Mike Arroyo will still be under the radar post-Arroyo 2010
Yes, sir Neal Cruz, the cat is definitely out of the bag. And Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, this irrepressible diminutive megalomaniac, is at it again.
Executive secretary Eduardo Ermita was forthright—Mrs. Arroyo is running for Congressman to ensure that charter change happens post May 10,2010 elections. Raul Gonzalez, presidential legal adviser and chief Machievellian mind of this administration even gave the Opposition a frightening prospect, singling out Mrs. Arroyo as an obvious threat to the new president.
Gonzalez said that should Lakas Kampi presidential bet Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro loses the fight, but the administration party gains the upper hand in the Congressional fight, charter change is sure to follow. These kinds of statement add fuel to the fire and may eventually backfire. Why so?
The Opposition will, of course, ensure that this will not happen. But, given the entry of former Lakas members to the Nacionalista and the Liberal Parties, who is to say that it won’t? Lakas members are survivalists. They are cunning. They are shrewd. They did it before, these bastards.
In 2004, some of them ran under opposing parties, only to go back to Lakas shortly after winning their respective seats. In 2007, same thing. And 2010 will not be that different.
When the smoke of the battle clears and you have staunch pro-cha cha candidates again winning their Congressional seats, charter change is sure to follow, if we follow the logic of Gonzalez. Yet, since Gonzalez and Ermita already floated the idea, then, expect more resistance from the anti-Arroyo and oppositionist groups.
The new president will obviously feel threatened by the sight of an Arroyo win in May 2010. To defeat her or at least delimit her influence in the 15th Congress, the aspiring presidential bet would probably muster all of his resources to defeat all if not most of Arroyo’s allies. That, thinking aloud, is a tall order.
If this is logistically doable, then, there is no problem. Yet, you have to spend a lot just to accomplish this.
The easier thing is strengthen the Senate as the possible arena of the fight. If pro-charter change candidates are elected into office, then, it’s as sure as day that Mrs. Arroyo will, definitely, be our First Prime Minister. The strategy should definitely be elect into office those who will pledge not to change the charter after elections and probably sit it out and wait for Mrs. Arroyo to finish her Congressional term in 2013 before finally giving cha-cha some thought. In that way, we have allowed the new president to flex his muscles and implement some structural changes in our system. That would be the most prudent and the most logical thing to happen or hope to happen.
Honestly, we need cha-cha, yet most of us shudder at the thought of Mrs. Arroyo just waiting in the wings for the right time to strike and pounce on the post of Prime Minister. The problem with us is we allow ourselves to be outsmarted by this rat. I can imagine Mrs. Arroyo like a mice, a smart-alecky one, trying to get that cheese from the cupboard.
Three things—ensure that the next president will have a strong political will and backed by a strong local network able to withstand and fight Mrs. Arroyo’s possible influence and power in the 15th Congress; esnure that 200 or so seats at the Congress are peopled with candidates that are not Arroyo allies or those who profess not to change the charter by 2010 or by 2016 and elect people at the Senate who does not or has no record of actually supporting charter change.
December 4th, 2009 @ Ricky Rivera
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