This is a followup to The Ong Incident, though now I’m thinking that “incident” is too grand a word for such a botched non-event as that was. Lots of links and analysis from Manuel Quezon III, and Inquirer columnist Conrado De Quiros has two columns on what should be done about the president: Curiouser and Curiouser, and Alternatives. Amando Doronilla says heads must roll.

I especially like ultraelectromagnetic’s take:

I mean, Ong does know that even though people call her “Queen of Philippine Showbiz” she (Susan Roces) isn’t really a queen, right? I wish she had turned him down, just to see if Ong would ask Dolphy next (because, you know, he’s the “King of Comedy” … And then I wish Dolphy would turn him down so he’d be forced to ask every other celebrity, and they all turn him down until Ong is forced to ask someone like Jay-R, who’s the “Prince of R&B”.)

Fortunately Susan Roces showed herself to be strong and sensible, refusing to be used by the opposition as a destabilization tool.

So if I’m understanding the current situation in the Philippines correctly, here was the strategy, from my own paranoid musings:

The Marcos/Erap-funded underground opposition attempted to pass off a new round of [faked / illegal] wiretap recordings as “proof” of the Arroyo family’s involvement in jueteng kickbacks and election fraud, via martyr whistleblower Samuel Ong’s highly dramatized public exposé to the media. “Warm bodies” intimidation was provided by by the crowd of easily manipulated Erap/FPJ fans on “vigil” outside Ong’s sanctuary, San Carlos Seminary in Guadalupe. When the authorities came in to arrest Ong, the crowd, enraged by the perceived attempt to suppress evidence of the First Family’s corruption, would form the nucleus of another EDSA rally. The resulting uprising would sweep Gloria from office — by resignation or by surrender to “people power” — and reseat Erap, in a dramatic power grab similar to the same one which ousted him four years ago.

The plot does not seem to have worked.

Like “Edsa III,” none of this seems to have been very well-planned. Divisiveness within the opposition, coupled with “people power fatigue” and a hungry, unmotivated, exhausted lower class, has doomed every one of the loyalist power-grab attempts to failure. So far.

From here on, I will forever associate the Toyota Altis with Samuel Ong and the NBI.

Does someone have a list of attempted power grabs and destabilization plots by the Erap/Marcos underground from “Edsa III” to the “Ong Incident?”

More from Dan Mariano, PCIJ, Sassy Lawyer, Willie Galang, ExpectoRANTS, Pinoy Press, By Jove, and Manuel Quezon III.

BTW, Arroyo and her family need to resign ASAP, IMHO. LOL.

Remember the days of “Erap Resign?” Those days are back, as the “Gloria Resign” cries approach their peak, with the Philippines facing yet another classic case of “Meet the new leader, same as the old.” Embroiled in accusations of electoral fraud, low approval ratings, shaky public support, and with family members implicated in illegal gambling rackets, the office of the Philippine President once again exemplifies the cliché: “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.”

If Gloria actually does resign, and snap elections are called, I fully expect the following to immediately declare their candidacy: Nene, Ping, Miriam, and of course, Imelda.

Nothing changes.

Update, 07/08/2004: “Gloria Resign” Calls Intensifying. Nothing changes.

Filipino journalism lost a venerable institution last week, with the death of Teddy Benigno, most recently known as the Philstar columnist, but also AFP Manila Bureau Chief from 1962 to 1987, and Cory Aquino’s Press Secretary from 1987 to 1989. I’ve quoted from Teddy Benigno heavily when commenting on current events in the Philippines, and though I would later be at odds with his constantly dire “social volcano” predictions, I still respected him as a wonderfully accomplished and eloquent journalist. He will be missed.

More from Pinay New Yorker, Amando Doronilla, Neal H. Cruz, and Max Soliven via Pinoypress.net

Deep What? What Throat? I hadn’t been born yet when Watergate happened; I grew up in the Philippines, and the only reason I knew about Nixon when I was a kid was from seeing Rich Little’s Nixon-as-Jacob-Marley parody of him in Rich Little’s Christmas Carol. My whole experience of those days has been limited to just: (1) the looming sense of shadowy history whenever I walk by the Watergate Hotel, (2) that short scene in Forrest Gump when he calls in about the people in the office with their flashlights, and now, of course, (3) all the Deep Throat news coverage from W. Mark Felt’s recent revelation that he was the informant.

I guess I’ll need to read up on the Watergate Scandal in Wikipedia and rent a copy of All the President’s Men to keep up with the times. Other people appear to have had the same idea.