Crabbing in Congress
and in San Jose

IN RESPONSE to last week's column, one reader, Bert Beltran, expressed his hope that, as Filipinos, we "do away with our warrior-like tactics that make us look like we are fighting all the time. We need, for a change, to look at the common interests of Filipinos, not those that divide us."

While Beltran was referring to the developments in the Philippines, his sage advice should also be heeded by Filipinos in San Jose, California.

There is a looming crisis in the Philippines. Under the 1987 Philippine Constitution, only the Congress, seating as the National Board of Canvassers, can proclaim the winners of the presidential and vice-presidential elections and it must do so on June 30. If no proclamation is made on that day, a caretaker government steps in, led by the Senate President, who shall be the acting president until Congress proclaims the winners of the elections.

If the supporters of movie actor Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ) really believe he won the elections, then they would be pushing for the most rapid counting of the votes so that he can be proclaimed president by June 30. But they do not believe he won the elections (because, in their view, he was cheated) and they do not want to wait until after the proclamation to file their electoral protests, as the Constitution requires.

Their strategy is to precipitate a political crisis by delaying the proclamation of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as the winner of the 2004 presidential elections for as long as possible.

The FPJ supporters succeeded in delaying the counting by nine full days which were consumed with filibuster and pointless debates until one frustrated observer in the gallery sent a note to opposition Representative Digdagen "Delayin" Dilangen urging him to "shut up" please. When Dilangen read out the missive, he exploded and imploded with rage. Ironically, his unseemly outburst stopped the delaying tactics momentarily, allowing the official counting to begin.

The pace of the counting may insult a snail as it does not appear that the Congress will have completed its tally by June 30. After four days, the canvassers had only completed accepting the returns of overseas Filipinos in Cambodia, Laos and Palau.

What will happen then is that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will have to step down as president as her term expires on June 30 and Senate President Franklin Drilon will assume the reins of government. While he is running the country, however, the Senate President, along with House Speaker Joe De Venecia, will also have to preside over the Congress in its tally of votes, while guarding against other senators who will be plotting to unseat him as Senate President.

While this is all unfolding, FPJ-Estrada-Marcos supporters will be mobilizing their forces to hold massive People Power rallies and demonstrations to force the country to accept FPJ as president because the alternative would be chaos.

But they will not be the only players in the game. The military adventurists, led by young officers and retired generals, are also plotting their coups ¸ with or without Colonel Gringo Honasan. And the communists, led by the New People's Army (NPA), and the Muslim terrorists will also be sure to make their presence felt.

This is the Doomsday scenario being presented to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo: concede the presidency to FPJ or watch the nation descend into chaos.

This attitude of letting the country go to hell if the results are not to one's liking seems to be a habit that afflicts our people, more than others, and not only in the Philippines.

Recently, a group of Filipinos in San Jose organized a move to oust Fil-Am community leader Ben Menor from his post as executive director of the Northside Community Center.

I have known Ben for more than 30 years and I can personally vouch for his integrity, dedication and commitment to the Filipino community. It was under Ben's leadership and vision that the Filipino American Community Development Council was able to obtain the funding from city, state and federal sources to build a 24-million-dollar center in San Jose that is the pride of Filipinos throughout the US.

The center, known as the Mabuhay Court, consists of a three-story building with 96 units of housing for mostly Filipino seniors, and 16,500 square feet of a center that provides programs for our seniors, youth and the general community.

Ben's vision and his untiring efforts to achieve it have inspired Filipino-Americans all over the US to establish their own Mabuhay Centers that will serve the needs of our community. And not only Filipinos but also other ethnic groups, from Indians to Vietnamese and Persians, have been learning from Ben on how to do what he did. These groups fervently wish they had a Ben Menor to lead them.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't be a Filipino community if we didn't have the omnipresent Filipino crabs. A group of Ben-haters composed of Tito Cortez, Sarah Gonzales and Penny Aguila went to a city agency in January charging that Ben had committed financial improprieties. The city manager initiated an audit of the Mabuhay Center and, after three months of investigation, was set to release the findings. But fearing that the result would vindicate Ben, the group went to San Jose City Councilwoman Cindy Chavez to air their grievances against Ben and to demand that a new audit be undertaken even before the current audit is released.

Chavez called on the city manager to initiate a new audit and the San Jose Mercury News seized on that bit of news to run an unflattering piece about Ben Menor that featured the grievances of this group. One charge aired in the paper was that Ben had reported to the board that he had only raised 15,000 dollars when, they claimed, he had actually raised 56,000 dollars. They thus insinuated that Ben had pocketed the money for himself.

If the newspaper reporter had bothered to review the minutes of the board meetings, she would have learned that Ben reported that he had raised 15,000 dollars at the October 2003 board meeting. Four months later, at the February 2004 board meeting, Ben reported that he had raised an additional 40,000 dollars. The selective use of information was grossly unfair.

These "warrior-like tactics" of division are pushing us down. How can we ever get out of the basket when other crabs keep pulling us down? As Bert Beltran advises us, we need to focus on what unites us and not on what divides us.

Rodel Rodis is a San Francisco attorney and elected member of the San Francisco Community College Board. He can be reached at 2429 Ocean Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94127 or by calling +415 334 7800. His e-mail is rodel50@aol.com.