SoP i agree with your point- had we allowed Ramos to do Cha-cha then it would not have come to this.

“#PARI on Mon, 15th Jun 2009 10:56 am playing the devil’s advocate here: is there anything wrong objectively about GMA running for congress? Is this fuss all about speculation, or do we have real and definitive sources that will pin the real reasons why she would want to do that?”

There is nothing wrong with it per se. Her running for congress could be a ploy to either avoid prosecution from corruption or become prime minister. She had eight years as president, the most powerful position in the land. What could she do as a future congresswoman of Pampanga that she could not have done as president of the Philippines? As president, she had control of the congress for most of her term. She could have swayed policy if she wanted-all for the benefit of Pampanga.

Sure she was a senator first before she became president. According to wikipedia she authored 55 laws. There might be something to it. I think she’s better at being a legislator than being president. She could not even do much improvement to her bailiwick under her term. Just look at what happened with the North rail project. That would have been big for Pampanga. But she fucked it up.

Maybe the presidents or prime ministers of third world countries need more time to enact real changes. Fixed terms presidencies only seem to work in rich countries. If you look at the experience of Asian tigers, it took decades for leaders to make significant progress. Just look at Ramos’ presidency. All the progress he made were erased by two years of Erap bungles.

But for my money, it ain’t Gloria who deserves to rule the Philippines under parliament. I really hope Ramos considers rerunning for congress under a parliament. He still has political capital. People remember his presidency as prosperous being prosperous times. We should have allowed the chacha under his watch. His demeanor is presidentiable to boot. And I genuinely think he’s a charismatic guy and a pragmatist.

But Filipinos, tsk, they’re so paranoid of chacha. Man if they only knew what 10 years of Erap and GMA presidency would give them, they would have given Ramos the extended presidency/prime ministership he deserved.

Regarding GMA running for congress, the indignity! I believe there has never been an ex-President anywhere in the world, or even ex-prime ministers who reverted back to a lower position. Presidents usually spend their retirement years playing golf, writing memoirs, or getting paid big bucks for keynote speeches.

I guess she’s really desperate for congressional immunity.

The tactic is to nip it in the bud because the culmination of the actions was supposed to be the national noise barrage on the eve of the Sona, which does not require a rally and would spread out all over.

anyway, all i see is the usual tactic of establishing plausible deniability:

http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=12&fi=p090612.htm&no=62

Note the last paragraph.

You couldn’t have been more wrong.

I guess you gotta be wrong sometimes right?

As we know now, democracy didn’t come until 1986, two and a half years after Ninoy’s assassination. It took Ninoy’s death — not martial law — to finally get people into the streets and drive Marcos out.

The public anger boiled over. That’s what Arroyo is so afraid of.

Back then, it was “us versus them”. Good versus evil.

The noise barrage at Katipunan? It a classic that goes back to the Marcos years in the 1970s. We — and I say “we” because my father was barkada with Ramon Mitra’s nephews — had to resort to creative demonstrations because rallies were simply forbidden. Yes, that’s how it was. Hold a protest and you get a free trip to Camp Crame or Fort Bonifacio, assuming you come back alive.

The term “maximum tolerance”? That’s also a Marcos thing that was invented when he realized in the 1980s that people were finally becoming less and less afraid of street protests.

Why the public reluctance for street rallies? One factor: the opposition is fractured with groups having separate agendas and no Cory Aquino to rally the people and Cardinal Sin to back her.

Then there is also the resignation that whoever we put in the presidency is replacing one thief with another. Arroyo is an example.

Another: most Filinos have no idea of what is at stake if cha-cha succeeds because they were too young to remember Marcos, if at all. But try taking away the civil liberties that they take for granted today, then the fun begins.

So what can we do? Get creative in showing your anger.

The opposition is fragmented and has no solid plan of action, goals and strategies. Queen Gloria and her knights are very very much ahead of the game and it looks like she won’t be check-mated any time soon.

The worst thing that can happen to GMA, even if no cha-cha occurs prior to 2010 is that she can run as congresswoman and she will win — and she will go scot-free from all cases against her. This is her ultimate goal I guess, to be safe from prosecution; if she could still hang to power as the chief executive, then that would just be an added bonus.

Most people are sitting it out, meaning not voicing out their unequivocal position — not because most are apathetic — but because they see that many groups in the public arena are out due to vested interests. Though, I for one, did not find it distasteful for politicians and cause-oriented groups to be there. They chose to make a stand publicly and that is at least commendable (as to the consistency of their position, it remains to be seen) and people eventually would be able to judge whether their appearance is due to short-term considerations or due to ideology or real belief.