(Part Two)
“Who will prevail in this political war?”
Not since events like EDSA Uno and EDSA Dos, the December 1989 coup attempt against Cory, or calamities like the Mount Pinatubo eruption and Typhoon Yolanda has the international media been so agape at events in the country.
The elected Vice-President has issued threats to kill the President, his lady and the Speaker of the House. Unthinkable?
After her congressional detractors had been interminably investigating “in aid of legislation” how she spent her confidential funds, “killing her slowly” prior to an obviously intended impeachment and eventual conviction by the other House, the straw that broke the camel’s back came to be.
That straw was the unjust detention of her chief of staff, the daughter of FVR ally Joe Lopez, brother of Davao’s highly respected Bagobo chieftain Elias Lopez who became a congressman and pride of the Sigma Rho fraternity. What made Zuleika Lopez’ detention more unbearable for Lady Sara was her chief of staff being cited in contempt by motion of her sworn enemy, the leftist France Castro, convicted by a court of law but on appeal.
So the long embattled vice-president decided to go for broke. “Tinaob ang bangka,” Tagalogs would say.
She strode into the premises of her enemies and after visiting a despondent Zuleika, ensconced herself in her brother Pulong’s office for the night. Unused to such occurrence, her enemies ordered the transfer of Zuleika to the Women’s Correctional, an act of clear high-handedness.
Inday Sara was indignant and then said she had hired an assassin to avenge her death, which she presumed could only be ordered by her three identified enemies.
All the King’s men immediately denounced her “dastardly” plan, unmindful of her “conditional” declaration. And then, their King belatedly reacted, in deadpan facial expression.
He read from a script provided by his newly-minted press secretary, whose style I know too well, with such queer statements like truth being held “tokhang” and “chicheria”.
This scripted day-after reaction was in contrast to Inday Sara’s cri de coeur in the dead of night and her clear concern for her traumatized staff.
On Monday, the Torquemadas resumed their inquisition, but unexpectedly, their target who earlier refused to dignify their efforts, strode into the House.
Suddenly, they were “tameme” at her presence. Their intended prey was before them, yet they could not pounce on her. “Nabahag ang buntot,” Tondo tough guys describe. And only Antipolo’s Acop was unfazed.
Instead, Attorney Bitrics (whatever that means) pounced on a befuddled old lady, the disbursing officer who was just telling the truth about her actions, unaware of its legal consequences. Once more, another traumatized employee was hospitalized. Another “kurot sa puso,” in the esteem of the “masa” and at the expense of her inquisitors.
The House playbook is all too familiar. The scripts they read from were prepared for them by their coaches from a law firm that 24 years back did something against Erap to install their client GMA to power.
The following day, Lady Sara reminded the nation that Ninoy Aquino had been assassinated without a fall-back plan, which in her case, she called a “revenge plan”. Someone must have whispered to her that yesterday, November 27, was Ninoy’s 92nd birthday had he lived.
How, pray tell, could they prosecute her if she is already in the grave, “killed” by her presumed killers? “Conditional” threat she explains her sensational declaration, and whether she had that in her mind all along, or it was an after-thought, is now immaterial.
The NBI summoned her to appear tomorrow to “identify” her hired assassin. Maybe she will say it is Jason Bourne.
But wait, the drama does not end. For in a near-midnight presser in Davao, the former president, with a “war” red background presiding in another red-draped table came to his daughter’s aid. They hardly speak to each other, but times like these, blood is thicker than water.
There he said that he would talk to the soldiers of the Republic and ask them how they could stand having a “drug addict” as their commander-in-chief for the next four years.
Trust the former president when it comes to drama and shock pronouncements.
Who will prevail in this political war between the House of Ilocos-Iloilo-Leyte with ancestral origins from Fujian and Spain, as against the House of Davao-Cebu with ancestral origins from Guangzhou and Lanao?
The nation is kept in tenterhooks, a favorite description of the former president. Meanwhile, we all lose.
