When he was still President Corazon C. Aquino’s Armed Forces Chief of Staff I predicted that he would one day be appointed Defense Chief, then later on run for the Presidency, and be the next President in the Post Dictatorship era. Friends laughed and said I was out of my marbles! I too laughed because I was surprised at their dimwittedness!

Fidel Valdez Ramos has always been, to me, the nearest thing we can get to have a Lee Kwan Yew of the Philippines. Like Mr. Lee, Mr. Ramos is a highly disciplined former military man and both were trained in foreign lands. Both are Patriots with their national pride beaming from their hearts! FVR, although a bit old in years, still is physically capable of giving his all for his country, and I can just feel that he’s raring to do so!

That he still has a say in our present government cannot, of course, be denied. Since then he has always been considered to be the single most credible and respectable Philippine leader by most countries in Asia and around the globe! During his term he was able to lift our economy up and continue the goodwill which EDSA I and Cory’s Yellow Army won during her term. In fact, former Pres. Fidel V. Ramos can now be considered the Grand Old Man of Philippine Politics, perhaps, next, of course, to that wise and also highly respected Old Guard, ex-senator Jovito R. Salonga.

Of course, as in any other contest, more so in politics, the opposition will always be out to break your bones and crush your balls! So Mr. Ramos has had his share of alleged Subic Bay Centennial Expo Scandals which, fortunately, haven’t even come close to breaking his bones or crushing his balls! In politics, no matter how hard you try to prevent it somebody will always come up with some mud to splash on your linen and someone who will come out with all your ‘sins’ neatly classified from A to Z! Sosmaryosep! The higher you go the more ‘dossiers’ you will have, just to remind you, perhaps, that you just might be considered a growing threat to someone’s Delusions of Grandeur!

F.V.R. just recently proved that he still has the clout to make molehills out of mountains! Cory’s cry for Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s immediate resignation was so ominous it made my heart skip a beat! I almost felt the rumble of tanks and heard the echoing cries of people on the streets all headed for Malacanang! It was the final intelligent and emotional assault on the majority of the fence-sitting middle class. It had all the trappings of an EDSA clarion call, except this time Officer and Gentleman, Fidel V. Ramos was ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE of the fence!

So from then on everything was on a Plateau until that final CBCP pro-Constitutional decision which then tipped the scales even so slightly in PGMA’s favor, her cabinet’s brake-up notwithstanding! The Opposition’s scourge in Malacanang took everything they could throw, toilet bowl and all their stinking shit to-go! It now indeed seems like their ‘favorite’ Imp in The Palace has survived their determined onslaught for the time being, thanks to good old Merlin’s magic ‘Cigar,’ to the consternation of that Oaf in Taguig! So ladies and gentlemen, “damas y caballeros,” it’s never too late to shut our traps and just wait for hell to blow over! Good luck Mr. Puppet master on your next episode: “To Impeach or Not to Impeach, that is the question!”