March 13, 2006 · Posted in: Governance, State of Emergency
Sen. Joker Arroyo: ‘Political opposition
has become irrelevant’
SENATOR Joker Arroyo sees the crisis of legitimacy continuously hounding Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as having spawned a power equation that has only left the political opposition marginalized. The military, he says, has now become the main opposition. Following is the senator’s assessment:
The elite forces of the uniformed services have supplanted the political opposition as the real opposition group to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The political opposition has become irrelevant in the power equation, splintered, squabbling, with neither the power nor the high ground to unseat President Arroyo.
As the recent crisis unfolded, it ws evident that the President never thought of the opposition as the power to reckon with. Uppermost in her mind always was the loyalty of the AFP and the PNP.
Had the Scout Rangers, Marines, and the PNP’s Special Action Forces succeeded in disrupting the chain of command, a command structure without which no real army can exist or operate, they would have put up a military junta manned and controlled by them, it would have been goodbye to the Constitution and representative democracy.
As history shows, military juntas do invite some civilians to join the junta to give it a civilian face, but as mere figureheads. Once the military have tasted power, they would not give it up until another military junta unseats them, a revolving door military junta, so we become a banana republic.
The power equation now is this: the administration is in the saddle while segments in the military would be the main opposition group that will try to unseat her. The political groupings have become passé.
23 Responses to Sen. Joker Arroyo: ‘Political opposition
has become irrelevant’
penpenpen88
March 13th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
Cause and effect.. gloria caused all this.. the effect a junta.. case in point si lumibao kating kati na maging board of censors… need i say more?
jhay
March 13th, 2006 at 5:33 pm
Now this is a darker picture… I say, down with all of them, it’s really time for an over-haul of the Philippine society. It’s too messy to avoid any blood from being spilled in the process of change. Only time will tell when will that happen.
johnmarzan
March 13th, 2006 at 5:41 pm
well, the marcos opposition was emasculated and marginalized for 20 years… big deal, joker.
btw, when are you going to fence-sitting and tell arroyo to resign na?
puro ka lang “hot air” eh…
johnmarzan
March 13th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
edited:
well, the marcos opposition was emasculated and marginalized for 20 years too, joker… big deal.
btw, when are you going to stop fence-sitting and tell arroyo to resign na?
puro ka kasi “hot air” eh…
penpenpen88
March 13th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
yup… a dark horizon looms ahead.. now corrupts politicos wid goons na me guns.. susunod..corrupt generals wid armies wid guns.. scary… have to have a backdoor plan to leave the country if that happens..
manuelbuencamino
March 13th, 2006 at 9:40 pm
You know what follows from what Joker is saying? We are better off with Gloria than a military junta. Since we are now marginalized let’s stick it out with Gloria.
That’s similar to Angara’s line – our only choice is between con-ass and junta
Amazing how those statements come out in the same week and during this period of emergency.
I smell a rat.
Simon
March 13th, 2006 at 11:57 pm
After Gloria has practically bastardized our fledgling democratic institutions and trampled upon our civil liberties and freedom as a people, that is the only realization that will dawn in the mind of every decent Filipino… to alter or abolish the existing government and to institute a new government that will give meaning to democracy and freedom.
‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to insitute new government laying its foundation on such principles and otganizing its powers in such form, as to them shall most likely to effect their safety and happiness… All experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer (governments), while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right , it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their security….”(Democracy’s Declaration of Independence)
Gloria, for all her greed and hypocrisy, could be the final catalyst to ignite a genuine change in our society. The Filipino people and society have suffered for so long from corrupt politicians now epitomized by Gloria, who though beleaguered is still politically surviving aided by her misguided and selfish political and military herd. It’s a matter of time for the Filipino people to rise up to institute a new government led by the conscientious group in the armed forces.
Joker has been a big disappointment to well-meaning Filipinos for failing to live up to his electoral promise “Ubusin ang mga corrupt!” That’s why his namesake is still in power without legitimate mandate from the people whose WILL she shamelessly prostituted!
ryebosco
March 14th, 2006 at 3:02 am
Sinabi na sa inyo na pare-pareho lang yan mga yan eh. Kailan ba talaga mag-kakaroon ng French Revolution dito?
Tapos, nabasa ko pa sa periodico, nag-drama si Madrigal sa Senado casi nag hint si Enrile na nag party daw ang mga familia ni Jamby nung Martial Law sa Malacanan.
Hay nako, Dios ko…kailan po gigising ang mga kapwa ko Pilipino na naghihirap? Ano na nga ba yung ginamit ng mga French para parusahan sina Marie at Louis?
jonas
March 14th, 2006 at 7:00 am
Joker completely forgot that the military he’s talking about is also an institution bereft of moral high ground aside from being corruption-infested entity.
Hanggang ngayon, pilit nilulunok ni Joker si Greedy Gloria.
