Here comes Gloria

SPEAKER Gloria MacapagalArroyo possesses a great name for a politician. When it was clear last Monday afternoon that she would become the first woman to be elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, the social media team of the Philippine Star tweeted: “Sic transit gloria: Speaker Alvarez may yet be unseated.”

The witticism works well as a description of Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez’s ordeal. So passes the glory of the world, a reminder given to popes at the moment they assume office, is the original expression. But it works even better when one considers what last Monday’s takeover meant for the former president’s extended career in public office.

It was a kind of vindication, although Arroyo’s critics may not think of it that way. Many politicians make it a point to play the long game. In the Philippines, few have played as dramatic a long game as Speaker Arroyo has. Like many female politicians, she comes from a family steeped in politics. She was two when her father Diosdado Macapagal won a seat in the House of Representatives, representing Pampanga. Later, for four of Arroyo’s teenage years, her father served as president of the republic.

After last Monday’s events, another neat father-anddaughter similarity has surfaced. In 1972, seven years after his term ended, former president Macapagal presided over the convention that crafted the 1973 Constitution. Now, his daughter’s leadership and political skills will shape how well or how poorly the efforts to amend the 1987 Constitution unfold, at least in the Lower House, and how well or how poorly such efforts will affect about 100 million lives.

Like her father, Speaker Arroyo came to power prepared, having spent years in academic study and government service. That’s not always true of political clans. They both earned doctorates in economics and served various executive departments: he in Malacañang and the foreign affairs department, she in the trade and social welfare departments. But more storms visited her presidency than his. She survived impeachment attempts and military adventurism. More importantly, though harder to communicate in sound bites or short takes, the revenue-raising measures and reforms her administration worked for helped the economy weather the global recession of 20082009. The campaign for an expanded basic education curriculum (a painful and unpopular but necessary change) and the use of conditional cash transfers to help the poor are programs her administration began, but rarely gets credit for.

Speaker Arroyo has now served more years in power than her father did. Anyone who wrote off her political career when she was arrested six years ago, for a plunder charge involving P365 million in state lottery funds, will need to rethink that assessment these days. The Supreme Court, for lack of evidence, dismissed the criminal case against her in July 2016. If the transformation to a federal government comes to pass, she may have a real shot at becoming prime minister or president again.

For now, allegations of corruption and electoral fraud will continue to cloud her record. But how kindly or harshly history eventually judges her, no one can tell. Some of her critics may agree, although reluctantly, that she has a sounder grasp than the previous speaker did of what’s at stake as Congress takes on the rest of the tax reform package that is among this administration’s priorities.

Serious policy work is something this politician doesn’t shy away from. And something she said in 2009, in her final State of the Nation Address, rings true: “To those who want to be President, this advice: If you really want something done, just do it. Do it hard, do it well. Don’t pussyfoot. Don’t pander. And don’t say bad words in public.”

- Isolde D. Amante