Arroyo's in Congress

Five Arroyos cannot elect the Speaker of the House of Representatives, according to Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo.
Defending his family’s move to expand its presence in the House—a move seen as intended to keep his mother, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in power—Mikey Arroyo said critics had run out of legal arguments and had resorted to cooking up wild conspiracy theories.
“[Our critics] have upped the ante by saying that the entry of five Arroyos into Congress is to ensure that my mother gets elected as Speaker so she can assume the presidency in case there is a failure of elections …,” the congressman said Thursday in a text message.
“But has it escaped their minds that five Arroyos alone cannot elect a Speaker? And second, in the rule of succession [to the presidency], the Speaker is only fourth in line. We still have the Senate President. Take note that we have a very much functioning and active Senate which would be expected to block such a move,” he said.
Marcos’ ‘playbook’
The First Family’s purported plan to keep Ms Arroyo in power, as well as speculation that a failure of elections would serve to extend her term beyond June 30, has elicited a call for “people power” from Avelino “Nonong” Cruz, who once served as her defense secretary.
At a press briefing in the Senate, Cruz said people power was necessary for not only guarding the votes in the May 10 elections but also in watching Ms Arroyo’s moves.
According to Cruz who is now aligned with Liberal Party standard-bearer Sen. Benigno Aquino III, Ms Arroyo may be following the “playbook” of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos before the latter declared martial law in 1972.
He pointed out that Marcos also “coopted” the Supreme Court and installed loyal military officers in key positions.
‘Welgang bayan’
As it turned out, even the son and namesake of the late dictator, who was himself hounded out of Malacañang in February 1986 by people power, has called for street protests.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., a senatorial candidate of the Nacionalista Party, described a “welgang bayan” (people’s strike) as “a persuasive instrument to prevent an Arroyo holdover government.”
He said “a public protest done on a massive scale,” including demonstrations, sit-down strikes, work stoppage, and a boycott by the transport sector, “would have to be launched to force [Ms Arroyo] out of Malacañang if she should refuse to leave at the end of her term.”
But Marcos stressed that no armed component should join the “welgang bayan” because any violent takeover “will only spell failure for the administration that will succeed the Arroyo regime.”
“There is no way that the people will accept Gloria Arroyo remaining in office even a minute longer beyond her term. While the specter of a failure of elections hovers threateningly, the public has to be doubly on guard against any possible machination by the present administration to perpetuate itself in power,” Marcos said.
No legal basis
Although eligible to seek a third term as representative of the second district of Pampanga, Mikey Arroyo has given up his seat to allow his mother to run for it, and is now a nominee of the party-list Ang Galing Pinoy.
Bristling at the ensuing criticism, he said no one had yet provided a legal basis for proposing that he be disqualified as a nominee of the party-list group claiming to represent security guards.
Mikey Arroyo said there were only two requirements governing party-list representation—that the sector one intended to represent was truly marginalized, and that one was a true advocate of the sector’s cause, interests and goals.
He said he fulfilled both.
He added that unless critics could provide a legal basis to disqualify him and his mother from seeking seats in the House, they should mind their own business and focus on their own campaigns.
The other Arroyos in the House are Ms Arroyo’s younger son, Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado Arroyo; her brother-in-law, Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio Arroyo; and her sister-in-law, Kasangga Rep. Ma. Lourdes Arroyo.
First step is to coopt
Cruz said the President’s dilemma was that she would lose her immunity from criminal cases at the end of her term.
He said this was why he would not put it past her to indulge in certain “options,” such as ensuring that “a friendly candidate” would win as president, or extending her term.
Cruz said he believed that Ms Arroyo was “seriously putting” a term extension “in the works.”
“Because why would you insist on appointing a Chief Justice in clear violation of the constitutional ban that 60 days before an election and until your term, you cannot appoint any public official except in the executive and acting capacity? That has been a 50-year-old rule,” he said.
He added that it was first invoked by no less than Ms Arroyo’s father, the late former President Diosdado Macapagal.
Another point of suspicion is Ms Arroyo’s appointment of Gen. Delfin Bangit, a close ally, as the new Armed Forces chief of staff, Cruz said.
He said this showed a “pattern.”
“In the playbook of President Marcos, the first step is you coopt. He appointed his classmates to the Supreme Court,” Cruz said.
He said Marcos’ next step was to install a loyal AFP chief of staff in the person of Fabian Ver.
Empiricist
Cruz said Ms Arroyo’s other option was to back a friendly candidate. He said he did not think she would back Aquino or even her candidate, the administration standard-bearer Gilbert Teodoro.
“The President is an empiricist. She looks at the surveys and she wants to be with the winning candidate,” Cruz said.
And with Aquino, who had promised to form a commission to investigate the corruption cases during her watch, off her list, “who would be the logical next best bet for her?” he said, adding:
“My appeal is [for] people power to guard the votes. And we need people power so we can fight attempts to extend the term of the President.”
Cruz also said people power would be even more urgent because the Commission on Elections had “removed the safeguards” in the Automated Election System Law.
Suspicious moves
Marcos Jr. also warned the public of the recent “suspicious moves by Malacañang” that included Bangit’s appointment as AFP chief of staff and the recent statement of Charito Planas, a deputy spokesperson of Ms Arroyo, that a military junta would wield power in the event of a failure of elections.
He likewise said the Supreme Court ruling authorizing Ms Arroyo to appoint a new Chief Justice despite a ban on midnight appointments “has only served to worsen the already jittery political climate.”
“We are seeing all the unsettling signs of a shadowy design to subvert the Constitution and our democratic process. Sadly, the nation can no longer rely on any assurances from this administration about respect for the law and for the popular will,” Marcos said

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