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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

PNoy’s Plan B

By Greg B. Macabenta

Early last month, I criticized a Manila daily for putting words in the mouth of Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte. But it’s beginning to look like the newspaper’s headline, "Palace has a ‘Plan B’ to oust Corona," may, in fact, be true.

Valte was asked what options Malacañang had in case Chief Justice Corona were acquitted by the Senate impeachment court. Valte’s response was a classic example of what not to say when you are speaking for your boss. It just made things worse that she was speaking for the president of the country.

"We always have a contingency plan. But it would be better to leave it up to President Benigno Aquino III to disclose the details of the plan," Valte was quoted by the paper.

The lack of details did not deter the daily from going ahead and putting words in Valte’s mouth: "The Palace said Thursday it had a ‘Plan B’ to remove Chief Justice Renato Corona in case he was acquitted in his impeachment trial in the Senate. But Deputy Presidential Spokeswoman Abigail Valte declined to disclose the details of the plan."

From the actuations of Noynoy Aquino and the verbiage of his known supporters in media, it doesn’t take rocket science to deduce that Plan B is People Power III.

Noynoy Aquino’s apologists can always deny this. And if it should happen, if people were to go to the streets and then take over the Supreme Court and physically eject Corona and his fellow Arroyo appointees, these apologists will simply say, with a straight face, that the people’s anger could no longer be contained.

But it is obvious that the idea of taking the law in their own hands if Corona is acquitted is being fed into the minds and hearts of the citizenry. Their passions are being stirred. The embers of their discontent are being fanned.

There’s a Tagalog phrase for it: "Ginagatungan."

If you listen closely to what Aquino has been saying and if you watch his body language, it is obvious that he is straining at the bit and is raring to scream, "The hell with the impeachment trial. Kick out the S.O.B’s!"

Pundits have praised, as well as criticized, Aquino for his seeming obsession with sending Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to jail, as he promised during the campaign. Aquino undoubtedly enjoys the support of the majority of the long-suffering citizenry. This has encouraged him to become even more vocal to the point of bluntness and even crudeness.

Understandably, most of the critics are supporters of Arroyo and members of the political opposition. They have gone as far as to suggest that Aquino has focused too much attention on Corona’s impeachment and Arroyo’s indictment that other important affairs of state have been left untended. It’s a ridiculous assertion that suggests that nobody else in the Cabinet or in the government is doing his job.

But what could be true is that, if the economy, peace and order, education, national defense, foreign affairs and the other affairs of state are not exactly Aquino’s areas of expertise, he is in his comfort zone when it comes to running Corona and Arroyo to the ground.

And if all of the other national concerns are mostly above the heads of the average Juan, Pedro and Maria, "Usigin si Arroyo" and "Patalsikin si Corona" are battle cries that resonate with them, pretty much the way the sight of Pacquiao punishing his opponents appeals to every Pinoy.

Another thing about Aquino is his candor. In computer language, he is WYSIWIG -- What you see is what you get. When he declared that he would not stop attacking and exposing the sins of Corona, he was simply acting true to character. Again, this resonates with the simple-minded masses.

It is obvious that Aquino will have none of the walk-the-chalkline rationalization of the so-called intelligentsia or those who purport to be "fair" and "just" in dealing with Corona. Just like the masses to whom he is directly appealing, he has already made a gut judgment of Corona: GUILTY AS SIN. The impeachment trial is just a formality.

This is the kind of attitude that the long-suffering masses appreciate. The rich and the powerful have been running circles around them long enough. The politicians have been leading them by the nose and robbing them blind long enough. Their hopes have been raised and then dashed often enough. They see in Aquino’s impatience with "due process" and "legal technicalities" an opportunity to finally get back at their tormentors.

In Tagalog, there are two ways of getting things done: "Santong dasalan" and "Santong paspasan." The latter is what Aquino appears to have chosen and this what the masses want.

The idea of impeaching Corona next year, assuming this impeachment court acquits him may seem like a logical Plan B for the apostles of fairness and due process, but the masses may no longer be viewing the situation logically but emotionally.

Nine years under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, marked by allegations of massive graft and corruption, the spectacle of the rich getting richer on the backs of the poor, the sight of deposed and disgraced politicians still holding the reins of power and being lionized by sycophants, the grinding poverty exacerbated by the global economic downturn, and a series of natural disasters that have claimed thousands of lives and rendered thousands homeless have primed the masses like a powder keg on a short fuse.

All it takes is someone to light the fuse. In this regard, Aquino isn’t the only one with a lighted match.

The revelations about Corona’s hidden wealth, whether exposed legally or illegally and whether or not admissible as evidence in the impeachment court, are like virtual matchsticks set to be lighted and ready to burn.

The insufferable theatrics of Miriam Defensor Santiago, the bungling of the prosecution and the efforts of the defense to block the presentation of evidence, using every legal technicality in the book, have stretched the patience of the public to the breaking point.

The national media and the social networks, which served to light the fuse in the recent Egyptian uprising, are feeding the national psyche with conflicting reports and a smorgasbord of intelligent and idiotic ideas that leave even the perceptive observer confused. Everyone is getting in a word edgewise and everything said for and against the protagonists only serves to muddle the situation and drive people to the point of frenzy.

And all these are happening in February on the anniversary of People Power I.

It’s a very volatile mix.

Add to that the incendiary language of Aquino and you have a situation where the country is set to explode.

One final ingredient is a Malacañang backroom populated by the kind of DDT (department of dirty tricks) operators that then defense secretary Juan Ponce Enrile had at his command when he faked an ambush to trigger martial law.

Is there such a DDT backroom? One has to be terribly naive to think otherwise.

Can the explosion be prevented? Maybe the senator-judges can answer that.


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