Damage control

I’ll give credit to GMA for not lying when she said : ‘my lawyers advised
me.. blah blah’.

But I’ll take that as a Yes. Thank you.

The media blitz et al… it will work for GMA… so what’s our plan? still chanting “RESIGN!” The possibilty is that GMA’s media onslaught could overrun SWS or Pulse surveys. Plus there is Jose Abueva who would campaign for federalism for GMA — an added boost. Plus, even Way Kurat favors federalism for his region.

You see as easily as this… everything keeps turning around in favor of GMA.

Then there’s a misconception reporting a kinder, gentler GMA.

At this point everything Malacanan should at least not be taken at face value. Media should help us elaborate on the programs and dealings inside and outside GMA’s office. O mukha umaalma lang ang media kapag sila na ang tinamaan like yesterday’s presscon.

Help the filipino people shed light to the reality behind that high office.

You are absolutely right Benigno. That’s the way politics is in our country. That’s the reason why GMA and etal spend all those money (people’s) during the election. Now, she wants us to pay for it through EVAT. Maybe they should include in the constitution or pass a law that will disqualify the members of the conass or concon and their immediate family from participating in the future elections. Will JDV and the congressmen still want to join the conass or will they suddenly ask for a concon.

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At this point everything Malacanan should at least not be taken at face value. Media should help us elaborate on the programs and dealings inside and outside GMA’s office. O mukha umaalma lang ang media kapag sila na ang tinamaan like yesterday’s presscon.

Help the filipino people shed light to the reality behind that high office.
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And how do you propose to do that? We’ve already seen here how Pinoys are not really one to critically evaluate information. All they do is pretty much stampede towards whoever makes the loudest noise.

I think those who seem to now fret about the apparent success of GMA’s media blitz are simply getting a taste of their own medicine. Anti-GMA elements engaged in the same tactic as well (which fizzled out when it came to getting people on the streets).

Bottom line is, whatever side one takes, we can see that moving Pinoys is more about getting them to dance rather than getting them to UNDERSTAND the issues.

malinaw na malinaw sagot ni aroyo sa tanong ni mike enriquez di sya aalis ng pwesto till 2010 dahil siya daw ang nanalo sa election. kapal grrr.. di raw sya naniniwala sa surveys para daw popularity contest ang mahalaga daw umuusad economy. huh! d nya masagot ibang tanong pati ba namn sa interview dinidivert ang sagot. kailangan pa ang kanyang mga lawyer kasi baka magsisinungaling na namn buking na naman.may sarileng mundo talaga itong si aroyo. pero halatang tense sya kanina sa mga tanong ni mike enriquez. job well done mr. imbestigador sana ipagpatuloy mo kung talagang wala kayong kinikilingan. media lang talaga makakatulong para makarating sa tao kabuktutan ng gma govt. kaya calling other media entities. wag na yung govt. stations biased talaga yun. akala mo si gma may ari. hoy pera ng tao nagpapandar nbn4, ibc13, rpn 9 di si aroyo. at itong mga broad sheets na ito lalo na philstar ni max soliven. pati mga tabloids halatang mga pro gma. back to gma7 opinion daw ni aroyo mga sagot nya. eh yung mas nakakaraming opinion na magresign. kapit tuko talaga. hinde talaga aalis sa pwesto nya

PCIJ bloggers – sharing with you what was apparently an intense exchange between GMA spokesmen and her opponents at De La Salle U forum yesterday. A professor friend of mine wrote for us the following summary outline (I’ll send them speaker por speaker para hindi masyadong malaki ang file). First the GMA defenders…

Bobi Tiglao, Head, Presidential Management staff

Assessment
• Worked with La Salle statement and debunked the bases for the call (lack of legitimacy, loss of moral ascendancy) for supreme sacrifice-voluntarily relinquishing her position
• Situation brought forth by attempts of mainstream opposition to regain power and of insurgent groups to push protracted struggle
• Middle forces hijacking the move to topple GMA

Stance
Bases for calls for resignation and ouster are weak—President was elected (provided survey and official data that shows GMA won)and should not give up the mandate

GMA should not comment on an admittedly illegally taped conversation, the authenticity of which has not been determined.

