By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is now back in power, as Speaker of the Lower House. This of course elicited mixed reactions. Three distinct voices rang out of the Senate. Those of Senators JV Ejercito, Grace Poe and Ping Lacson. Understandably.
The ousting of Joseph Estrada or Erap as President and his conviction for plunder, immensely benefitted then Vice President GMA. She then ascended to the throne in Malacanang.
When Fenando Poe Jr. backed by Erap who was then in jail (actually in his rest house) ran against her for the presidency, she maneuvered her victory. Her recorded conversation—Hello, Garci— with an election officer for the rigging of election results in Mindanao so she would win by a landslide became “viral” then. It almost cost her the presidency.
As president, GMA ordered the arrest of Senator Ping Lacon who then went into hiding until her term as president ended.
Thus, the statements from said senators expressing fear for her ascension into a powerful position. Grace Poe even warned that we might wake up one morning to find out that she is already the prime minister of the land. That is if the move to replace the constitution pushes through.
When PNoy became president after her, her arrest was ordered for charges of plunder. She invoked sickness so she ended up at the Philippine Veterans Hospital after she was caught with her husband at the airport trying to leave the country. In all those years she was there, she was wearing a neck brace.
The person to whom she bestowed a midnight appointment as chief justice of the Supreme Court was impeached and her Ombudsman opted to resign rather than being impeached. Thus, they were unable to protect her.
But what goes around comes around. So she is now speaker.
While the PNoy administration enumerated a lot of corruption charges against GMA and/or her husband, we in the Cordillera actually benefitted from her presidency. A lot of funds were channeled to this region during that time. For instance, all the main roads of Mountain Province were widened and concreted during her reign.
But it was during the time of former President Ramos when all the major roads to connect the provinces of the Cordillera were conceived. While funding for these were sort of approved or assured, his term ended before these were implemented.
After Ramos, it was Erap’s time and we were pushed into the dark ages. The Cordillera was not in his radar. He might not have known that this region existed.
While it might be selfish of us just to be thinking of what we would gain if GMA were in power, we cannot deny the fact that this region was close to her heart. I distinctly remember the front page photo of her in Tadian, Mountain Province trying to weave indigenous clothes the indigenous way when she visited her former yaya there.
Her father, former President Diosdado Macapagal went to many Cordilleran towns when he and Marcos were campaigning for the presidency. I think GMA visited most of those towns that her father visited then in 1965.
So better the devil who knows us, rather than the devil who don’t know us?**
