Pidal Accounts, Destabilization and State Terrorism

It is unlikely President Arroyo can escape the Pidal controversy unscathed. It will no doubt affect her chances for winning in 2004. What bears watching is whether events will snowball into mass demonstrations calling for her ouster, defections in the cabinet, calls from influential sections of society for Arroyo to step down and turn over power to the vice president and the coup de grace, military withdrawal of support for her as commander-in-chief.

By Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo 
Speech at PlunderWatch and September 21 Committee Forum 
20 September 2003, Popular Book Store 
Posted by Bulatlat.com

The Philippine political scene can sometimes be likened to a soap opera easily surpassing any of the popular prime time TV series: a tragicomic story with a never-ending train of unbelievable characters, convoluted subplots and dizzying twists and turns. And the amazing thing is -it's all true-to-life.

I was asked to give a brief political commentary on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of martial law proclamation. I will try to make sense of the latest headlines: the Pidal corruption scandal, destabilization plots and counterplots and a heightening of government intolerance for protest actions as the state visit of U.S. Pres. George Bush draws near.

Will the real Mr. Jose Pidal please stand up

First Gentleman Mike Arroyo (FGMA) is wishfully thinking that the worst is over in so far as Sen. Panfilo Lacson's expose’ regarding the Jose Pidal accounts.

The First Gentleman's spin doctors say Lacson’s accusations are running out of steam since he has not come up with any new evidence that could pin down FGMA and, by implication, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Alongside moves by Mrs. Arroyo's allies to scuttle the Senate hearings, the Arroyo camp is feverishly raking up Lacson's own dirty linen in a classic use of squid tactics.

Malacañang hopes to ride out the political storm by distancing the President from the Pidal controversy while making a big thing out of her government's anti-corruption "lifestyle checks" on middle-level bureaucrats. Another damage control trick is to ascribe Lacson's expose to "too much politicking" and dismiss it as part of the noise in the run-up to next year's presidential elections.

But the scandal refuses to die down. The Arroyo brothers’ own evasive behavior serves to bolster Lacson's accusations. The general perception is that they must really be hiding something.

It is unlikely Mrs. Arroyo can escape this controversy unscathed. It will no doubt affect her chances for winning in 2004. What bears watching is whether events will snowball into mass demonstrations calling for her ouster, defections in the cabinet, calls from influential sections of society for Arroyo to step down and turn over power to the vice president and the coup de grace, military withdrawal of support for her as commander-in-chief.

In Philippine political tradition, corruption has always been an explosive issue to raise against one's enemies, especially an incumbent president. It has caused defeat at the polls as well as ignited "people power" uprisings. President Arroyo knows this well that is why her "war room boys" are working overtime to make sure it is not the beginning of the end for her presidency.

Coup rumors, destabilization plots and "defending democracy"

Talk of turning a bad thing into a good thing. The Arroyo administration has found good use for the Oakwood military rebellion. It has provided a credible precedent, fresh in people's minds, to fuel government hype regarding destabilization plots as well as for whipping up fears of another coup d' etat.

Next thing Arroyo and her apologists would have us believe is that we, the people, should rally around her government in order to "defend democracy" from power grabbers, destabilizers and anyone else who believes the country would benefit from cutting short her term even before 2004. Unfortunately Cardinal Sin, former Presidents Aquino and Ramos, the Makati Business Club and other business organizations and the "social democrats" under the Kompil 2 all carry the same dubious line. They have had enough of "people power" and have rallied behind the Arroyo government. So far they are against any change in regime except through the electoral process.

Of course it just doesn't add up: rejection and even loathing of coups and military juntas does not mean one must put up with and defend the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime a.k.a. "democracy". Especially when we have every good reason to reject it as a repressive and reactionary government kowtowing to U.S. imperialist hegemonism.

