BY JOVE!

For two straight days now, the President managed to be incognito and far away from the prying eyes of the journalists covering her in Malacanang.

The President may have opted to stay mostly inside the palace these past few days, but she’s been quite busy meeting with lawmakers, cabinet officials and LGU officials, too.

Their SUVs parked just outside the New Executive Building betrayed the supposed intent to make the meetings low key and under the media’s radar. (Some see this as a consolidation of forces at a time that there are moves to amend the constitution, especially because congressmen and local leaders have key roles in the whole process.)

I had to instruct my team to stake out in Laurel Street to monitor the President (if ever she’ll go out of the complex) and her visitors who come in and out of the gates. (To the chagrin of PSG members guarding the gates. But what can we do? Limited coverage or access to our subject just makes us more creative in thinking of ways to do our job.

My team was able to catch the presidential convoy, when her entourage arrived from a quick trip to Batangas to attend the wake of the mother of Secretary Larry Mendoza.

My team just got footage of the vehicles. Just the cars, there was no sighting of the “woman of the hour”, the one who wants to CHACHA.

The last time we saw PGMA was last Tuesday.

The day that she convened her cabinet and when the Timor Leste leader went to Malacanang for a state visit.

She was in red and she looked angry, if you ask me.

And that impression of mine was reinforced by what happened later that day before the cabinet meeting.

After Mr. Horta left the palace, the MAROs instructed the members of the Malacanang Press Corps to proceed to the Presidential Guest House (where ES Ermita’s office is located), in preparation for the cabinet meeting.

“Pero di ba alas dose pa ng tanghali ang meeting?” I asked.

I was told that our crew should already pre position for the president’s USUAL opening statement. Besides, they told us, Vilma Santos (the star for all seasons) is making an appearance to witness and support her hubby NEDA director general Ralph Recto, who was to take his oath that day with Sylvestre Bello –as Secretary of the Cabinet- and Gabriel Claudio-as Political Adviser.

So we all went to the Premiere Guest House, where we reminisced about the ERAP days when the venue served as his official residence.

We waited.

We imagined the food we planned on ordering after the coverage. We tried really hard to forget that we were hungry and that it was already 1230pm. Late na masyado ang cabinet meeting.

Good thing, Ate Vi was there. Forget about stomach pain, it is not always that a star visits the palace. Lucky Manzano, btw came with his mom. Ang daming nagpapicture na staff and reporters. Madaming Vilmanian and maka Edu sa palasyo.

Then everyone was told that PGMA’s about to leave the main palace for the meeting.

So we went to our designated areas.

I was chatting and giggling with NBN4’s Rocky Ignacio, when the President arrived and went straight up the second floor.

I immediately heard a number of lady reporters point out an incident “that happened just a few seconds ago.”

Turned out, Mrs. Arroyo displayed two facial expressions when she saw the MPC members and before she went up the stairs: a surprised look and a displeased face that as one reporter described it was like: “napangiwi sa inis”.

I even asked “Teka, hindi ba ganyan naman ang pangulo lagi?”

They chorused: “iba ito, ibang iba!”
(I had to ask the ladies again today, today, Thursday, if they indeed saw her “unhappy” about the presence of media in the said venue, they all said “yes”)

And you know what? The president suddenly decided she won’t deliver her opening statement anymore. And the palace can’t say “na wala naman talaga opening statement”. The RTVM people were there, specifically the teleprompter girls.

That morning… it was all over the front pages of the major dailies. The night before, all the private TV networks came up with reports about the “hot issue.”

The hot issue?

The President’s revival of Charter Change.

(sabi ng isang reporter: bumuhay si Pangulo ng bangkay)

It was a morning that is quite nightmarish for the administration especially if they listened to the morning AM radio shows where a lot of criticisms about the revival of CHA-CHA were heard.

The day before, Mrs. Arroyo used the visit of the leader from Switzerland as the opportunity to give Federalism another push. The President even noted that Switzerland uses the federal system of government. And oh yeah, because magulo daw sa Mindanao and that a change in the Constitution is the only solution to the problem. Sabi niya ha?

Critics didn’t buy the Mindanao argument.

Despite all the criticisms, Press Secretary Jesus Dureza still called for a presser in the afternoon to declare that it’s all systems go for charter change, telling everyone that they are supporting the senate joint resolution number 10 that aims to change the system of government to federal system. A joint resolution signed by admin and opposition senators.

Kinagabihan isa isa ng nagclarify ang mga senador na pumirma. May gusto bawiin ang pirma nila because they don’t want to be used by the administration. Some of them told reporters that they signed thinking that the move will take effect only after the 2010 elections.

DUREZA: “With some senators who are authors of Res.-No 10 seemingly, for reasons of their own, no longer interested to push for constitutional reforms for federalism especially for Mindanao, our expectation that charter change towards
federalism in Mindanao will not take off soon. We respect the senators’ current position on the matter. Federalism is a way forward for sustainable peace for all muslims, christians and lumads in Mindanao. We had hoped that the 16 senators headed by Senate President Villar would maintain their principled support to a convening of a constituent assembly to push for federalism as shown by their own signatures to Res No.10, Unfortunately, this appears to be not so. The fact remains that it was the senate which started pushing for convening of congress into a constituent assembly, not President Arroyo. The president is merely being consistent with her campaign platform for constitutional reforms. She believes that a federal setup is an aspiration of all Mindanaoans. Her strong advocacy for it is not a subterfuge for extension of her term. Resolution number 10 does not provide for such possibility. Why some senators are not honoring their signatures in the Resolution is something for them to explain. But whatever it is, we respect their position on this. For ultimately, it is both the senate and the house which will make the final determination on this matter.

So, Dureza “respects” the decision of the senators…

Meanwhile, ES Ermita took the opportunity to criticize the enemies….

ERMITA: “Unawain na lang natin siguro may mga nagrereact at di maiaalis iyan… may gusto tumakbo sa Senado sa pagkapangulo….wala naman tayo naririnig sa ibang sector … hintayin na lang natin katotohanan. We are blinded with bias ang hirap tanggalin ng bias…wala na tayo magagawa.

And when asked what the plan of Malacanang is:

ERMITA: Tignan natin pagdating ng panahon ano ang tangka ng adminsitrasyon.

But for many, that’s precisely the issue here, trust.

The fact that Ermita, Dureza and Claudio can’t even answer the basic question “is the President ready to stop her allies in congress just in case they tinker with the constitution and try to amend portions that will allow her to stay in power.”

When I was editing my report last Tuesday night, I can’t help but ask my video researcher to look for the “I will not run in 2004 speech in Baguio City” footage.

It all keeps going back to that unforgettable promise that she failed to keep because months later she was in Clark, Pampanga to announce she’s running.

So yeah, it all boils down to trust.

For some people … the lack of trust on this administration.

Should the people allow these politicians to tinker with the Constitution?