The Leyte latebreaker also recalled the tragedy of Ormoc in November 1991, when thousands died in flashfloods in the central Philippine island that is the home province of a former first lady.
By and large the developments in the political landscape had all the forebodings of a long-running telenovela, as the country geared up for crucial presidential elections in May.
Recriminations, lawsuits and court decisions, deuces tecums and ad infinitums all had their time of day, some bandits escaped and were caught and killed if not amputated, and the ever important peace talks were pushed through rhetoric of good governance, the failing peso, and reduced take from a slumping box office.
What did the survey of the STAR’s editors on the top 10 stories of 2003 say? The list, with sundry spot analysis, follows:
• The Davide impeachment. In October, a dark cloud hovered over the Strong Republic when the House of Representatives gathered the minimum one-third signatures to impeach Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. Main proponents were a pair of young congressmen widely suspected of being pawns of their party financier. The complaint — stemming from Divide’s alleged misuse of a judiciary development fund — was in the end ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court because it was the second move to impeach Davide in a year. Last June, deposed President Joseph Estrada filed a complaint against Davide and seven other justices of the Supreme Court for allegedly having been a party to his overthrow in 2001, but this was deemed insufficient in substance. But the second complaint was just a breath away from being transmitted to the Senate for trial, and Davide critics hailed the development as the chief justice’s just desserts. The whole episode was believed to have exposed the weakness of a parliamentary system especially if a majority were in the pockets of one powerbroker. When the dust cleared Davide and the last bulwark of democracy were still standing, even as the chief justice politely ignored moves by his backers to elect him president.
• The July 27 coup. Late in the night of July 26 and in the small hours of the next day when newspapers had long been put to bed, a band of junior military officers and their followers numbering almost 300 laid booby traps around the Glorietta shopping complex in Makati City’s central business district demanding a change in government because of the corruption in the defense and police administrations. Calling themselves the Magdalo faction and led by Navy Lt. (sg) Antonio Trillanes, the rebels held not only the swanky Oakwood Premier Ayala Center apartments but also the entire nation hostage to their antics for nearly 24 hours. The tense standoff ended without bloodshed late in the evening of the 27th, but the effects of this latest military misadventure would be felt long afterwards. At least two of the rebels’ demands were met — the resignations of then defense chief Angelo Reyes and military intelligence chief Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus. The signs of uniformed discontent continued into November when a former Air Transportation Office chief and his aide were killed after they took over a control tower at the international airport.
• FPJ declares candidacy. Just when civil society thought it had outlived the nightmare that was the Estrada presidency came the prospect of another actor getting elected president when in November, Estrada’s best friend Fernando Poe Jr. declared he was running in the May polls and promptly topped the surveys. Known for his underdog roles in movies, most notable of which is "Panday," Poe cuts an uncommon figure in the political landscape, even more so than Estrada, who after all "rose from the ranks" as town mayor. It took a lot of hemming, hawing, and cajoling for Poe to finally throw his hat into the political ring, and in so doing spooked financial markets leery of another actor president as the peso fell to an all-time low of 55.85 to $1, almost breaching the 56 to the dollar barrier days after Da King’s announcement. To his credit, Poe does seem wary of the usual political suspects around him, and people say he wouldn’t have been forced to run had the incumbent not backtracked on her promise not to run in 2004.
• SARS in RP. In the summer months the threat of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome became more than a banner headline when nursing aide from Canada, Adela Catalon, returned home with SARS in time to afflict her already bedridden dad Mauricio whom she had originally wanted to give care to in his dying days, but it turned out she beat him to the grave. The Catalons of Pangasinan were the only two listed Filipino fatalities of the pneumonia-like disease, which worldwide morbidity figure climbed to the hundreds, mostly in China and Canada. Two more known SARS cases in the country were a German expatriate and a Filipina nurse from Hong Kong who was confined in Leyte who were both were cured. In Hong Kong, Filipina maid Adela Dalingay also died from SARS. Even as the World Health Organization removed the country from the SARS list on May 21, the Department of Health has assured that safety measures remain in place, in view of the disease’s potential resurgence with a new case reported late this year in Taiwan.
• Bush state visit/GMA foreign trips. But there was good news too, as President Arroyo continued with her diplomacy economics in a series of foreign trips, from Brunei to Bahrain, Japan, Thailand and on to France and the US in an effort to drum up investment interest in the home country. While securing various pledges if not written commitments in hard cash entailing heightened bilateral trade, the President turned out to be one intrepid stateswoman well versed in the dynamic of realpolitik. Speaking of real political coups, the visit in October by US President George W. Bush was a rare high point in the Arroyo administration, and though the streets of Manila were a virtual police zone and many people chose to stay home to avoid getting swept up in the whirlwind eight-hour visit, it proved that Bush and Mrs. Arroyo were true partners against terror and their friendship went beyond mere lip service. The Bush visit reciprocated Mrs. Arroyo’s state visit to Washington in May.
