GMA situation likened to Marcos' twilight years.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Volt Contreras and Norman Bordadora

PRESIDENT Macapagal-Arroyo is pressing familiar panic buttons and using similar survival tactics devised by Ferdinand Marcos to muffle critics, project strength, and stall ouster moves, according to observers.

They say they have a strange feeling of dj vu as the Arroyo administration's response to its credibility problems mimics the damage-control methods employed by a besieged Marcos in his last years in power.

Marcos, for instance, formed the Agrava Fact-Finding Commission to investigate the 1983 assassination of opposition leader Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, a murder believed to have been plotted in Malacaang. The inquiry eventually pinned the plot on a military cabal, but was seen early on as the dictator's way of dousing public outrage over Aquino's death.

The Agrava panel may have now found a parallel with the truth commission, which Ms Arroyo has endorsed to the Catholic Church as the venue that can look into charges that she rigged last year's elections, lawyer Marichu Lambino said.

For Lambino, the two leaders shared the same game plan: Form an "independent" body that will investigate "their own wrongdoing" in a bid to stave off massive protests.