Your “analysis”, i.e., “The whole problem with your analysis is that you are forgetting the cultural tendency of many Filipinos to expect personal recompense for “favor” they give to politicians.” simply reinforced what I said – that Gloria used the Reds before to help her topple Erap and continues to use the Reds scare issue for her own survival.

No quarrel with the rest of your “rant.”

Re James’s query: “share governnace with the leftists-communits?!” She did that too, sometime in mid 2001 through JdV by asking Joma Sison to have a seat in her Unity Government.

needs camping with ka roger I guess.

PV, that’s political savvy that GMA was able to hoodwink the leftists. what do you suggest GMA would do? share governnace with the leftists-communits?!

Is it not a politician’s, any politician’s, natural duty to “court” every possible supporter, including even his/her worst personal enemy? If you run for elective office, would you pick and choose as to who should vote for you? I doubt very much you could win if the only people who would support you are those who subscribe to your way of thinking.

The whole problem with your analysis is that you are forgetting the cultural tendency of many Filipinos to expect personal recompense for “favor” they give to politicians. When they are not paid, either by cash, appointive position, political endorsement,lucrative contracts, they feel “used” or “cheated”.

In both Edsa I and Edsa II, the leftist/communist groups hoped for a power vacuum in which they could insert themselves. Cory Aquino, politically naive as she was, almost gave in where it not for the repeated revolt from the right. GMA dodged their machinaions. Hence, she is a “user”, a “liar” and a “cheat” in the eyes of these subversives.

When will we ever learn that when we do a political act, whether by voting or supporting a candidate, we do it for the good of our country and not for personal quid pro quo.

NPAs? extortionists, arsonists, murderers, terrorists.

the anti-terror bill? what for? existing laws already punish murder, extortion, arson, and whatever have you.

encourage those NPAs to join our democracy. (through education and communication)

How old are you boy?

I don’t care whether you believe or not that Gloria flirted with the Left-wing leadership in Pinas to help her topple Estrada. The bottom line is she did – she courted Satur Ocampo, Crispin Beltran and the rest of the NDFP syndicate to make sure she would achieve Edsa 2, i.e., Angie Reyes DEMANDED 1,000,000 warm bodies if she wanted the generals to finally mutiny for her.

Gloria wanted to make sure that she had the numbers and so courted not only Dinky Soliman led Civil Society but also the Beltran-Ocampo-Casino communist hardliners and sympathizers (with the blessing of Joma Sison and Louie Jalandoni in Utrecht).

Whether they – the Left – accepted to be used by her to achieve their own ambitions is neither here nor there.

You can rant all you want but the truth is Gloria more than flirted with the communists and the left-wing sympathizers, she accepted favors from them, she used them and when she had done that, she decided to hunt them down.

A day or two after GMA’s oath-taking, these pretenders started demonstrating with anti-government slogans and signs screaming: “we want change but not with Gloria as president” or words to that effect. They were not about to give GMA a chinaman’s chance to prove herself. And they are not letting up in their obsession to destroy her, getting help from desperate “trapos”, adventurous right and garden variety GMA haters with all sorts of motivations, not necessarily noble.

But Sison couldn’t return to Manila because he was afraid that he’d be killed by the military even with Gloria’s guarantee that the hair on his head would be intact.

That kind of flirtation with the CPP-NPA-NDFP is bound to have repercussions particularly when the two people at the head don’t trust each other, i.e., Gloria Arroyo and Joma Sison.