The visuals of Gloria Arroyo as president of the Philippines are very different from the disgraced figure that she cuts in jail now.
ANYONE who believes in karma may find significance in how former Philippine president Gloria Arroyo ended up in jail, her mugshot circulated like a common criminal.
She may not have ended in a cold prison cell with barely room to move, but in a hospital suite at a government hospital in Metro Manila after a live drama watched by Filipinos on local television as the government and her lawyers tussled whether to have her leave the country or get arrested.
These were the same Filipinos who watched her come to power in 2001 after a military uprising ousted then-president Joseph Estrada.
Arroyo, as the vice-president, was the next-in-line, despite the reluctance of some quarters to have her take over the presidency.
Perhaps those who doubted whether she deserves to be catapulted to power are saying “we-told-you-so”, with Arroyo now facing charges of electoral sabotage.
The daughter of a former president, Arroyo holds an economics degree and was a classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University. She taught economics at the Ateneo de Manila University where incidentally the current president, Benigno Aquino III, was one of her students.
Arroyo entered politics in 1992 when she won in the senatorial elections; she has held various appointed positions since then including trade and industry undersecretary, and social welfare secretary at the same time that she was Estrada’s vice-president.
In 2004, she ran for president in the Philippines’ most controversial polls to date. When her six-year term ended, she ran for representative of her native Pampanga, and won.
Filipinos remember two of her famous phrases: “I will not run”, made before the 2004 elections, and “I am sorry”, an apology for making a call to an elections officer before and after the polls.
These are the reasons why not a few were cynical when her lawyers sought approval from the court to allow her to leave the Philippines and seek medical treatment abroad for a spine ailment with the promise that she will return. Given her record, they doubted if the Philippines will ever see Arroyo again once she leaves.
During her run as president for nine years, Arroyo was known as a tough leader, with a sharp tongue and quick temper. She was also hands-on, leading disaster relief operations herself.
Whether those were meant to court her love-hate relationship with the masses and the media, she certainly has scored points against Aquino who has been criticised lately for his slow response to natural disasters.
These visuals of her as president are very different from the figure that she cuts in jail now: disgraced and with a brace around her neck, as if to keep her head up amid everything that has been thrown her way.
Her karma was not to be overthrown by a public uprising – though she narrowly survived many during her term – but to find herself in the same position as the leader she has replaced and thrown in jail. — Asia News Network
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