‘In Between Columns’

It is expected that GMA’s sorry ploy would not sway the opposition. Instead, it is expected to prod the opposition to further push the dagger into her guts.

The play now is winning over the silent majority that supported Edsa 1 and Edsa 2.

If we consider Cory Aquino as barometer, it seems the silent majority is not ready to go the streets to oust another government. They would rather stay in the sidelines and watch legal processes take its course.

As in Edsa 2, they only took to the streets when they collectively thought there was no other way.

It is within this context that we should look at the Lakas majority’s decision to allow the airing of the Gloriagate CD that Atty. Paguia edited and presented to Congress.

Though the majority believed it was not the legally correct decision to allow the airing, politically they have to go with the sentiments of the opposition. They have learned the lessons of the second envelope that triggered Edsa 2.

Besides, everybody now knows the content of the tape. GMA herself has defined the context of her conversations with the election officer she admitted calling flatly denying any electoral cheating.

The tape itself could not convict her. In fact, allowing the airing would give the majority the chance to go all out on the origin of the tapes.

Rep. Clavel Asas-Martinez has made herself and her political clan closer to the opposition than the administraton when she questioned GMA’s victory in Cebu.

However, FPJ never had a chance in Cebu in the last elections because the major political groupings (which included Martinez) were in the GMA camp. FPJ strategists gave up CEbu to the administration.

If ever there was cheating, it involved the local contests.

If the tapes with Sammy Ong did not come from T/Sgt. Vidal Doble and the ISAFP, where did it come from in the first place? Is it really true that the CIA carried out the wiretapping of President Arroyo?

If true, then it means the current destabilization efforts had the blessings of Uncle Sam. It also means the wiretap operation is a result of espionage by our Big Brother.

Star Wars fanatics finally get to witness how Annakin became Darth Vader. The epic, shown in six full-lenght movies spread in more than three decades, has finally come to a climax.

Thinking back, the "Return of the Jedi" answered many questions about Annakin, Luke, and Leia. Yet, watching the answers unfold in the prequels is a different experience.

I recently finished reading the book "da Vince Code" that pushed the belief that Jesus married Mary Magdalene who bore him children. It’s certainly interesting reading as it it. But the book further associates the Magdalene with the pre-christian notion of a goddess.

Conservative members of the Catholic church considers the basic premises of the book as heresy. In fact, a Vatican official had been conducting forums even in Cebu criticising the points raised in the book.

I also chanced upon a book at the National Bookstore that sought to "break" the da vince code or prove its premises wrong. Ironically, this book costs more than double than the paperback I just read.

Moreover, I thought all the while that the book is a work of fiction. But it seems conservatives are treating it as something that should be suppressed.