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Migz Zubiri and the Maguindanao bovine ordure
AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR By William M. Esposo
The Philippine Star 2007-07-03
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Juan Miguel Zubiri now seems to be infected with the same strain of libel suit virus that previously infected a controversial Jose Miguel we know.
In the race to clinch the 12th slot in the 2007 Senate race, he starts with the threat of a libel suit against rival Koko Pimentel, for allegedly insinuating that Zubiri was about to resort to cheating in order to win. Of course this did not even faze Pimentel whose family had already been subjected to even more severe challenges and pressure during the Marcos era.
Last Friday, Zubiri reacted to the stinging comment of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV who said (in reference to Zubiri) after his induction: “I would not want a cheat to join me in the Senate.”
“I believe that Congressman Zubiri knows deep in his heart that he benefited from cheating. If he is decent enough, he wouldn’t accept it [victory in the Senate race] because that is not something you want your kids to emulate.” Trillanes added.
Zubiri again raised his threat to file a libel suit, this time against Trillanes. “It is uncalled for…calling me a cheat.” He asserted.
“He is maligning my reputation. He is not immune from lawsuits. Even though he is an elected senator, he cannot go out in public and say [those words], Zubiri added.
Zubiri even had some digs at Trillanes: “He is a loose cannon. It shows his immaturity. He is not bringing it to the proper forum.”
From where I sit, wrecking another chair, I think that Migz Zubiri is peddling bovine ordure, the more polite term for bull shit. It’s bovine ordure because Zubiri is merely evading a big and serious public issue — the highly questionable Maguindanao vote. If he takes to filing libel suits as recourse to brush off the Maguindanao issue, then his strategy is way off the mark.
To begin with, does Migz Zubiri really think Senator Trillanes would feel threatened by his libel suit? Doing that to the man who is the same military officer who staged the Oakwood Mutiny and who continues to defy the hierarchy of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) is like spitting against an overpowering wind going your way. You will only end up splashing your own spit all over your face.
Zubiri can even ask AFP Chief General Hermogenes Esperon to send a full battalion of troops to coerce Trillanes and I doubt if that would even faze the senator from pursuing the senator’s plan to investigate the Maguindanao cheating. Without the expressed mandate of 11 million voters, Trillanes faced the entire senate and stood his ground. Without the expressed mandate of 11 million voters, Trillanes never licked ass or kowtowed in order to get an accommodation or leniency for his acts.
And now, does Zubiri think that Trillanes will be deterred from expressing his views about the Maguindanao vote — just because he was threatened with a libel suit? Bovine ordure, I tell you.
Message to Migz
The Maguindanao controversy is not going to go away because of your threat to file a libel suit, Migz Zubiri. And if by the grace of Ben Abalos and Lintang Bedol you manage to grab that 12th senate seat — rest assured that you’re not going to get away with it without the people of this country hounding you and pressing for a real accounting in due time.
Ben Abalos and Lintang Bedol may be able to win you this round Migz, but this will most likely cost you your political future. That is tragedy, not victory, Migz.
Of all those who are closely associated with Madame Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, many find you, Migz, the least repulsive. I’m talking from what many have told me and what I personally feel myself. You struck me as someone like our former Prime Minister Cesar Virata — a basically good man who happened to have been associated with Ferdinand Marcos.
Under a different time and circumstance, a lot of other people could have voted for you, Migz. But Madame Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and of course Garci have made this a difficult equation for anyone on the wrong side of history, the side you found yourself in.
Being with Arroyo in 2007 is like being with Hitler in Berlin on April 30, 1945 or with Mussolini on a lonely road called Mezzegra on April 28, 1945 — fatal association.
And one more thing Migz, please spare us the worst bovine ordure you can dish out when you say that you thank God and democracy for your victory. To Filipino Catholics, thanking God for the Maguindanao results would border on blasphemy. I don’t think the Pope will allow you to associate God with what happened in Maguindanao.
And for millions of Filipinos in this generation who fought Marcos in order to restore democracy in 1986, calling what happened in Maguindanao as the product of democracy is the ultimate insult.
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