Written in the stars
By Noralyn Mustafa
Inquirer News Service

ACCORDING to Galileo, mathematics is the language in which God created the universe. If that is so, then it must also be the language by which He communicates with us. It is the language that all humanity can understand equally well because it is the only truly universal language.

The universe itself moves on a mathematically precise "never-ending nor beginning ... ever-spinning wheel." While our fate may not lie in the stars, like Shakespeare said, it must be written in the mathematically precise positioning of the stars and planets that have a bearing on the people and events here on earth. That is why I believe in astrology.

And this is the reason why I believe-now more than ever-that it was Fernando Poe Jr. who was elected president of this country.

At the height of the last electoral contest, at least three astrologers, when asked as to who would emerge winner of the presidential race, became evasive, although it seemed quite obvious that each in his or her own way had a name in mind. It turned out the reason they avoided mentioning any name was that they had a common prediction: whoever would win might not last more than six months in office. (One even said she was wishing for one candidate to lose for his own sake.) Pressed as to the reason why, they replied that there could be some upheaval or incapacitation or... death.

It is all very well that FPJ's election protest should die with him. Not many people have that much faith left in our judicial system, even in the Supreme Court. There is something about Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that breeds distrust in everything she touches, even our most revered institutions.

Whatever the outcome of the canvassing by the presidential electoral tribunal would be doesn't matter anymore. The majority of Filipinos know who really won, and so does the administration. No less than Ms Arroyo herself has confirmed this. That appeal to the Armed Forces of the Philippines by a panicky Ms Arroyo was really ill-advised. Only in the Philippines could there be a spectacle as ludicrous as a head of state begging the military to "stand by me, guard all flanks from all threats to national security." Now, isn't that what the AFP is supposed to do?

But the reason for the tone of desperation was clearly Ms Arroyo's misunderstanding of the term "national security," which she takes to mean her security and that of her family. As she made that call to our soldiers, she sounded like the lord of the manor who ordered the guards to shut all doors and windows to prevent the plague from joining the masquerade inside, unaware that the "red death" was already dancing merrily in the hall.

Now, who would be the foreign investors foolish enough to put their money in a country whose President, at the slightest threat-real or imagined-to her person, would set up a ridiculous fortress of shipping containers?

The people who make up the nation are outside the gates of Malacañang while she, the greatest threat to their security -- to their very survival, in fact -- sat containerized inside their Palace.

Ms Arroyo never seems to run out of antics to embarrass this country -- and I am not even thinking of the way she cuddled up to George W. Bush after he refused to take her phone calls and rejected her attempts to move heaven and earth just to have a 15-minute bilateral with him.

As if these were not enough, while the entire nation stayed up to watch Da King's funeral procession, a most hated visage flashed on the screen -- the man she rewarded with the position of justice secretary for being a member of the Gang of Four -- to remind viewers about the rule of law!

But the most laughable thing about it was that all that he said in a deeply authoritative and mysterious manner -- as though he were in possession of the secret code to fire the nuclear bomb -- has been public knowledge for sometime now.

Ignacio Bunye probably thought that even he couldn't carry that one off without breaking down in hysterics.

But Ms Arroyo's worst nightmare is if the military itself, which knows to what extent she and her co-conspirators went to subvert the people's will, would suddenly make a turnabout and refuse to obey her order, on the ground that it is not certain the order comes from lawful authority.

Twice have we abdicated our sovereign right to protect our own will as a people.

We stood by as so-called civil society deposed a president who had garnered the biggest majority in the history of Philippine elections; and we merely watched as he was fingerprinted and made to pose for mug shots like a common criminal. Then we slept soundly while Congress, in the dead of night, railroaded the proclamation of the one who was said to have won allegedly because of massive fraud.

No, it doesn't matter anymore that FPJ's electoral protest died with him. If there is anyone who should pursue it for all its worth, it should be Ms Arroyo herself, for her own sake. She should do so, if only to assure the people that we don't have a usurper sitting in Malacanang this time around.

Uneasy indeed lies the head that wears a crown; paranoid is she who wears a purloined one.

I was not a fan of FPJ -- simply because I didn't like "action movies." But Susan Roces was my "idol." When the launching photo of the "face that refreshes" appeared in a movie magazine, framed by an open umbrella she held over her shoulder, I showed it to my mother and told her that if there was a Filipina among the angels, she must look like Susan.

The King is dead. Long live the Queen!

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