It is clear that a well-coordinated plot to take down the President is now at play.
It is a plot that draws
its sustenance from a sense of entitlement of those who took power after the
fall of Marcos. These are the people to which the coup led by Juan Ponce Enrile
and Fidel Ramos had to yield. And when that happened, it was as if the country
was handed over to a privileged class who took it upon themselves to act like
they have a franchise over us.
Not contented in
demonizing Marcos to erase him from our collective memory, these privileged
elites bullied out of power, or if they failed, jailed leaders who do not
belong to their cabal. *
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Aside from Cory Aquino
the mother and Noynoy Aquino the son, only Fidel Ramos who Cory personally
anointed survived this elitist cabal. Erap Estrada was ousted, and then jailed.
While attempts were made to oust Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, they failed, but they
made sure she would be jailed after her term ended.
It is not as if there is
one single human agency that directs this power to boot, but what is apparent
is that it is a confluence of interests that streamed down from the
entitlements of those who wanted to take back the control of our politics and
economy after Marcos denied them of such. Starved for decades, this privileged
oligarchic class can only wish that never again would they be denied their
entitlements to our political and economic largesse, and if it means tossing
aside a recalcitrant member like Gloria, then it must be done. Erap was never
part of the script, as he did not fit. His was the first rebellion of the
masses against the privileged class, and that is why the elites enabled, if not
orchestrated, his downfall in the guise of an anti-corruption campaign.
For it is always the
narrative of these master puppeteers. It is always a fight against corruption.
And it is always with reference to the Marcos era and its human rights
violations. But certainly, such was not used against Ramos despite the fact
that he was the chief executioner of martial law, for he was shielded by Cory
Aquino’s political embrace. *
And this reveals the
hypocrisy of these privileged yellow elites. The stigmatizing narratives
associated with Marcos can only be deployed on their political enemies, but not
on them.
And this cabal of power
brokers and guardians include not only the yellow oligarchic class, but found
root in the anti-Marcos sentiments in academia, civil society, the church and
the media, and enabled by external forces. It is in this complex web that the
politicians had to play their game.
We always think that the
elected politicians are the ones directing the political play, when in reality
it is this well-entrenched cabal that enabled or undermined the political
landscape of our country.
Even Renato Corona
became a victim to the machinations of these privileged elite guardians of the
yellow brand of politics. Corona’s victimization was from the hands of a
concerted effort directed by Noynoy Aquino in Malacañang and executed by an
LP-dominated Congress, and with participation from a partisan Ombudsman, the
COA, the media and Raissa, civil society and Harvey, and a little lady.
Corona’s ouster and
Gloria’s imprisonment have further emboldened the sense of entitlement and
invincibility of the yellows. And it is not enough to take down political
careers. They also wanted to prolong their hold on power, even if it meant
manipulating elections. *
But the universe is not
for them to totally own forever. While they may have owned the political
elites, they have lost control of the underbelly of Philippine politics. The
masses who the yellows thought were simply the passive voters they can beguile
and use as crowds in their rallies, tired of being promised change that never
came, ignored by an uncaring and detached President who seemed to have his own
world, decided to elect Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
President Duterte is a
rude disruption of the narrative of this privileged yellow class. And even
before he could begin his presidency, the plot was already being hatched to
take him down using every dirty trick used on their previous victims, from Erap
and Gloria to Renato Corona, except that this time they would have the help of
an army of anonymous trolls that now inhabit social media.
It is just too obvious,
from the confluence of events, to the simultaneous, almost incessant timing of
attacks. And all actors are in play. The LP politicians and Trillanes doing
their spiels in hearings and in press conferences; Ombudsman Carpio-Morales,
while inhibiting, has enabled her deputy to inflict on us once again her flawed
accounting; anti-Duterte social media, anonymous or otherwise, and their
enablers in civil society, church and academe are working on overdrive in their
attacks; and traditional media, both local and foreign, either playing dead or
twisting and slanting their reportage, all to the detriment of the President.
And they use the same stigmatizing labels of corruption, alleged ill-gotten
wealth, and human rights violations. *
This is an open
declaration of war, a not-so-subtle move to take down the President which the
yellows have considered to be an unwanted threat to their forever.
Some are hoping that
another EDSA may be in the offing, as what Senator Trillanes is trying to
replicate in Agham Road, when he called on people to rally to defend the
Ombudsman. Some anti-Duterte posts in social media speak of an impending
revolution that can oust him, taking cues from their own echo-chambers.
They must be dreaming.
The people solidly behind Duterte are what will stop the yellows dead in their
tracks.
They speak of a
revolution to oust the President. What they should be afraid of is the
revolution that may ensue if he is taken down.
The article was written
by Mr. Antonio P. Contreras of the Manila Times titled “The yellow plot to take
down the President” which was published October 5, 2017.
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