Tiyak 'Yon

There's The Rub : Footnote to lunacy

Conrado de Quiros dequiros@info.com.ph
Inquirer News Service

I WANTED to write about it last week, but thought there were more important things to talk about, like Rene Jarque's life and thoughts. Rene passed away the other Friday at 40, but not before helping epically to make this world better for us.

What I wanted to talk about was Mike "Tiyak 'Yon" Velarde's proposal for power-sharing between GMA (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) and Erap (Joseph Estrada). Well, there is one thing Velarde and GMA have in common, which is that they do not just talk to God, God talks to them. Or so they claim. The difference, Margie Holmes has pointed out some time ago: You talk to God, you're praying. God talks to you, you need help.

The last time God spoke to GMA was to tell her not to vacate the position she stole from FPJ (Fernando Poe Jr.) in particular and the people in general. That was the implication of her statement that she was put in office by God himself/herself, and nothing, not even the fact of having been caught cheating, justified prying her loose from it. That was shortly after she claimed the Pope, too, spoke to her to enjoin her to bestir herself, after everyone else had done so, to pry loose the duly elected Erap from office. By then the Pope was dead.

What can I say? This one doth hear voices in her head.

As to Velarde, I don't know why God keeps ordering him to wear brightly colored plaid coat-and-ties. It's enough to make you convert to another faith, one possessed of a God that has better sartorial taste, if not become an atheist altogether.

But frankly, I wouldn't have minded seeing GMA, Erap and Imelda on stage, linking arms, with Jose de Venecia, Fidel Ramos, Mike Defensor, Prospero Pichay and Raul Gonzalez behind them cheering them on. And, of course, Mike Velarde raising his hands over their heads, invoking God to bless their alliance. I don't know that Divine Temperance would not have been unduly taxed, enough to send a thunderbolt to the Luneta, thus delivering the country from the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah in one fell swoop. The last time Erap decided to bring God into the fray, which was by way of a prayer rally in December 2000, he lasted only less than a month. The (Wo)man upstairs has a way of answering prayers.

But having all of them on one stage, as Velarde asked for his birthday gift, would have been the perfect, if unwitting, commentary on GMA's State of the Nation Address, particularly the part where she says: "Our political system has now become a hindrance to national progress. (It has) degenerated to an extent that it has become difficult for anyone to make any headway yet keep his hands clean." Had they all been there, you'd know how profoundly accurate that statement is: Truly our political system has become a hindrance to national progress, truly it has degenerated to a point where no one can keep his hands clean. Even God is being invited to share in the loot.

I myself am convinced God made GMA a modern-day Cassandra with a twist. Cassandra was cursed to prophesy the dire fate that awaited other people but not to be believed by them. GMA is cursed to prophesy the dire fate she holds in store for the nation but not to be believed by her. Her description of the kind of political system we now have with her at the helm is matched only by her divination some years ago of the kind of nation we would have with her at the helm: "Since I'm among the principal figures in the divisive national events for the last two or three years, if I were to run, my political efforts can only result in never-ending divisiveness." We've not had a single day of peace since GMA took over Erap.

GMA, Erap and Imelda sharing a single stage would have given us a picture of the three figures representing the worst in Philippine politics, that were ousted by People Power. I myself have no doubt the same fate awaits GMA. It will happen sooner or later, though one can only wish for the sake of the children who stand to inherit a tattered land because of our foot-dragging, sooner rather than later.

Defensor says the virtue of Velarde's proposal for power sharing is that GMA will end her term next year. I don't know how many people he got to convince with that apparent piece of good news. I've always compared GMA to Marcos in terms of their mind-boggling ambition and capacity to lie, but I don't know now if I've been insulting Marcos rather than GMA all this time.

Marcos, of course, lied through his teeth, but he was a little careful not to be caught. If I recall right, one of the reasons for the First Quarter Storm of 1970 was that Edgar Jopson demanded from Marcos in a meeting in Malacañang that he vow he would not run again in whatever capacity after his second term expired. Marcos refused, demanding to know why he should accede to the demands of "a grocer's son." Jopson and company walked out and, before long, the activists laid siege to Mendiola Bridge.

It wasn't that Marcos didn't want to lie, it was that he feared the consequences of being caught lying. GMA doesn't fear it at all. In fact, she doesn't fear-or no longer does-the consequences of being caught cheating. Which raises the chilling thought of what else she will not fear later on. Her attitude has become: So I lied, so I cheated, what do you want to do about it? What can you do about it?

GMA will step down next year? Only Velarde will think to say, "Tiyak 'yon."