GMA now free to make "tough decisions"-Drilon.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Belinda Olivares-Cunanan

LAST Tuesday, Dec. 31, Sen. John Osmena called from Boracay to tell me that my column that morning was "out of sync." He said that if anyone could give a blow-by-blow account of the events leading to President Macapagal-Arroyo's decision to bow out of the 2004 race, it would be me, but my column was about the bombing of the Marcos bust. I laughed and told him my vaunted Palace connections existed only in his imagination. I said that last Dec. 30, I wrote my column very early as I had to take a balikbayan brother and his family to Tagaytay, so I didn't hear GMA's announcement. In fact I only learned about it when Speaker Jose de Venecia called me from Pangasinan. He also learned about it only from the media and like the rest of the nation, he was also stunned by it.

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