Plucked from the garbage heap
The Macapagal-Arroyo regime�s brazen overtures towards remnants of past regimes, especially the repudiated Marcos and Estrada regimes, once more prove that reactionary politics and the parties that advocate the latter are rotten to the core.
Recently, Sen. Blas Ople formally crossed over to Macapagal-Arroyo�s party. After a long time of playing hard to get, he seized Vice President Teofisto Guingona�s vacated position as secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). Prior to this, Macapagal-Arroyo had also wooed and promised positions to Jaime Policarpio and brothers Ronaldo and Ricardo Puno � all of them Estrada minions who also served the Marcos dictatorship.
Ronaldo Puno was former Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) secretary under the Estrada government. He was Marcos, Ramos and Estrada�s main election strategist, psywar expert and operator when it came to fraud. He has been implicated in anomalies involving billions of pesos related to drug-testing and the purchase of handcuffs, guns and radios for the PNP. Ricardo Puno, Ronaldo�s elder brother, was Estrada�s spokesperson. Policarpio, an Estrada strategist and one of his closest friends, was appointed presidential legislative liaison officer under the previous regime. He is involved in the corruption case against Estrada.
Former basketball player and known Estrada partisan Robert Jaworski likewise moved over to the administration side in the third week of July. With his transfer, the Macapagal-Arroyo camp once more took hold of the majority in the Senate.
The regime�s coddling of these personalities and the latter�s constant swinging towards whatever faction is in power highlight the decadent politics of the reactionary system. Macapagal-Arroyo has a special interest in these personalities, especially Ronaldo Puno, because of the dirty tricks he can be expected to concoct in the 2004 presidential elections.
Macapagal-Arroyo has become further isolated politically because of her adulterous political relations with regards to personalities of the Marcos and Estrada regimes. The Council for Philippine Affairs (COPA) has turned its back on her.
Desperately trying to parry criticisms against her, Macapagal-Arroyo has been cackling up a storm and calling her critics names. She called COPA a �termite� because the latter was supposedly undermining her government�s unity and stability. She also made insinuations against progressive forces like BAYAN and Bayan Muna, saying that only the �communists� were dissatisfied with her administration.
But it is Macapagal-Arroyo who has exposed herself and the overall decadence of reactionary politics in the country. Pressed for an explanation on why she took in a reactionary oppositionist like Ople as DFA secretary, she said that �division into political parties in the country has never been based on principle�.
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