GMA’s unbeatable tact

The utopian social engineers of Malacañang are doing an excellent job – their futuristic programmes bearing fruit. And the more they are at this orgy, the now merely potent possibility of GMA being forced to resign or be ousted from the Palace becomes increasingly remote. Before any anti-GMA move can even gather heat, the political fire department of Arlegui and its rabid crew are on their toes. Few examples will help demonstrate the kind of tact that GMA’s operatives appear to be really good at.

One, fellow officers from Magdalo, all six of them, are now coming out with the disclosure that confirms the thread of conspiracy between the military and the communists. The cynics can only suspect that said officers just cannot resist the short list of concessions being offered to them in exchange of a retraction such as acquittal of charges against them, money, promotion, et cetera. It seems hard to believe that so-called idealism of graduates of PMA proves to be negotiable – within the commerce of men.

Two, fellow party-mates of the Liberal Party staged a lightning coup that made it appear the entire membership voted to unseat Drilon as party chieftain. It turns out that the indicatively sham proceeding is classic case of having pulled the rug from under the feet of the core leaders of LP and it was simply uncharacteristic for GMA to have appeared out of the blues to stamp her official acquiescence. In the make-believe world of TV programming, this is deemed to have successfully sent the message across.

Three, the stand-off at the Batasan complex where the to-be-arrested remaining party-list representatives sought political asylum – thanks and no thanks – reduces JDV as a hostage taker who will at the proper time and way – have to surrender all the ‘political fugitives’ if you must call them that to the hands of the rabid PNP authorities. Big Brother Joe is not seen even inclined to preserve the institution integrity of the House of Representatives that he heads. Is not Congress supposed to be a single organism that ought to protect itself from every form of attack to its life such as – dismemberment of even just a few of its members?

Four, Channel 4, a government-run TV station, is the channel to be tuned in to for those who want to disabuse their minds with the tidal wave of conflicting developments and worldviews. But then again, is it not the case that – “if everything is blue, nothing is blue”? In other words, would not watching a clearly one-sided TV programming too self-gratifying than it would give us the more enlightened view of all societal issues that immediately concern us?

Five, the release of P1,000 for all government employees come mid-March and a promised special package of benefits for AFP and PNP, will understandably have a soothing if not anesthetic effect to wounded pride. The officers and men of both the military and police organizations are never known to easily give up career in favor of a cause, advocacy, or worldview. The church, in the case of the CBCP, and the military, in the case of both AFP and PNP – are two classic management models that are easy to handle.

Six, the Supreme Court, after voting to deny TRO and to delay the resolution of the issue raised against Proclamation 1017 stands as a lighthouse in the political horizon that trained ‘political pilots’ could get their ‘fixes’ from to safely cruise the political skyways. The acts of the High Court could be symptomatic of the virus that has inflicted our body polity. Was it not Nachura who is working for extending the retirement age of justices of the Supreme Court to 70 or 75 to lay the ground for his eventual appointment to the bench as an old man? How is that for the pecking order?

Last but not least, Proclamation 1017 is designed as a catchbasin to gather together oppositions of all shades and colors. Spin doctors of Malacañang has just prescribed a broad-spectrum antibiotic to “kill, paralyze, maim, debilitate” any political bacteria that would invade its immune system. In the end, GMA’s self-fulfilling prophecy as the best person to lead this nation is beyond refutation – an insult to philosopher Karl Popper.