There is now a lot of talk in mainstream media of a so called destabilization plot against Du30. But that should be the least of his worries. What should make him wake up in the middle of the night thinking about the future of his presidency was the Solicitor General’s (SolGen) recommendation for the reversal of Janet Napoles’ convicition for serious illegal detention.
The SolGen was very careful to say to the media that he never talked with the President about that as it was his own well-studied opinion. Chances are the Court of Appeals will go along with that opinion as arrangements might have already been made for that. For what consideration? Well, you know how our Philippine world goes around, or how people are motivated here.
The next day there was a lot of exposes on the connection between Napoles’ lawyers who are San Beda College of Law alumni and their connection to the powers-that-be and other co-alumni who are now well placed in top offices of government.
All this and the fact that it was unheard of for the SolGen to just make decisions of far-reaching consequences without first getting the nod of the President made almost everyone who heard it (the SolGen’s claim that Du30 did not have anything to do with it) to almost shout while puking—tell that to the marines!
Will that affect the President’s approval rating? Very much so. But then again we cannot underestimate the genius of our “friends, Romans and countrymen.” Had Tita Cory not died we would have resoundingly voted Joseph Estrada back to Malacanang even if he was clearly convicted as a plunderer. Never mind his brains, rather, his lack of it.
With Du30’s popularly perceived engineering of this latest event, he does not need enemies.
We have nothing against letting Napoles go scot free by making her a state witness if this will surely result in getting her bigger conspirators into jail. Of particular concern are those who were supposed to guard the people’s money but instead conspired to just hand it over to somebody as stupid with a stupid scheme as Napoles.
But as earlier said, we cannot underestimate how we can become so smart for our own good.**