Options
GMA continues, political reforms to be instituted through constitutional change

Ricardo Saludo—Deputy Presidential Spokesperson

Assessment
Started by reading his text to resigned cabinet members—sad commentary to our political situation that an elected official is being asked to resign on the basis of illegal recordings and public unrest without any investigation nor formal charges filed, a clamor echoed by former colleagues in the cabinet.

Resignation will exacerbate situation given lack of unity among the forces calling for her resignation or ouster.

Stance
Review the CBCP statement (also presented the Jesuit “Guide to Discernment in a State of Crisis”)

Options
None explicitly stated. GMA continues. Process of securing accountability, impeachment, should be sufficient to determine the truth.

More anti GMA panelists

Mr. Ronald Llamas, Convenor, Laban ng Masa

Assessment
Past 30 years, 3 major political crisis (1970s old oligarchic control replaced by a government coup; failure of authoritarian regime and people power that was not institutionalized—rejuvenation of elite rule; EDSA Dos-political uprising legitimized as a succession process and was not brought to its logical conclusion)

Major failures of the EDSA 1 successor government—instituting redistributive justice; taking out debt burden, effective management of fiscal resources. Replicated failures/omission of EDSA 2 successor government—business as usual attitude, politicking, GMA in candidate/politician mode and persistent turnaround.

Level of cynicism among the people is constantly increasing. Process of vote count/elections is arguably flawed (evidence in canvass reports where the number of those who voted exceeds those who are registered)

Tapes buttressed the assertion that fraud accompanied 2004 elections handling of PGMA people produced the disbelief/withdrawal of trust.

Stance
Crisis is protracted and solution goes beyond succession given that the crisis is profoundly embedded in system with fundamental deficiencies/defects

Options
Transitional Revolutionary Government

Ms. Karen Tanada, Convenor, Citizens for TRIO

Assessment
Different assessments from their member organizations with the attention concentrated on the Garci tapes and attendant issues of electoral fraud and lost of trust on the President

Stance
Truth commission, Resignation, Impeachment, Ouster—people power

Option
Post-GMA coalition administration that will work on necessary political/electoral/
constitutional reform

Finalmente, here was some of the blow-by-blow accounts during the open forum. My friend is a Star Wars fan, so pardon the interlacing of the debate with Star War-ish lingo and symbolisms…

Here goes: “The Sith Lord Tiglao was definitely paranoid. The forum was meant to have all groups address two questions—their assessment /characterization of the crisis and their proposed interventions to resolve it. The Sith Lord was definitely not briefed by his staff since his presentation basically rebuked what he understood as the main points in the La Salle Statement that came out on the first Sunday of July. He kept on quoting Winnie Monsod who spoke in her column about mob rule and how PGMA convincingly won the elections. There were about seven slides (will send this to all next week) that simply worked with Winnie’s arguments. As he discussed the arguments, two of his staff started to distribute photocopies of Winnie’s PDI article. He spoke of an orchestrated attempt of the opposition to depose a legitimate president. He said that the Garci tapes did not contain anything incriminating, just Garcia talking to his wife, etc. He ended his presentation with pictures of the rally in Makati and with the argument that there were more red flags and that the left is now taking advantage of the situation.

“The Sith Lord was followed by Sidious Saludo who brandished a copy of a Jesuit statement entitled “Discernment in a time of crisis.” Three pages in length, the Jesuit statement in three-fold was accompanied by the CBCP statement, printed on the other side of the three fold document. He claims that the Jesuit statement, unlike the La Salle statement, was more in keeping with what the Bishops said and kept on saying that the Bishops favored a truth commission and an impeachment. I was asking for a copy of the Jesuit statement and Sidious Saludo promised but left without giving me his copy.

“From the dark side, the less murky or brighter side (depending on one’s persuasion), followed. Teddy Casino, Chiz Escudero, Ronald Llamas, Karen Tanada, and Ed de la Torre. Two clarificatory sessions were held in between the two sets of presentations and among the questions, one directed at the Sith Lord and Sidious got quite an entertaining response from the Sith Lord. They were asked—Where is Garci? The reply of the defense team of the beleaguered Queen hobbit was that it is not their business to search for him. As much as they could not find Ka Roger (the Rabbit not Rosal), they are also clueless as to where Garci is and it is not their business since he is not a government official.

