By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
The other day, Senator Panfilo Lacson said on TV he was approached to join a junta being formed to take over the leadership of the country. While he did not commit, this is proof there is an ongoing effort towards that direction. They did not get a crack to go for it during the recent Iglesia Ni Cristo luneta “hakot” rally where presidential sister Imee revealed that indeed the President and his wife were drug addicts. That must have been one of the “nakakagimbal episode” that could have sent the crowd a frenzy to move as one gigantic monster towards Malacanang to unseat the powers-that-be.
Alas, it did not happen that way. Instead, the crowd had to disperse before the end of the supposed culminating third day. Certainly a disappointment to the party who paid for and “bussed” thousands and thousands of “rallyists” to the Luneta. Reportedly at a thousand or two pesos per head for some while others just got only P500.00, the disbursement certainly meant a tidy sum with that mammoth crowd.
Nice try.
But there is this upcoming “Trillion Peso March” this Sunday. Last week, even the National Defense Secretary said there were some recruitment doing on among those in the active service. This was downplayed by some quarters by saying only the retired were at it.
And the administration, to make it appear relevant, started cranking on the perpetrators of corruption in flood control government projects filing cases against them, even arresting quite a number. Such moves will continue in the coming days as the multitude wait with bated breath if some big “fishes” will really be sent behind bars. Otherwise, as one of our columnists wrote, it will just be a zarzuela where only the inconsequential characters were charged tried, convicted and jailed just like what happened in the Janet Napoles cases.
Getting the “big fishes” is the salvation of this administration. Yet they are acting like they have all the time in the world. For they are sure there will not be an immediate turnover of power. The biggest factor here are the Americans. They will make sure Marcos and his cabal will remain in power. Letting him go considering his wielding national political power just like a barangay captain might mean losing the many EDCA bases (read American military bases) strewn around the archipelago. Losing them now would be like letting the genie out of the bottle. Getting them back again or getting the propitious time for it might turn out to be an impossibility.
The CIA operatives had also not been sleeping and will not be in the coming days. They have been, and are, very busy stuffing the government with officials, especially the various legislative bodies, with those sympathetic to Uncle Sam.
Well, colonial times never really left us and are not really in a hurry to do so. In fact, they very much would love to stay.
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