RedBlueThoughts

So it’s now complete. Yesterday, the Supreme Court voted 9-6 in favor of Neri’s petition not to answer questions from the Senate about the alleged or probable complicity of Arroyo in the NBN-ZTE deal. They also voted 10-5 agreeing on Neri’s petition that he should not be cited for contempt due to his refusal to divulge the truth on the deal.

This is, as Arroyo even cited in private conversations with friends, the final nail in the coffin. Malacanang is now asking the Senate to finish its probe.

As expected, no public outcry was heard. No protests were seen in the streets, proving once more, this blogger’s analysis in newphilrevolution.blogspot.com that this movement has lost its momentum and the high point was already achieved during that mammoth prayer rally in Ayala, Makati City.

It could be that backroom negotiations with rally leaders, some opposition and church groups and even grassroots political organizers have achieved what Malacanang hoped for–a gradual and residual ebb of this movement.

Rally organizers will find it extremely difficult to replicate the interfaith rally given that the main bulk of rallyists from the student ranks have all been neutralized. Thousands of students have either graduated or have already gone home for the long summer vacation.

A statement coming from the Black and White Movement says that they’re organizing in the provinces, just to prove to Malacanang that, indeed, they have a constituency there. How gullible they are! Malacanang’s dare is just a pathological trap for them to disperse their ranks. It was a divide and conquer tactic. Everyone knows that the crucible of power rests in Metro Manila and protests from the provinces does not amount to anything but gloss.

As the movement slowly crumbles, with dissension and divisiveness permeating within their organisations, Malacanang is also slowly healing the sociological wounds by press releases and actual activities meant to suppress or if not project a position of strength.

Look at what they did–they invited under pain of IRA, local government executives. She neutralized the AFP-PNP. She lavished and promised gifts to church leaders, even went to the extent of showing the country how brazen these leaders are by preventing the right of Catholics to celebrate mass in Cebu and Iloilo.

What all these show is the mafia-style tactics employed by Arroyo just to survive. With the Supreme Court decision finally putting an end to the relevance of the Senate probes, Arroyo effectively shut all legal avenues for the truth to come out.

Arroyo achieved what every leader wants–complete obedience from all constitutional bodies. This will definitely embolden her to continue what she wants eventually—rule beyond 2010. There’s no stopping the devil enfant from ruling the country beyond her constitutional mandate, thanks to the weakness of the opposition.

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