MitaMS
March 14th, 2006 at 7:05 am
sus, ngayon si joker naman ang pro-gma…
what he said is true. kaya walang checks and balances sa gobyerno is because the opposition is inutile. they should provide that checks and balances…but what have they done?
if they have tried and failed, they have to try harder….and harder, try and try ika nga
penpenpen88
March 14th, 2006 at 9:14 am
i think what joker is saying di bale na na cheat si GMA, na trapo sya at corrupt shes the better alternative rather than the military junta.. kasi at least pag sya nasa presidency me senado pa ( for a brief moment bago con -ass) kesa naman puppet government lang under a military junta di ba?..so in effect ok lang yung lahat ng ginagawa nyang pag labag sa batas.. pag waldas ng ating pera kasi mas nakakatakot pag na under tau ng militar di ba? baka damputin ka nalang katulad ng ginagawa nila now but only this time di ka na makakauwi… sad talaga this story.. na dengoy na nga tau sa eleksyon.. wala na taung mga institution na mapagkakatiwalaan.. wala pa tayung choice kung di tangapin ang isang magnanakaw na pangulo kasi wala nang tayong choice..
masyado talaga tayong pinagpala ng diyos that she sent gloria to save us… tsk tsk tsk…
Simon
March 14th, 2006 at 11:30 am
Let’s just continue expressing our honest views. The truth cannot be suppressed. It will reach consciences and move men/women to take up the cause and increase the numbers of concerned Filipinos who will join the clamor and debate and mass actions for truth, justice and good governance. Righteous men and women cannot forever remain blind/deaf to the truth. Their conscience will bother them. Souls are indeed restless until they rest in God. And God happens to be on the side of truth. That’s just how we were made to be. That’s why we can’t forever be slaves to sins or corrupt practices or falseties because we know they are simply wrong. And we know we have to correct them before we can ever move on with a much needed peace of mind and happiness. And we recognize corrupt people also in time and we know they are living miserable lives. We cant hide from our sinful and corrupt practices!
That’s how I woke up from my self-imposed apathy. For years, I ignored the raging controversies/scandals surrounding Gloria and just honestly worked to make myself and family comfortable philosophizing that those who will come after Gloria will just be as corrupt… so why bother (just don’t follow their crooked ways as one with talent can still survive comfortably in the Philippines amidst all the corruption going on in a society whose culture appears to be that of corruption). I can live comfortably just like some bloggers here (Geo, MitaMS, Austero, Jonathan, scud_75,etc. Their lines are oddly familiar to me.). Don’t rock the boat further. Let those who are against Gloria fight it out. I don’t care about how poor Filipinos have become so poor for as long as they don’t resort to violence and crimes. Gloria is tolerable provided she addresses peace and order and ensures things don’t go out of hands as to render as like the wild wild west of America. They are the same power-hungry bunch. I didn’t even read papers anymore dismissing the Filipino masses as not worth suffering or dying for (Maybe Ninoy was wrong after all) and the newspapers as corruptible with money and unbelievable (pera pera lang). Let’s just live everything to our institutional processes no matter how corrupted they have become. Thinking about Gloria’s corruption is negativism, unnecessary stress and counter-productive because it prevents me from looking for better opportunities to improve my life and my family’s lot.
But then, I read by chance Conrado de Quiros column why we should take a stand for our children’s sake while we can still do something to improve our country and make it safer and better for them. Why we should not remain apathetic. He hit a familiar chord in me. Slowly, Quiros’ columns (which I seemed to miss and so I have to read them thru the internet as I rarely buy newspapers thinking it’s just throwing honest money away) made some sense to me. Thanks to Quiros. Of course, I’m back to carrying this sense of righteous indignation again against an abusive leader. I can’t just remain apathetic and I regained the same old conscience, convictions and social concern I had twenty years and so ago when we battled Marcos legally and underground. Life is back to the core of existence again. I am again following my True North in life and it feels a whole lot better… fighting for a greater cause than mere existence. Man is after all created for a nobler cause.
(Unselfishly) Fighting for a cause greater than one’s existence and the sense of fulfillment one savors out of it is its own reward.
So the good news has spread. Let’s not despair. I know more, in due time, will be jolted back to their senses just like me as we continue to announce the good news about truth, honesty and justice and denounce the bad news about lies, cheating and stealing perpetrated by Gloria with impunity.
johnmarzan
March 14th, 2006 at 11:53 am
Critical media, not military, is biggest threat to Arroyo
Sabi ni Fence-sitting Joker Arroyo:
Dear Joker, you’ve got it wrong again.
It’s not the military that has supplanted the political opposition as the real opposition group to GMA, but the critical media.
Kaya nga may media crackdown yung arroyo administration eh, including threats of a government takeover of the Tribune, and now this harassment PCIJ is getting for “inciting to sedition”, because they posted the “Hello, Garci” tapes.
UPDATE: Baycas said:
if this is true, then by golly, kakatakot naman ito…
Huseng Bulag
March 14th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
To Joker, I can only say:
You can talk the walk, but can you walk the talk?
ka lando
March 14th, 2006 at 6:19 pm
The problem with Joker is that he is courageous enough to express disgust at the administration, but not courageous enough to ask the president to step down.
