Last Friday, July 8, when the Hyatt 10 resigned, former Pres. Fidel V. Ramos rushed to Malacañang. He was there to give solution to what was perceived in the weekend as prelude to the sinking of the GMA ship. Those who were left with her cried foul to those who left La Presidenta in need. After her Mea Culpa, they scratched each others back and sang, “if we could....” together, to abandon ship? Mike Defensor, who took a leave from the Liberal Party seeking the ouster of GMA, shouted: “Traitors!!!” He saw it as a grand finale only seen in the meeting of Brutus and Julius Caesar.

And Ramos was there to mouth a repeat of his Charter Change which stand he held even before he himself left the Palace at the end of his term. Except now the constitutional revision he envisions is to save the government and/or GMA from certain annihilation. It’s as if marines are no longer around and so with our cerebral “we.” Joe de Venecia uncoincidentally appeared to assure the invisible viability of the proposal which today breathes of 17 major political parties. You can’t really dance alone. She thought of it repeatedly, indeed, she said. The truth, she prefers to hone a shorter term to give way to the Cha-Cha, to unburden her of the loud impeachment.

This turn of event was sad to the opposition still hanging when the CBCP gave its pastoral guidance. “Let’s respect the conscience of GMA and find discernment in the Gospel.” Or something out of this world but remarkable in faith, it being a bridge bolted by the Papal Nuncio. It was least endured by those seeking the head of GMA to roll into isolated inconsequence hardly believing what they heard; their eyelids were soaked by the heat of their emotion that they drooped to vision on what the grouped bishops stood for: neutrality, no matter if nebulous. They had only their leaders to blame.

So they said, bishops were reached by GMAs men during the former’s sessions. It’s expected. When you’re hit, you strike back, never mind if it’s not in the rulebook. A perceived spit deserves another. The man of cloak suffers at our interpretation of the good, the bad, and the holy. Why not? Didn’t you hear GMA thanking the bishops? A calculated ploy of Malacañang boys?

Well, it worked. GMA, the underdog, stood the next day with much sympathy. The league of mayors cheered her up like in a game of basketball, twisting in limp hurrah after a nervous perimeter shot of a quivering uneasy three points. Sounds the same from the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches. Dinky Soliman’s, Florencio Abad’s interviews on their conscience-strap resignations, failed negotiations with De Castro in Hongkong, and that of Cesar Purisima’s finger pointing at the Supreme Court’s TRO on E-VAT at the instance of GMA were ill-fated tantrums of kids losing their lollipops: they colored the President’s sullen face.

But the credibility problem would not thin out, according to Pulse Asia. An international group assigned negative ratings to the credit standing of the country. I reckon several days more and enmities in Edsa I are not far. It’s a handicap anyway. We always fail in seeing the landscape and the subject, squirming in our shortcomings when there is no need for it. The rally of all rallies, the opposition claimed, in Makati on the 13th was trumped up like a feast of a forgotten saint.

GMA may just as well be lost in the maze while Miriam Santiago growls at her nemesis riding the White Stallion again. How else could her composure be when she had recently lost a son. She is a cat angered more by the absence of claws. It’s Ramos, De Venecia and all the trapos rising from their graves, now dancing to the lousy tune of “If we can hold on together” for the second time no longer under Damocles sword but holding the dagger of Soliman hidden in a dozen-picked roses, I’m sure.

Take note that they who caused the burgeoning of every load to our electric bills and who could not legistlate against themselves, would carry on the day for us to change our form of government. It means only one thing, we have to rise early in order for us not to miss the sunrise.

***

I extend my appreciation to project coordinator Wilfredo Prilles, Jr. of the Naga City School Board for his letter informing me that the COLA for Naga teachers covering January to June 2005 is underway and for giving me a copy of the Performance-based incentive scheme for the Naga Schools Division.