• The Al-Ghozi escape and killing. The worldwide fight against terror, Philippine chapter, took some blows but recovered with timely interdictions and neutralizations of suspects and confessed agents of a proposed pan-Islamic state. July 14 saw the embarrassing escape of Jemaah Islamiyah pointman Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi from police headquarters at Camp Crame, on the very date that Mrs. Arroyo was welcoming Australian Prime Minister John Howard for talks against terror. Al-Ghozi’s fellow escapees from the Abu Sayyaf though were soon enough reached by the law’s long arm — Abdulmukim Edris getting killed in August, and Omar Opik Lasal caught in October, just days before Al-Ghozi himself was obliterated in a shootout with pursuing lawmen in North Cotabato under driving rain. Other hits against terror were the arrests of Muklis Yunos in May and Taufek Refke in October, also a little more than a week before Al-Ghozi was killed. And in December, Abu Sayyaf leader Ghalib Andang, alias Commander Robot, was captured in Sulu and his gangrenous left leg later amputated.
• Bacani/Church sex scandals. It was a roller coaster year, too, for the Church in a country that is 80 percent Roman Catholic, as sex scandals rocked the pulpit and Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin retired after leading the faithful since the martial law years. Novaliches Bishop Teodoro Bacani was accused of sexual harassment by his former secretary, which led to his forced leave of absence from the diocese. The episode involving one of the most visible and outspoken Philippine priests underlined the public’s changing perception of the Church, that even if they are not supermen they remain prime movers of the faith. Two other priests have since been reassigned or retired for more than just "inappropriate expressions of affection," including accusations of fathering a child with a married woman.
• The "Jose Pidal" controversy. Is he or isn’t he? In August, Sen. Panfilo Lacson unleashed a series of exposés through privileged speeches on the alleged widescale money laundering by First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo. Lacson accused Arroyo of laundering up to P100 million using a bank account under the alias Jose Pidal, and the operations were conducted from the family-owned LTA building in Makati City using as legman one Udong Mahusay. A romantic angle was thrown in too, with Lacson hinting that Arroyo was having an affair with his secretary-personal accountant, who was at the same time being used as a dummy for the laundering activity. Arroyo’s younger brother Ignacio later stepped forward to claim he is the real Jose Pidal, but refused to answer anything related to the matter during a Senate inquiry in aid of legislation, invoking his right to privacy. Attempts to revive the inquiry later in the year have been unsuccessful, as the lead Senate committee in the investigation, the Blue Ribbon, said Lacson’s evidence was sorely lacking.
• SC decisions on Marcos, Meralco. Again a bit of good news was a pair of decisions by the Supreme Court, which after all benefited the perceived greater good. In April, the court ordered Meralco to refund up to P28 billion in overcharges to customers, which repayments were to be done in tranches so as not to severely compromise Meralco’s financial viability. The refunds were felt near yearend with the significantly reduced bills. In July the court declared the $658 million escrow account belonged to the government, and a month later Swiss officials approved the handover. But in September, Hawaii Judge Manuel Real blocked the transfer saying allowances should be made for human rights victims during the martial law era to get compensation from the Marcos loot. Such court decisions, including one on the coco levy, may have earned the ire of the high and mighty.
• Heinous crimes, death penalty comeback. Nothing galvanized the peace and order loving citizenry more than the abduction and murder in November of Coca-Cola Export Corp. finance manager Betti Chua Sy, summa cum laude graduate of the University of the Philippines. The upsurge of the heinous crime like kidnapping, victimizing mostly members of the Filipino-Chinese community, led to calls for the lifting of the moratorium on the death penalty. Which the President finally acceded to for the first time during her inherited term of office, raising the very real possibility that the lethal injection chamber in Alabang may again be used early next year after being idle since 2000.
So long and godspeed: Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas F. Ople, Raul Locsin of BusinessWorld, Sen. Renato Cayetano, Bishop Antonio Fortich, Dean Armando Malay, farmer-journalist Joe Burgos, MILF chairman Hashim Salamat, writers Larry Francia, Alex Hufana and Clovis Nazareno, former NPA chief Rolly Kintanar, finance officer Wenoli Bollozos of The STAR.