The Other Shoe Comes Off

Well, well, well the other shoe now comes off as President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo calls for chacha on federalism. Everything is coming clear on why the palace was willing to sign off on anything with the MILF in that silly MOA-AD

For me, the real tip-off was the oh-so-coy remarks of MILF spokesman Eid Kabbalu saying they knew nothing of these chacha moves. The way I listen to him is usually to assume that he is lying and means exactly the opposite of what comes out of his mealy mouth and waiting to see if events prove the assumption right. (Works 99% of the time!)

So the truth that comes out in the wash is that the MILF saw this chacha gambit of the Palace and they played hardball with that soft-skull Dureza and the clueless Esperon to get everything they ever wanted and more as the deadline towards the SoNA approached.

The President's desperation to extend her term is now showing like a whore's stained slip as the Supreme Court received a major challenge to look at the MOA's Constitutionality from motions to intervene from former Senate President Frank Drilon and Opposition Senator Mar Roxas.

Even the role of US Ambassador Kristie Kenney and apparent US acquiescence to some kind of deal with the MILF can now be understood in this light. My theory is that the Palace was able to convince the naive Ms. Kenney (though not necessarily the State Dept. or the White House, which aren't exactly paying any attention to the Philippines right now because of other more pressing events) that President Arroyo will be able to get the chacha choochoo going. The constant repetition by Jess Dureza of the argument that any MOA has to pass Constitutional muster and popular plebiscites anyway, suggests to me that this was also the argument they presented to Ambassador Kenney. She may have been swayed by such an argument, given her time here is limited anyway by the US President election, but Condi Rice and the Americans may have bad hair day when they have a better look at the MOA-AD, whose final form and substance were only finalized in the run-up to the SONA. By then, not even the fantabulist ideas of Pastor Boy Saycon, Butch Valdez and Billy Esposo about a "Muslim client state in exchange for a US base in Bangsamorostan in preparation for a final showdown war with China" -- will seem very funny. Considering how the relative calm in Mindanao has been shattered by the unravelling of the GRP-MILF peace talks and all-out war looming with an emboldened MILF raising the flag of independence in its base camps (according to Cotabato Vice-Gov. Manny Pinol), the US will surely be reviewing its understanding of things.

With PCGG Chairman and Arroyo water-carrier Camilo Sabio's role in trying to influence his brother Jose on the GSIS-Meralco case coming to light, the Supreme Court's independence, not just the CA's, is really on the dock now.