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Women are never front-runners, wrote feminist icon Gloria
Steinem in a New York Times op-ed piece, referring to Hillary Rodham
Clinton, after her loss in the Iowa primary. She was also referring
to the place of women in politics.
She must be totally unaware of Philippine
politics.
In this supposed macho land, two women,
and their personal and political battles, cannot be eclipsed by
any other thunderous event in the country. What they say and
what they do have more impact on us than what the princes of the
church, what the captains of business and what all of the generals
do and say.
Corazon Aquino, a soft-spoken former president
and described as possessing an “Eastern Seaboard grace,” is
locked up in a battle of will with Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the
incumbent president, who is a master of survival and a
ruthless strategist. Cory Aquino wants Mrs. Arroyo to resign. Mrs.
Arroyo wants Cory Aquino to shut up and her supporters have lobbed
stink bombs at the former president.
Who will prevail—pardon the cliché—in
this epic struggle between these two daughters of privilege?
Cory Aquino has marshaled enough forces to move
her Gloria Resign Movement into a higher gear. She has a sizable
bloc of the Makati Business Club, a coalition of church leaders and
Christian brothers, several senators and an entire network of mass
organizations supporting the ouster move.
She has anchored her Resign Movement on a very
powerful message—the alleged corruption of Mrs. Arroyo and her
immediate family.
And when she is determined to lead, like her
leadership in the movement that ousted Marcos from power, no one can
be as courageous and as resolute. And the moral equation of the
battle is 90 percent on her side.
Mrs. Arroyo has her own bulwark of support. More
than 60 governors, 95 percent of the town and city mayors and the
majority in the House of Representatives, the chamber that endorses
impeachment resolutions.
Mrs. Arroyo has her own bloc in the Makati
Business Club (the ones who back their support with resources) and
the general indifference of the taipans work to her favor. On who
has the moral ascendancy, no one gives her points against Cory
Aquino.
Mrs. Arroyo is determined to hold on to
power. She would not budge from her power perch either, not even
with the real threat that she is about to face a lynching mob.
Cory Aquino has her prayers and her
prayer-warriors. Mrs. Arroyo has her armies, the real ones, with
guns and tanks and crowd-dispersal expertise.
Recent developments tend to favor Mrs. Arroyo.
The bishops of the Roman Catholic Church have formally rejected a
resignation call, which is enough reason for the already fatigued
faithful to keep off street protests. A resignation call by the
bishops would have been the equivalent of a death sentence on
the Arroyo government.
Now, Mrs. Arroyo has the time to pledge
reforms and renewal, even of the nominal kind.
The major line of defense, the police and the
military, also remain an immovable bulwark of support.
Cory Aquino also committed a major blunder: her
proposal to replace Mrs. Arroyo with Noli de Castro, the incumbent
vice-president, who to many is a worthless successor. There is also
this perception that de Castro lost in the 2004 vice presidential
race to an opposition figure, Sen. Loren Legarda.
Why Mrs. Aquino wants de Castro to be president,
instead of more worthy successors such as Legarda,
Senate President Manny Villar and Chief Justice Reynato Puno
is beyond most opposition leaders. Perplexed oppositionists can only
mutter their extreme frustration over Cory Aquino’s choice of
replacement. Doesn’t she know that de Castro is a lackey of
Arroyo? And, if not Arroyo, a powerful business and media family?
Still, the comfort zone of Mrs. Arroyo can
vanish fast. Fresh developments, such as a new witness who would
calmly and convincingly prove the allegations of corruption and
moral bankruptcy in the administration, can turn the tide in favor
of Cory Aquino.
The end game has yet to take form and shape.
Events can tilt to the side of either Cory Aquino or Mrs.
Arroyo.
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