A battle made in heaven

EDITORIAL

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03/12/2010

With just a few days into the May 10 elections, candidates are frantic in giving their all, which is everything including the kitchen sink, in making a final dash for victory.

Charges, whether wild or legitimate, fly in all directions and from such scraps of allegations, the public forms a consensus on who best to elect as leaders.

Several political pundits are now looking at an Erap Estrada-Noynoy Aquino battle for the presidency with the way the ill-starred candidacy of Manuel Villar appears headed for a crash dive as a result of the still unresolved C-5 anomaly and talks about him being a secret anointed of, or an insurance candidate for, Gloria.

An Aquino-Estrada tipoff would be interesting since it would be a virtual test of divine justice. It was the group backing Aquino, which is composed of the civil socialites made up of Makati big business executives, Catholic bishops, and the well-heeled in society, that had conspired to bring down Estrada despite his being voted by some 11 million Filipinos in 1998, the biggest landslide vote ever received by any Philippine president.

The vote for Estrada then was an affirmation of his being accepted by the masses as their hope to bring them out of their misery; a crusade that invariably crosses the path of the elite.

Irritation on Estrada turned to fear among the elite as he started to adopt populist policies that, since it runs counter to the interest of big business, were ascribed to incompetency by the elite. Yet they ignore the official data during the Estrada regime, which hardly can be made an argument for incompetence.

The civil socialites, with funding from big Makati businessmen, then started a campaign to paint Estrada as unfit for the presidency.

Malacañang then became a true snake pit as several moles received huge sums to report on activities of Estrada to the conspirators.

On the government and military side, former President Fidel Ramos reactivated his Edsa revolt network to drum up a possible withdrawal of support to Estrada for primarily selfish reasons since Estrada was hot on his trail over several lucrative property and power plant deals.

The stage was set after Estrada’s long-time friend former Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson felt threatened over his hold on jueteng activities in Northern Luzon as a result of Estrada’s plans to introduce a legalized version of the numbers game and accused Estrada of receiving huge protection money from jueteng operators.

The civil socialites picked up on this and kicked up the Erap resign movement several notches higher.

According to a Tribune article before the ouster of Estrada, the plot to unseat him was contained in a sheaf of papers in a brown manila envelope with the words “Oplan Excelsis” written on it.

Oplan Excelsis presented various scenarios under Plan A and a Plan B with then Vice President Gloria Arroyo in the picture, to give the ouster plot a constitutional flavor.

The plan called for a Church leader and business executive, representing the business group, to convince Arroyo to cut her ties with the President by resigning her post, using as reason, the charges made by Singson. Pressure would be built up by these groups to call for the resignation of Estrada, in support of Arroyo’s succession to the presidency. Rallies are to be organized to step up the pressure for Estrada’s resignation.

As the plan would have it, Arroyo should have served only the unfinished term of Estrada since the business and the Church groups, with Gloria at the helm, who drafted the plot were not too comfortable with her as President, since she too, was vulnerable to charges of having links to gambling lords such as Bong Pineda. Moreover, the source said that the Vice President’s spouse, Mike Arroyo, may prove to be a liability during her incumbency.

The plot’s original character to eventually replace Arroyo was former Chief of Staff Renato de Villa, who was favored by the civil socialites, but it never happened.

Apparently the civil socialites underestimated the wellspring of ambition in Gloria delaying their long-term plot until now, with Noynoy as candidate.

A square off may prove to be interesting between Filipinos who believe in one man, one vote democracy and those who conceitedly assume the role of anointing leaders for Filipinos.

A political Armageddon of sorts.

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