“Towards the end of the morning session, the Sith Lord publicly stated that he felt he was set up by the La Salle Brothers for he was up against anti-GMA forces and the afternoon participants (the afternoon session was a dialogue facilitated by Sheila of PCIJ) were also all anti-GMA. As he was about to leave, he asked one of our staff to call the provincial of the Brothers, Br. Dodo Fernandez, so that he could reiterate his sentiment that he was set up. I saw him conversing with Br Dodo outside so I rushed out.

“I caught up with him as he was about to enter his Patrol, formally introduced myself (I do not know the guy personally except at the time that we were corresponding for the Cebu conference he failed to attend) and explained to him that there was no set up, that the problem was that his staff didn’t respond to the invitation issued early last week until last Wednesday (July 28), that we accommodated his late request to invite Saludo and Salceda even when such came in at 4 pm of Wednesday, that he was not briefed properly about the purpose of the forum, and that even if there were more anti-GMA groups, he should know that they do not necessarily sing the same tune nor converse/conspire with each other. He didn’t give a response but I did notice a stern look from one of his body guards.

“[The] Sith Lord survived the onslaught of the divided rebel forces. He did so by default for he left just before the dialogue started and gave the responsibility of defending his Queen to Darth Sidious Saludo.

There is just no way she will be removed from power by constitutional means. The constitutions is protecting the admininistration!

We are a presidential system. Elections are strictly scheduled and the only way to remove the president; in effect to un-elect the president; is via impeachment. That was expained somewhere in this blog.

If we were a parliament a new election is just a matter of course. No need for investigation. Just perceived shortcomings and the ball starts rolling.

Enriquez got to raise some of those unasked questions:

On whether Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano was the election official she had asked to “protect her votes,” referring to her apology to the nation on June 27, the President said her lawyers advised her not to comment on the matter. She also said she had no information on Garcillano’s whereabouts.

On the possibility of having her term of office cut short: “I am the duly elected President. My terms ends in 2010. This is my position.”

On her reaction to the drop in her ratings in various surveys: “That’s the presidential system. You have a fixed term. The good thing is you’re able to institute unpopular reforms because that’s the system. And the reforms we’ve been initiating have been unpopular. Add to this severe trial by publicity….”

I think what GMA’s Press Office did was to collect some of the difficult questions from the reporters that GMA may not be able to answer during the “press conference” (kasi Arroyo was not yet prepared to answer it and they don’t want any gaffes during the press conference), let their lawyers and spinmasters go over the list of questions, and provide GMA with the “prepared answers” the following day.

Then they called a pro-arroyo GMA7 “”journalist like Mike Enriquez to do the “interview” with Arroyo.

He now gets to “ask the questions that Arroyo refused to answer during the live “press conference”, and GMA parrots the “scripted answers” that her lawyers provided her the following day.

Scripted “press conference”. Scripted “interview”.

Abante lists down some of the questions na na-censor during arroyo’s “press conference”.

Ilan sa mga ‘na-censor’ na tanong, kabilang ang tanong ng Abante, ay ang mga sumusunod:

1. Sino ang Comelec official na inamin n’yo na kausap n’yo noong nakaraang eleksyon?

2. Ang pagtatayo ng Truth Commission ay ‘front’ lang daw upang takpan ang tunay na isyu ng pandaraya noong nakaraang eleksyon?

3. How damaging is the current political crisis to your administration? What lessons have you learned?

4. Sinasabotahe daw ng palace ang impeachment proceedings?

5. Malacañang behind move to oust Drilon as Senate President, bina-back-up daw si (Sen.) Miriam (Defensor-Santiago) bilang kapalit?

6. Hyatt 10 magte-testify laban sa inyo sa impeachment?

7. Are you in favor na referendum muna bago ChaCha?

8. Comment on negative surveys?

9. Birthday wish for Susan (Roces)? Is the door of reconciliation still open for her?

10. Would you still accept former allies from Hyatt 10?

11. How’s FG, Mikey? Comment on Sandra Cam’s implication involving you (GMA) on jueteng?

12. How confident are you that you will last your term given the current political situation?

what GMA did yesterday with Mike “ilong” Enriquez is not really “damage control”, kasi they were planning the “interview” after the “press conference” all along.

