A Tagalog saying goes like this: “Kung di makuha sa santong dasalan, e di kunin sa santong paspasan.” Rough English translation: If you can’t get her by praying to all the saints, then get her in blitzkrieg fashion.

It is seen as the standard dual tactic used by a Pinoy macho man to get the women he wants, where and when he wants them. The trick, supposedly, is to do it so audaciously and fast that the result becomes a fait accompli before anyone could object and resist. The unspoken assumption is that the girl will like it in the end despite all her protestations.

Who would have imagined that this sleazy tactic used by dirty old men, street-corner bullies, and horny U.S. Marines cruising the girlie bars, would become the standard approach to political problems used by this government led by a woman?

It is exactly this tactic that has been used by GMA’s administration since her presidential victory in 2004 amid widespread signs of massive fraud and deception. Try to retrace the day-to-day moves and statements during the 2004 election and post-election period, until GMA was proclaimed, and you will see this tactic at work. It was all done with smoke and mirrors.

Look at how GMA’s camp punched and parried its way out of the Garci scandal, like a Manny Pacquiao dead-set on keeping his crown, and you will see this tactic at work.

Look at how GMA’s camp wove in and out of Senate hearings and Congressional impeachment attempts, like a Robin Padilla eluding his pursuers, and you will see this tactic at work.

Look at how GMA’s camp quickly accumulated dubious powers through a series of executive orders that bypassed SC rulings, like a Mafiosi’s barefaced defiance of the law with the help of corrupt lawyers, and you will see this tactic at work.

Now, GMA’s camp is in desperate straits to push through its unpopular Cha-Cha schemes, and is again relying on this blitzkrieg, santong-paspasan tactic to work its magic like before. With the close 8-7 Supreme Court vote against her “People’s (read: Politicians’) Initiative,” GMA is mobilizing all her forces, all her arsenal, to once again regain the initiative.

Like a street bully who receives a stinging slap from a girl for making a pass at her, GMA’s advisers are a bit dazed but more enraged than ever. Her lapdogs at the ULAP and Sigaw ng Bayan are sure to file a motion for reconsideration with the SC.

At the same time, her lapdogs in Congress and the Cabinet are raring to shift to “Plan B” — which is to continue their scheme to turn Congress into a Con-Ass. (What an apt label, that one – a con-man who is at the same an assho—.)

And what if Congress fails to turn itself into a con-ass freak? GMA’s camp will have to shift to electoral mode, to ensure that it retains control of Congress in next year’s elections. And what if the new 2007 Congress turns opposition? Well, as a recent editorial of a national daily said: “What’s next? If all else fail, probably martial law. They are that desperate.”

Robin Padilla did the santong-paspasan tactic with daring audacity, but probably only in the movies. Manny Pacquiao did it with dizzying speed, but only in the boxer’s ring. The Mafiosi did it with utter callousness, but only in the protective shadow of corrupt law enforcers and politicians.

But now, at the head of a powerful fascist and corrupt coterie that want to prolong itself in power at all costs, GMA hopes to do it in plain sight, for all to see: a daring daylight robbery of our constitutional rights, a heinous political murder of our constitutional processes, a brazen gang-rape of our dignity as people.

Dinadaan tayo palagi sa santong paspasan. Binababoy na tayo ng mga baboy. Papayag na lang ba tayo? #