily Tribune © 2006