Nothing personal here of course but, I never expected to see the day when a President of the Land will be cowed and forced to eat ‘DUNG’ by a ‘glorified’ but heinous criminal who still managed to win the greatest ‘Poker Game’ of his life despite having all the cards stacked against him! A seemingly IMPOSSIBLE situation, indeed, were it not for the sad fact that the game was played in the Philippines!

        Up to now I still am DUMBFOUNDED as to the WHYs of Axed Pres. Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada’s LIGHTNING PARDON! I have tried my best to convince myself that Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had no ‘hidden agenda’ and just had to pardon ‘Erap’ because he was a former President who was really ‘pardonable’ at 70 years old, and that he had to be at his dying mother’s bedside as she just might take up her ‘one way ticket’ to Heaven and go anytime! Of course I would’ve given P.G.M.A. the benefit of the doubt had she just BIDDED HER TIME like the true and powerful President of the Philippines that she has been known to be all over Asia, if not the World, and allowed the FIRST Plunderer to ‘taste’ just how repugnant ‘Munti Life’ and all the other Inmates are, if only for several days! Besides, ‘Erap’ wasn’t really so ‘hot’ about ASKING OR BEGGING for Pardon. It was the Arroyo Government that was trying to RAM the Pardon down ‘Erap’s’ throat like some ‘tranquilizer’ needed to put a ‘wild beast’ to sleep and keep him from wreaking HAVOC on a weakly governed land! It was the Arroyo Administration that had to WAIT for ‘Erap’s’ acceptance of a Pardon he never asked for, and it was P.G.M.A.’s Special Emissary, D.I.L.G. Secretary Ronnie S. Puno who had to personally bring the Pardon to ‘Erap’ who had the FINAL SAY as to whether he wanted to sign it or not! ‘SOSMARYOSEP!’ Of all the ‘QUEER birds’ I ever did see, the Arroyo Government is the ‘QUEEREST’ by far to me! That Ronnie Puno ‘cried’ when ‘Erap’ FINALLY signed his pardon indeed reveals the entire P.G.M.A. Government’s UTTER FRUSTRATION at trying to beat this man to the ground! The elaborate ‘spontaneity’ of E.D.S.A. II, the highly-rated televised Impeachment Trial (where Loren Legarda cried and Tessie Aquino-Oreta ‘danced’), the 6 long years that it took the Prosecution to work on the Plunder Case, and the almost endless deliberations that it took the ‘Sandiganbayan’ to finally convict, now seem like some well thought about moves in a terrific Chess Game that the Government WON but which P.G.M.A. QUASHED by suddenly throwing her Kid-Gloved Pardon into the Chessboard, just like that! Now, my Idol, the ‘Great Kibitzer’ himself, former President Fidel V. Ramos, is fuming MAD! Like the people in the Makati Business Club, and the rest of our ‘Sane Society’ who have always believed that NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW! Like The Supreme Court Justices who were, no doubt, itching to ‘convict with finality’, but who were, nevertheless relieved by P.G.M.A.’s ill-timed pardon. Like myself, who really thought that FINALLY the Pinoy Justice System is ALIVE and that we now have a really believable example of a former President, a most powerful leader of the Land, who was tried and convicted of a crime which most Politicians would’ve scoffed at then, but which, nevertheless brought ‘Erap’ and his ‘entourage’ DOWN! But then I guess it really was TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE! To expect a Total Moral Regeneration in One Lifetime is indeed too much!

        Not even Joe De Venecia would’ve believed it. To expect ‘Erap’ to BEG for pardon would’ve also been next to impossible! And this he has proven to be true! Without any doubt, Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will have to put on her best ‘MASK’ to save face and try to survive until 2010 or until The ‘Gods’ decide when she has to go, IF she really has to go. No doubt it will be her best ‘mask’, yet, but I believe it will be a PATHETIC one!