Everything’s scripted now for Arroyo, these days. 😉

Verna said,

“But instead of this debate, we are now hearing people questioning the move for Charter changes, saying the problem is not the form of government, rather the need for moral change. Clearly, a lot of people are totally ignorant of what’s going on around them! …does he know that the multi-party system has only promoted “personality politics”? Just look at how many political parties have come and gone. What we ought to do is shift to a two-party system… give strength to a political party, not to political animals or political nincompoops!”

Two party system is not federalism nor parliamentarism per se. If you want a 2-party it can be so within our Presidential system – a two party presidential system. But if you want federalism then it becomes a different matter.

How could a two party system prevent “personality politics”? Im very much intrigued. There are so many levels of disgrunt within this current party system. Would you care that we have a fix multi-party, like a permanent 3-party or 4-party. Its the same with a fix 2-party.These will stop parties coming and going. Surely a 2-party system could elect a mojority president than a multi-party. But how bout the case of Independent candidate? You could have a 2-party presidential election with 20 independent presidential candidates, just to exagerrate.

So lets start the debate? No. Lets finish impeachment first.

If you think cha-cha is such a mjor leap forward then let us do it with such clear mind and conscience. Firts thing first – impeachment.

Verna said,

“But the reality is the presidency isn’t just the problem here. We’ve also got 24 other headaches… called Senators, who are mini-dictators in their own right, 24 people out of 85 million Filipinos who control billions of pesos in pork barrel! No, my dear Archbishop Cruz, the present system is very much at fault and if you compare our system of governance to the countries that are better than us, believe me it’s a no brainer!”

Is the problem the billions of pork barrel? Then remove pork barrel not cha-cha.

How can this country survive with a unicameral system? How can they be not a mini-dictators still? Who would pride and champion national cause with nationally elected officials?

her interview with korinna was also aired tonight on ANC, but she wasn’t answering the really important questions, saying her legal counsel told her to shut up because as it is, her rights have already been so, so violated. maybe i don’t know anything about all that legal stuff, but if i were wrongly accused, i don’t think i’d keep my mouth shut the way she does. i’d also be the first to summon garci and demand that he come out in the open to clarify matters so that my name can be cleared. but no, she doesn’t know where he is ‘daw.’ more importantly, i am stupefied by her seeming lack of concern for having him surface. i don’t know – i just don’t see it as the natural reaction of an innocent person…oh, well…at the same time, she mouths the Lord’s name so often…i think she’s guilty but has said sorry to God and is asking Him for a second chance and maybe she believes the Lord would not scorn her prayer. maybe. and maybe she’ll do her best this time so that when she does leave the palace in 2010, it would not be in disgrace and she’d be leaving behind a long list of accomplishments starting from now. but that still leaves a bad taste in the mouth. i pity her – but she brought this upon herself. i think conrad de quiros is right – it’s her ambition that is her undoing. and we can forgive her and blah blah blah, but even if i am a Christian, i believe she still has to step down – no second chances in cases like this.

GMA has the best dmage control team.
the best image maker,she is like a chamelion.isa syang hunyango
nagbabago at sumusunod sa kaanyuhan ng kanyang kapaligira.n

I really salute the president GMA’s damage control team
I think it was also the team that FVR has when he was PRESIDENT
I think former president ERAP should have hired them.
maybe EDSA 2 would not have happen and this sort of KARMA
to the PILIPINO people is not happening either.
WHY PEOPLE SO AGHAST AT ERAP CORRUPTION.
IS FVR MUCH LESS THAT ERAP IS MORE PRONE TO CRITICS.
OR IS THE SEED THAT THEY HAVE PLANTED IN OUR BRAINS IS STILL
SPROUTING THE ANGER THAT BROUGHT EDSA 2.
wala namang magandang na i bunga ang EDSA DOS na yan.

Si Tiglao po ay di bagong gising, sya po ay di na natutulog, lintek na PGMA yan! nagmukha tuloy kuwago si TIGLAO sa laki ng problema on how to make PGMA look good sa tao, LA NA TULUGAN at kahit gustuhin pa nya di na sya makatulog dahil sa bigat ng budhi dahil kailangan nyang magsinungaling para masalba si PanginoongGloriaMacapagalArroyo!!!