Untapped conversations with GMA

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is at the crossroads of her presidency besieged on all sides by old allegations, revived by new disclosures of taped conversations, that she "cheated" in the last elections. I do not know the truth about those taped conversations but over the years, I have had three conversations (untaped) with her, which I would now like to share to provide a glimpse of the person I know.

Our first conversation occurred in June of 1970 when she had just turned 23 and I was 18. It was at her father's home in the plush Dasmarinas Village of Makati. Former President Diosdado Macapagal had invited a few leaders of the First Quarter Storm to have dinner with him to discuss the burning issues of the day. So there we found ourselves one night, about a dozen of us -- labor, farmer and student activists -- on one side of the dining table and, on the other, the former president and his youngest daughter, Gloria.

After dinner, our host invited us into his living room to continue the hearty discussion that began at the dinner table. But Gloria offered to give me a private tour of her home so we decided not to join the others. She really wanted to know why we were risking our lives by confronting the Metrocom soldiers of Marcos. Wasn't there another way to push for change other than through confrontations? Wouldn't it be more productive to work within the system?

In the course of our discussion, Gloria told me about herself. She had just finished two years at Georgetown University in Washington DC (I would later learn that she had been a classmate of Bill Clinton). After reading about the rallies and demonstrations in Manila from DC, she decided to take time off from college to find out what was going on in her country. "After all, if your house is on fire," she said, "you would want to go home to see what you could do to stop the fire, wouldn't you?"

Instead of returning back to Georgetown, however, Gloria decided to remain in the Philippines enrolling at Assumption College where she would graduate magna cum laude with a BA in economics. She would then obtain a master's degree from the Ateneo University and a doctorate from the University of the Philippines also in economics. She would teach economics at the Assumption College, get married to Miguel Arroyo and have kids. When Cory Aquino was elected president in 1986, she would be appointed undersecretary of Trade and Industry. In 1992, she would be elected senator.

In May of 1994, Senator Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo arrived in San Francisco, accompanying then President Fidel V. Ramos on his state visit to the US. When Ramos spoke at a luncheon at the San Francisco Marriott sponsored by the World Affairs Council, I was seated next to her at the head table as I was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Council. It had been 24 years since I last saw her and I was impressed that she had remembered me after all these years.

We talked about what had happened to us in the years that passed. We had both gotten married and each of us had three kids. Like her, I too had been a college instructor and while she got her PhD, I got my JD. While I was elected to the College Board in San Francisco, she was elected a senator of the republic. In that post, she had authored 55 laws on economic and social reform including the country's membership in the World Trade Organization.

In the course of our conversation, Senator Gloria turned serious as she talked about the 1992 senatorial elections. There were 24 senatorial slots open, she said, with the top 12 serving a six-year term and the bottom 12 serving for only three years and up for re-election in 1995.

Gloria had been certain she would place in the top three, perhaps even be the top vote-getter in the 1992 elections. She recounted her experience in Cagayan province -- "Juan Ponce-Enrile country." "The polls showed me to be in the top 3 there," she said. But when the election results from the province rolled in, she placed an improbable 18th in Cagayan. And a similar disconnect between the pre-election polls and the actual results occurred in other provinces as well. She was cheated, she said. But she acknowledged it was her fault because she had rejected advice to also put money in the provinces where she was way up in the polls.

When the national election results came out, she placed 13th, just behind basketball star Freddie Webb. She would have to run again in 1995, she said, but this time she would be prepared. She would not take any province for granted, no matter how high in the polls she may be.

Sure enough, in the 1995 senatorial elections, Gloria was the topnotcher, re-elected with almost 16 million votes, the highest number of votes ever at that point. In 1998, she would be elected Vice President with nearly 13 million votes. On January 20, 2001, she would be sworn in as President after People Power 2 had deposed movie actor President Joseph Estrada and after a unanimous Supreme Court had declared the post vacant.

In May 2004, Gloria would be elected president with an official margin of victory of more than a million votes against movie actor Fernando Poe, Jr.

My last conversation with her occurred last January in Cebu at the 3rd Global Filipino Networking Convention. Earlier in the evening of January 24, she had been the keynote speaker at a fiesta banquet for the delegates held at the Ayala Center. She had asked the 1000 global delegates to encourage overseas Filipinos to deposit at least $1, 000 in a Philippine bank where it would earn interest and help the local economy. "Increase your monthly remittances by even $20 a month and that would help the country," she implored.

Indeed, the gross domestic product (GDP) had grown by six percent under her watch, one of the highest ever achieved in many years. The peso, which had been in a free fall under former President Estrada, had stabilized. Exports, at $39.6B in 2004, had grown by 9.3 percent. Foreign investments had increased by 409 percent in 2004. The economy was finally moving forward, she proclaimed.

After her speech, I went up to her to offer my congratulations. When she saw me, she asked if I had time to see her later in the evening. Of course, I said. She then called her aide, Dodie Limcaoco, a friend from our activist days, and he looked at her appointment calendar and said "11 PM" as he gave me directions to "Malacañang South," a converted BIR building near the Cebu City Hall.

Later in the evening, as I was having a reunion with my Philippine Science High School classmates from Cebu, I got a cell phone call from Dodie. "She has time at 10 p.m., can you come then?" he asked. My classmates agreed to let me go if they could join me, so off we raced to meet the 10 p.m. appointment.

When we got to Malacañang South, an aide who was waiting for us escorted us up to a room on the second floor where, a few minutes later, President Gloria joined us. I introduced her to my classmates and she graciously shook each one's hand and photos were taken. My classmates then left the room so that the President and I could have a private conversation.

"Thank you for your work on CALPERS," she said, referring to our successful Bay Area Filipino American community campaign last year to lobby CALPERS to retain its investments in the Philippines . I told her that what the Filipino American community could do to really help the country was to lobby for a moratorium on the debt payments to the US and other financial institutions. Paying $8B a year in interest payments was killing the country, I said. That money could be better used to pay for education and infrastructure improvements.

"I know," she replied, "believe me, I know." She assured me that she was working on it but she said it has to be done behind the scenes. Because when the financial institutions hear the word "moratorium," they get nervous, she explained, and they don't extend us the credit we need to get by. "It has to be done carefully," she counseled. We then talked about the United Nations Capital Development Fund which was funding microfinance projects in the Philippines. "Perhaps you could help us lobby to get more of those funds," she suggested.

While we talked about the Filipino veterans and other issues, it was clear to me that she was most in her element when discussing economics.

As I read the increasing clamor for her resignation because of the controversial tapes, I cannot help but think of the young woman who saw from afar that her house was on fire and who returned to do what she could to help put it out.
And now she may be consumed by it.

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