Secretaries Golez, Tiglao, Norberto Gonzales and "Dinky" Soliman better come up with something new. They can only fool some of the people some of the time with this phony "defend democracy" line. Their dilemma is that the Arroyo government must be able to project stability and control even as they frighten people (including foreign tourists and investors) with pronouncements raising the specter of a coup d' etat. This is why even President Arroyo and Secretary Golez can't seem to agree whether to say the coup threats are finally over or not.

As the fear of coups and destabilization loses its effectiveness over time, the game plan is for the government to show a flurry of activities reinforcing the image of a President forging ahead with building the "strong Republic". Which is why Mrs. Arroyo is again projected busily giving away housing units for the urban poor, ordering the Philippine National Police to curb an upsurge in bank robberies and other daring crimes, taking direct charge of the Armed Forces as it wages the "war on terror" and tries to catch AI Ghozi (preferably before Bush arrives) and doing photo-ops with the AGFO generals and senior officials. All these fit neatly into the grand PR campaign that is laying the ground for Mrs. Arroyo's announcement of her decision to run in 2004.

The latest twist to the manufactured "clamor" for Mrs. Arroyo to renounce her renunciation of her presidential ambitions is House Speaker Jose de Venecia ' sand Secretary Gonzales' idea of a "transition president" -a poorly-veiled scheme to extend Mrs. Arroyo's term of office in the guise of a lofty desire to undertake the shift to a parliamentary form of government after the charter is changed by means of a constituent assembly.

Lest we lose sight of the bigger and more compelling economic stakes behind cha-cha, we should note the American Chamber of Commerce’s latest pronouncement calling for the removal of constitutionally-guaranteed restrictions in the entry and operations of foreign capital in the country.

State Terrorism and the Bush visit

Of course the activists expected the police to be in their usual "no permit, no rally" mode, their batuta (truncheon) and shields ready to keep demonstrators at bay. But they did not anticipate the sudden brutal attack, the absolute refusal to negotiate with the protesters, the hot pursuit of rallyists retreating from the violent dispersal of their ranks, the manhandling of their mass leaders and their being hauled into jails on the flimsy charges of obstructing traffic and disturbing the peace.

The latest spate of violent dispersals by the police of protest actions cannot be explained away as simply overeagerness or even excesses of certain policemen as police officials now want it to appear. And even taking into account the fascist nature of the police in a reactionary state such as the one holding sway in the Philippines, we need to analyze the specific conditions which are bringing to the fore once more the ferocity of the coercive machineries of the state.

We daresay what we are witnessing is the logical outcome of the U.S. "war on terror" -a bogus war, if one will go by the description of the former environment minister of Britain, who sees the sole superpower using the 9/11 tragedy in order to justify going to war against sovereign countries, grabbing resource-rich territories in a bid to dominate the world and bullying the rest into submission with their arrogant display of their unparalleled weapons of mass destruction.

Now that the Arroyo government is all agog laying out the welcome mat for Bush, they are indeed going overboard in ensuring that their will be no embarrassing incident whatsoever to mar the Emperor's visit to his realm.

It is not just security preparations to protect the President of the mightiest country in the world. It is not just Filipino hospitality at its fawning best. Client states like that of the Macapagal-Arroyo government are eagerly following the lead of the U.S. in using state terrorism against its own citizens to suppress criticism and dissent in the guise of fighting terrorism. Thus our people can expect a greater propensity on the part of government to use coercion, including raw police brutality and heightened militarization of the countryside, to ensure the interests of the ruling elite and their foreign backers.

In conclusion, I would like to leave you with this thought. In the long running telenovela which is the "Philippines in Crisis", things are once more coming to a head. The Oakwood incident and reports of a "second wave" of coup attempts, corruption scandals, "war" on Manila's streets as demonstrators battle the police on red alert for the U.S. president's visit -all these are the elements of an explosive mix which can ignite even ahead of the 2004 presidential elections.

We should be prepared for any eventuality. Posted by Bulatlat.com

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