The Great Inflation

By: Manuel L. Quezon III - @inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:07 AM September 12, 2018

Of expectations, that is. When it was announced that the President would address the
nation on Sept. 11, the generation of martial law babies and those older immediately
(and ominously) connected it with the great dictator’s birth anniversary. By the next
day, the Armed Forces had to issue the kind of statement that triggers panic — don’t
panic, it said.

Reacting to social media chatter and reporters picking up on the buzz and asking the
AFP if, indeed, there was an ongoing movement of armored military vehicles, the
Armed Forces replied, no; but even if there were — and there are, and have been, and
will be — movements of armored vehicles, that’s to be expected in the vicinity of
armed camps, so stay calm, don’t panic, do not fall prey to the evil designs of rumor-
mongers.

But that can be explained away as an excess of zeal on the part of the military. What
really put the current state of the ruling Noob Society on full display was when the
Palace made an announcement early yesterday afternoon. The next 20 minutes or so
that gripped the nation can be summarized as follows:

Presidential Communications Operations Office: No presidential presser anymore, we

can’t say why.

Bong Go: No presser but speech to proceed at 3:15.

Salvador Panelo: No presser was scheduled in the first place.

Harry Roque: No cancellation happened; what was scheduled will push through but
under modified format.

Indeed, what there would be, Roque purred, was a “tête-à-tête.” Panelo would read
questions from the media, which, however, would be barred from the actual tête-à-tête.
The Malacañang Press Corps had been biding its time, literally kept in the dark —
someone, somewhere, didn’t think it was necessary to switch on the lights in the media
briefing room. But rumblings of discontent, shared by foreign and domestic media
practitioners alike, provoked a withdrawal of questions from the forthcoming tête-à-
tête.

In the end, the tête-à-tête proved a test of patience, as the President’s complexion bore a
startling — and distracting — resemblance to Among Ed Panlilio (hopefully, a makeup
artist somewhere is going to take the blame). A foreign journalist from abroad
commented online that it was a scene straight out of the Vladimir Putin playbook. For
the domestic crowd, the only thing missing was the late Ronnie Nathanielsz, though
Panelo proved an equally obliging substitute — exclaiming, at one point, with pointed
enthusiasm, that the President looked very healthy, indeed.

The President ended up revealing what had been clear since his particularly ill-
tempered press conference when he returned earlier than expected from Jordan: The
scheme of the Solicitor General to pin down Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV has caused
unforeseen complications, not just in terms of a debate within the Armed Forces and
general contempt over the move’s legal reasoning on the part of the legal community,
but also the continuation of the erosion of the perception that the President’s word is,
literally, the law.

Judges dug in their heels — or, to be precise, shuffled their papers — saying they had to
hold hearings and study the case. This led to the military and police taking on a more
neutral stance, subordinating their actions to the courts, leading, in the end, to a swift,
surprising consensus to let the courts handle matters without rushing to an actual arrest.

If the past two months have seen the startling transformation of the President from a
strongman whom no one dared oppose, to a tired, cantankerous senior citizen
overwhelmed by events, then the Trillanes saga offered the chance to prove who’s boss.
It’s turning out that there remains residual self-respect among legal practitioners to
resist the Executive’s whims—gently, but firmly enough (so far).

The President’s bullying and hectoring has found its match in Trillanes, who has never
been subtle and whose lack of subtlety is apparently tailor-made for confronting the
current Chief Executive. Indeed, the whole message in the presidential tête-à-tête, if
there was one to be found, was that the President has discovered the limits to his power
and charisma. There are lines more and more of his subordinates won’t cross. He
needed to save face, and so he had a chat on TV.

mlquezon3@gmail.com

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