The Lost Opportunity

Opportunity only beckons once. We had one more opportunity on Feb. 25, 2017 at the Luneta for the people to gather and decide whether they want to give President Duterte revolutionary and extraordinary powers to accomplish the program of change for which he was elected last May 9.

I had written that Duterte was our last chance for peaceful change. Many retired military officers whom I had talked to agreed with me. I gave an extensive analysis to my American friends and they took note.

My recent postings on my timeline are snapshots of what I intend to include as the concluding chapter to my memoirs that appeared in the US in 2009. As usual, I do not mince my words because I believe the Filipino people have a right to know how events unfolded based on what I know and how I perceived them. People may agree or disagree but time will tell who was right and who was wrong.

In previous postings, I had given my rationale why the president needs extraordinary powers. I had said if these were given to Cory, there is now more reason to give them to Duterte. I had laid out a simple process by which the people could be asked to decide whether they wanted to give them. I had drafted a simple People's Proclamation that could be read out to the crowds I had suggested gather in different places here and abroad.

I had little doubt the people would gather to defend their president. I had said it was a question of numbers in order to be credible. Thanks to netizens on the social media, group organizers went into motion. I know who they are, they know who they are, and they are the real heroes. I saw myself just as a catalyzer and adviser. In the final chapter to my memoirs, I shall mention them by name.

I had advised the president not to be involved so that he could not be accused of stage managing the whole process. I had told him it must be a purely people's initiative and just watch how the process unfolded without making any comment. I understood the president's mind and I think he understood mine. He had made it clear from his past pronouncements that it was the people who had the power to decide. He had said that if coup plotters wanted to unseat him, he would even swear them into office. If Congress wanted to impeach him, it wasn't a problem for him.

Deep inside, the president knew, and I knew, that the people would stand behind him. It was not a question of the people standing behind him but of the people deciding to give him the tools, the powers he needed to do his job. That was the only question.

When plans were being organized for Feb. 25, which I dubbed D-Day or Duterte Day, I had received a report that some members of the Cabinet had opposed revolutionary powers. I wrote about this on my timeline. I wanted to ferret them out to know who these traitors were who didn't want the people to decide.

I began to receive more messages that the DILG headed by Mike Sueno was opposed to revolutionary powers. It didn't surprise me because he was the former chairman of the PDP-Laban. It reinforced my suspicion that Koko Pimentel, whom I had never trusted, had ordered Sueno to hijack the Luneta event and scrap the reading of a People's Proclamation they were afraid people would give extraordinary powers to the president because that would put an end to their political agenda. So the DILG controlled the event to make sure it wouldn't happen.

I was at the Luneta observing the event. The group leaders had done their job. A big crowd came but was informed that groups were leaving because they were disappointed. Around 10 pm the crowd had shrunk to less than half of its original size. I was receiving messages that I have to advise the president to order Sueno to have someone read out the proclamation, otherwise the crowd would continue to dwindle. There were even rumors the president would turn up.

I knew it was a trap. I was not prepared to advise the president. Had the president done so, he would have been placed in an embarrassing position and accused by his political opponents of having jerrymandered the process. It would have been a ground for impeachment. If an impeachment prospered, Leni Robredo would be president and Koko Pimentel next in line to succeed.

I am doing these postings so that netizens will know and arrive at their own judgment.