GMA merely catching up with the AFP?

This video has been circulating in the Philippine political blogosphere for a couple of days now:

It’s a raw footage of Mrs. Arroyo’s tantrums during the taping of her address to the nation Monday where she ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP)”to defend every inch” of Philippine territory– the very same territory that she wanted to give away, by the way– from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The root of the tantrums was the ineptitude of Mrs. Arroyo’s staff to get all things- more specifically the teleprompter- ready before she entered the Malacanang press briefing room. A more detailed account of what happened can be found here.

The scene made the evening news on most of Manila’s major TV stations last Monday. My uncle and my grandmom were, as always, ridiculing Gloria; aghastly deriding how “unpresidential” she was for being unable to control her temper. TV5 reporter Jove Francisco, who has been covering Mrs. Arroyo even when she was still secretary of Social Welfare, said in his blog that Gloria actually “looked like she was whining.”

In fairness to the Bitch, I think there’s another angle we should all look at here. Like why was the teleprompter not ready yet when Mrs. Arroyo entered the briefing room? Why the fuck ideed?

If you study the video, you can see how unprepared the staff was. The presidential seal wasn’t even hanged on the wall yet when Gloria entered the room. And it took them about– I don’t know, 10 minutes? –before they were able to set-up the teleprompter. Mrs. Arroyo had to walk out of the room twice and even storm to the control room! I don’t know about you, but I think Mrs. Arroyo had every right to admonish her staff the way she did last Monday.

I do not know if Monday’s blunder represents the way Mrs. Arroyo’s staff works. Apologists can argue that the taping was done in haste, giving the staff little time to prepare. But still, I think the incident reflects the rampant inefficiency of many of the Philippines’ government workers (I abhor most specifically, for example, those at the Bureau of Immigration). And I just thought the media should have zoomed in on that a little bit.

Having said that, however, I couldn’t resist connecting Francisco’s observations to what my uncle told me last Tuesday.

Francisco said:

She’s naturally stern and “mataray” and I believe she’s been using this trait so that she’ll get things running and will make her officials more responsible and quick moving. Sabi nga nung sassy reporter di ba, being mataray isn’t really a bad thing.

But seeing her actions this noon.

The outburst?

The overflow of emotions?

I couldn’t help but compare it with past incidents.

Before, her taray ways surfaced for a reason, for an aim.

Today?

What happened, sadly, showed that she wasn’t able to control her emotions.

Sure, the outburst was borne out of frustration because of the inefficiency of her staff. (Pareho lang kapag pinapagalitan ang mga opisyales niya nuon di ba?)

BUT, it can’t be denied that this time, she looked like she was whining.

She knew that the media was there to see and cover the whole thing, but she continued with the histrionics. The drama escalated, it didn’t taper down.

She didn’t appear like she was in control.

I can even dare say that she appeared like she’s gone ROCK BOTTOM. (Just look at her resigned but angry look when she finally emerged to deliver her statement.)

And that is quite telling.

In his blog, Manolo Quezon seconded Francisco, saying: “A president with a temper is nothing new, and it could even be argued that Filipino-style management seems to require a volcanic fury to get underlings to get things done. In itself, it is neither unpresidential or unseemly. She’s displayed her temper before. But what was different was that the President displayed a different kind of anger altogether.”

Now why did the Bitch displayed a “different kind of anger” last Monday? 

What my uncle told me was that Mrs. Arroyo actually ordered the attacks against MILF after the generals have already decided to launch the AFP offensive.

Arroyo’s inability to control her temper, his hypothesis went on, is actually borne out of her fright of the generals’ deciding by themselves without consulting her. She made a complete turn-around in his policy towards the MILF to appease the generals who were clearly pissed off with the BJE deal she made with the rebel group. And she wanted to appease the generals as soon as possible, hence her uncontrolled emotions for the delay of the taping.

At first I dismissed this as another conspiracy theory from a Gloria-hater. But veteran journalist Ellen Tordessillias, in a reply to a comment I posted on her blog, confirmed that, indeed, the anti-MILF mopping operations were actually carried out before the Bitch ordered them.

J, […]

Klaro naman yan, eh. Arroyo taped her statement at about 1 p.m [Monday]. The attack was Sunday evening. That time, we were getting text messages from our friends in Iligan. Siguro naman, Malacañang also got the information.

Arroyo went to the airport in the morning. Inuna niya yun.

I doubt, though, that Mrs. Arroyo channeled her order to the AFP solely through that televised address Monday morning. Just because Gloria’s address to the nation came hours after the actual AFP attacks, I think, doesn’t mean that the AFP generals actually ordered the attacks without Malacanang’s permission. 

But still, Malacanang’s sudden shift in its policy towards the MILF gives us a lot of rooms for speculation. And this angle– of GMA merely catching up with the AFP– is one of those which are worth pondering.

Indeed, just right after the BJE controversy came to light, AFP chief-of-staff General Alexander Yano  was reported to have said that “there are no two states in our country; there are no two economies within our country; there is only one Republic of the Philippines.”

That statement can be construed by many as an in-your-face rebuff of the Arroyo regime’s then eager position of granting the MILF their own de-facto independent Bangsamoro juridical entity (BJE).

Prior to Yano’s statement, it was widely rumored that chief negotiator Hermogenes Esperon actually requested to brief the retired generals and flag officers on the details of the controversial memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the GRP and the MILF. The retired officers were said to be unanimous in their fuming rejection of the deal.

Could it be, then, that the military leadership, not Malacanang, is now calling the shots in Mindanao?

Does this, then, explain Arroyo regime’s new, confusing policy in the South?