Erratum

Our Media Bureau was surprised by calls from ANC last Friday. The flurry of calls had to do with a statement made by Senate President Franklin Drilon in answer to a question posed by a Philippine News Agency (PNA) reporter. The answer, according to ANC, was that he was not inclined to heed the call of the Black & White Movement to head a transition government (you get the drift of the question, yes?). Now, that was as much a surprise to us as it was to the reporters that heard it.

We have never asked the Senate President to head a transition government, the implication being that we would back a revolutionary transition government. Indeed, Senator Drilon is correct - we have never engaged him, nor have we asked him to join our cause. The current stand of our movement, as of 30 November 2005, is this: in the event that the President and Vice President resign, or are ousted through non-violent means, per Article VII of the 1987 Constitution, the Senate President shall "act as President until the President or Vice President shall have been elected or qualified". As of this writing, although we are studying other scenarios, our stand remains unchanged.

There is no need for us to engage Senator Drilon simply because his role is defined by the Constitution. Far be it for us to tell him what to do. We have not formally engaged the Liberal Party either, but it is common knowledge that we consider Sec. Butch Abad a friend.

All this begs the question - where and how did the PNA reporter, Mr. Louie A. Belmonte, get his information? We do not recall speaking with him of late. We are not "in the dark on whom to tap to simulate another destabilization effort". We believe Mrs. Arroyo is doing a bang up destabilization job herself.

Here is the latest on this little story. We were gratified to learn, as we watched the late afternoon edition of ANC News yesterday, that the PNA acknowledged their mistake and retracted their story. Just to make sure, we checked out their website. Alas, we found no retraction. Where, oh where, can it be?