Wednesday, September 19, 2007

The Presidency is Ajar. And Something's Afoot

First there was the senate inquiry into the ZTE National Broadband Network (NBN) deal. Then, on the eve of the hearings, First Gentleman Mike Arroyo flies off to Europe—I suppose to pick up where he left off in his self-imposed self-exile of a few years back.

Leah Navarro said that it seemed too much of a coincidence that Mike Arroyo would leave on the eve before the senate hearings. I should be “the eve of the senate hearings.” Anyone who does crosswords would know that an “eve” is the “night before” so when one says “the eve before,” either it’s in reference to the two nights prior to the event, or one is grammatically incorrect.

But I digress.

In the senate hearing, House Speaker Jose de Venecia’s son Joey de Venecia revealed that Mike Arroyo was complicit in the allegedly anomalous NBN deal. He, according to Joey, even acted very much like a gangster and growled at Joey to back off. One would hardly consider that, if true, to be how a gentleman should behave, much more a “First Gentleman.” But then, we have been overusing honorifics to the point that they have lost their meaning. For instance, when someone introduces “the honorable Senate President Manny Villar and his lovely wife,” we don’t even stop to think about it.

Again, I digress.

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago claimed that there was a plot to oust Gloria Arroyo from the presidency and that Joey de Venecia’s remarkable revelation was but a part of it. I didn’t put any particular credence to that claim. The opposition is very much against Vice President Noli de Castro assuming the presidency in case Gloria Arroyo stepped down or was ousted from the presidency.

And then the other shoe drops. It seems that bigamy charges are once again being resurrected against Noli de Castro and his wife Arlene.

If Gloria Arroyo was forced from the presidency and Noli de Castro’s ascendancy to the post is put into question, maybe, just maybe, the presidency would be open ahead of the scheduled presidential election in 2010. If the posts of president and vice president are simultaneously vacated, the Senate President takes over as President but only temporarily, I think.

If Gloria Arroyo were really serious about leaving a positive legacy, she should probably just clean house. Let the chips fall where they may. The entire nation and the coming generations would be forever grateful.

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