Sisihin ba ang minorya…
scud_1975
March 14th, 2006 at 9:34 pm
uy teka..pati tuloy si joker napag initan dahil sa pagsasabi ng totoo? Para namang di nyo kilala si Joker Arroyo, “The Maverick Politician”. Masakit lang siguro tanggapin kasi yun ang totoo. The opposition should take his criticism constructively, di naman siguro sila mga cry babies…totoo naman mas “praning” si Gloria sa mga military adventurists, dahil pag yang mga “coup pals” na yan ang gumalaw di nila kailangan ng civilian support. Eh sino nga ba naman ang dapat ligawan ng pangulo..ang mga sundalong may kanyon o watak watak na oposisyon?
Baka sa susunod kay Conrado de Quiros na kayo magalit dahil di din nya rin gusto ang mga mukha ng mga nasa oposisyon. ayon nga kay de Quiros, “I am a Roco loyalist. I am loyal to reason, I am loyal to common sense, I am loyal to the country.”
Loyal tomasian din tayo, manoy!
Chabeli
March 14th, 2006 at 11:17 pm
Don’t you think we should do na something? What’s at stake yata here is this woman is getting away na with murder! From my own little corner of the world, it seems that GLUE-RIA has opened the GATES OF HELL and it doesn’t seem like all this gulo will stop until she steps down. In the meantime, the people suffer. Sana it was as easy as what Rodney King said, “Can’t we all get along?”, and I don’t think that the “let’s all just move on” approach will even work anymore. There’s no turning back na yata on this one.
Quo vadis, Philippines????????
Tom
March 15th, 2006 at 6:33 am
Ang dami ninyong matatalino, magagaling sa wikang Ingles. Pareho sa administration at sa opposition. Gayun din sa hindi kasali sa magkabilang panig o independent thinkers. Hindi lang sa porma. Pati sa substance ng mga sinasabi ninyo.
Sa obserbasyon ko, malayo at matagal pa bago umunlad ang Pilipinas. Sa mahigit kalahating siglo kong ikinabuhay, IMHO merong progress pero sa maraming areas lalong lumalala ang kalagayan ng ating bansa. Hindi talaga puede ang cosmetic na changes. Kailangan radical changes, down to the core, to the very essence, to the soul. Nawawalan na ako ng pag-asa na makikita ko in my lifetime ang malaking pagbabago tungo sa ikabubuti. Sana para sa mga anak at mga apo ko mangyari din ang inaasam-asam nating lahat.
polsjs
March 15th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Positioning
GMA’s generals, in and out of uniform, are strategically positioned, her political operators are tactically poised, her technocrats and beaurocrats control the logistics, her tradpols run the political machinery and her partners in business influence the market. On the other side, the opposition is a weak coalition but the obstinate senate presents the challenging obstacle. On the mid-ground, her media critics are a manageable nuisance while the restive military is co-opted through bribery and red scare propaganda. On the sideline, the silent majority is neutralized by apathy and the masa is shackled by extreme poverty – ruthless dictator of priorities. (Protest is a luxury “para sa masa na isang kahig, isang tuka”.)
GMA is co-opting by corruptign to counter the coup soldiers’ call to battle to retake the gov for the people.
freewheel
March 15th, 2006 at 10:33 pm
on joker’s comment:
referring to some poor latin american nations as banana republic is not only politically incorrect, it smacks of snobbery which our leaders should desist from. if these nations schoolchildren have better health, academic and physical, compared to ours- is it not shameful to engage in derogatory labelling?
if current Phil. military dissenters orientation is based on a yearning to correct the past 30 years mis-leadership of corrupt partnership of politicians and businesspeople, perhaps it is high time people listen hard to what they propose.
it is not historically accurate to dismiss military efforts to change society will necessarily lead to a junta as consequence; mao ze dong’s army cannot possibly launch a successful war without the help of chou en lai (a military academy commandant, who btw when he died all flags around the globe were flown half mast-honor not even bestowed to mao) or lenin in russia- received support from established police and military frontlines, among others.
merong symbiotic relationship ang bawat oposisyon laban sa isang pekeng pamunuan. ?
jr_lad
March 15th, 2006 at 11:45 pm
don’t forget turkey. an example of a very powerful military and how they guard the state against anti-secularism upholding their constitution. they have the power to ban powerful politicians and parties who are abetting separatism or islamist militancy (take the case of former turkish pms erbakan & ecevit and their former parties islamist welfare party and the virtue party). but other than that, it’s a well-disciplined army.
scud_1975
March 16th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
hmmm..eh ano naman ang naging epekto sa “freedom of the press” sa mga bansang pinatakbo ng militar? paki share naman
freewheel
March 17th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
there is no contradiction, methinks scud 1975.
it is a pity lenin & mao did not live long enough and see for themselves the expression of peoples will w/o state intervention.
had PCIJ existed in their times, farfetched idea it is not PCIJ could receive the nation’s highest honor accorded to a non-military entity for helping expose scalawags in bureacracy and in uniform.
on the other hand, if you lived during those days, who knows? since you have the gift, zeal & penchant to defend any status quo, maybe you will also be praising PCIJ and its works. and thus, cold war would have been averted. thanks to you.