About Noli de Castro

I'm in agreement with Conrad de Quiros about Noli.

But more than that, Cory apologizes for the wrong thing for the wrong reasons. What does it mean when someone says it was easy to replace Erap with GMA but not GMA with Noli? It means, firstly, that ousting a tyrant-or worse, a usurper-is not a matter of necessity but of choice, depending on whether there is a "suitable replacement" or not. It means, secondly, thinking in terms of personalities rather than principles-depending on whether the successor is friend or foe. And it means, thirdly, thinking like a powerbroker, decreeing who is to come and who is to go...

I personally have no problems accepting De Castro if that is what the Constitution says should happen. But as I've been saying again and again, when GMA goes, it won't be a case of the presidency being vacated, it will be a case of the presidency never having been occupied. GMA is not the president, she never won the elections. The alternative is clear as black and white: GMA is not the elected president, let us have an elected president. The last elections were a sham, let us have real elections. The alternative is not someone a group of powerbrokers may demand, it is someone only the voters may decree. The one element that has been absent all this time is the people. It's time we brought them back into the picture.

I too have no problems with a Noli de Castro presidency, kung siya talaga ang nararapat, just like I don't have any problems kung si FPJ ang nahalal na presidente. Sure I don't really like these guys, but kung sila ang nahalal ng taong bayan bilang presidente (o sila ang karapat-dapat na constitutional successor), tanggap ko ang decision ng mga voters.

Look, dati... anti-Erap rin ako. I hated him and campaigned strongly against him in 1998. Gusto ko talagang manalo si Raul Roco. Pero nung lumabas yung resulta na nanalo si Erap sa pinakamalinis na presidential election (probably in Philippine history), I accepted him as my president, even though ayaw ko talaga sa kanya sa umpisa -- dahil siya ang halal ng taong bayan. It was tough to see Roco lose, but I "moved on" from there because, malinis ang halalan.

But like de Quiros said re the Noli case,

this won't be a case of the presidency being vacated, it will be a case of the presidency never having been occupied. GMA is not the president, she never won the elections. The alternative is clear as black and white: GMA is not the elected president, let us have an elected president.

And here's what I wrote back in September:

Isa pa, there are some who think na si Noli raw ang dapat pumalit kay GMA, kasi siya ang "constitutional successor." In the first place, kung lumabas ang GLORIAGATE tapes 2 weeks after GMA was proclaimed last year, would these people still be saying na si Noli de Castro ang dapat na pumalit, even though nandiyan pa rin yung challenger na si FPJ?

Di parang sinabi mo na rin na yung deputy Ukrainian prime minister ang dapat pumalit kay Yanukovych nung nalaman na may dayaan sa election nila.

Or it's like saying Marcos should have been replaced by Arturo Tolentino (o yung sumunod pa sa kanya, ala Drilon) dahil siya rin ang "constitutional successor" ni Marcos. LMAO!

At kung nahuli kaagad na nandaya si GMA sa election, it doesn't mean na automatic na magiging presidente si FPJ. We will have to do an "election rerun," katulad nung nangyari sa Ukraine, where Yushchenko eventually won. Ganyan kasi ang solusyon kapag may dayaan sa eleksyon in most parts of the world.

So ang trabaho lang talaga ni VP Noli is to become "acting president" once Arroyo is out... at ino-organize pa ang bagong elections.