Look who’s behind oust-P-Noy effort

The move to make President Benigno Aquino III step down and replace him with a so-called national transition council suffered another setback with the identification of former lawmaker Peping Cojuangco as one of its supporters or instigators. The oust-P-Noy effort already suffered credibility problems when Norberto Gonzales, national security adviser of the Arroyo administration, came out as a supporter (or instigator). The effort is doomed to fail just by the presence of these two characters.

It may be noted that those behind the move are all on the outside looking in at the Aquino administration. They have not been given any position in the government. They also cannot win any election, even as barangay captain. So the only way for them to get in is to force P-Noy to step down and then force their way in.

Some aging bishops have proposed a transition council to replace the President but have not named who would compose it. (The majority of the bishops immediately disowned them.) Very likely, Gonzales and Cojuangco would be among the council members, which immediately discredits it. No administration that includes these two would ever succeed. Also very likely, the council would be just another bunch of fortune-hunters and power-grabbers.

Look what happened to the Arroyo administration, under which Gonzales was also defense secretary. It was a failure. Cojuangco came to prominence when his sister, Cory Aquino, became president in 1986. But her presidency was spoiled by Kamaganak Inc., which pushed influence-peddling to a new high.

That is probably the reason P-Noy did not appoint any of his relatives to positions in his administration. He did not want what happened to his mother’s administration to happen to his. Perhaps Cojuangco, being an uncle of P-Noy, was expecting a position in the government and was disappointed when he did not get any.

If I am not mistaken, there was an attempt to include Cojuangco’s wife, Tingting, in the Liberal Party’s senatorial lineup but she was not included because Bam Aquino, P-Noy’s cousin, was already there. So Tingting ran in the slate of another party, and lost. Bam, on the other hand, won with the LP ticket.

Cojuangco and his wife must have an axe to grind against their nephew for neglecting them. But P-Noy, who is trying to transform Philippine politics and society, even without the help of the bishops, did not want to have another political dynasty that Filipinos already abhor.

“Nagpapapansin lang yan (They just want attention),” observers joke about Gonzales and Cojuangco coming out against P-Noy. Indeed, they have been out of the limelight for so long, and this uproar over the Mamasapano massacre that critics want to pin on P-Noy is an opportunity for them to be in the news.

Don’t pay any attention to this oust-P-noy effort. He won’t step down, and the people don’t want him to. Given all those who preceded him, he is our best president so far.

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P-Noy is the only president who has sincerely tried to stamp out graft and corruption in the government. No other administration has detained and filed charges against a former president, impeached a chief justice, jailed a former Senate president and two other senators and their cohorts, and filed charges against other lawmakers and public officials, all for corruption allegations.

Replacing P-Noy will only set back this anticorruption campaign. If Gonzales comes into power, his benefactor, GMA, would probably be released immediately from detention and the charges against her dropped. If Vice President Jojo Binay becomes (God forbid) president, probably the first thing he’d do is release from detention Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada (his cohorts in the United Nationalist Alliance), and Bong Revilla, and have the charges against them dismissed. So, bishops, how will that transform the Philippines from evil to good?

More likely, it would be from good back to evil.

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Critics are questioning the presence of American personnel in the Special Action Force’s command post during its mission to get terrorists Marwan and Usman. What is wrong with that? The targets are terrorists wanted in several countries, and governments should help one another in stopping them. When we want to capture a criminal hiding in another country, we ask the help of Interpol, the international police organization. What’s wrong with the Philippines getting technical help from the United States in our effort to catch international terrorists?

Militants are in a Jekyll-and-Hyde situation in our relations with the United States. They do not like US presence in the Philippines but when we are in trouble, politically and financially, we run to America for help.

We seek US help in ejecting China from Philippine territorial waters in the South China Sea. We can never do that without US assistance. Whenever we are in trouble financially, we run to US agencies for help. But now that the United States has helped us bag an international terrorist, we are criticizing the Philippine government for it. Ano ba talaga, kuya?