MIDDLE ROAD: The road ahead is likely to remain dark and difficult if we continue to treat the Estrada question as a cataclysmic fight to the death of two opposing forces, if we demand total defeat for either Joseph Estrada or Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Realistically, it is too much for Mr. Estrada to expect the Supreme Court to just admit an error in judgment, if indeed there was an error, and hand over the presidency back to him.

But it may also be unjust for the tribunal to stick to an error, if indeed there was an error, and insist ex cathedra that Mr. Estrada was permanently incapacitated or resigned when it installed Mrs. Arroyo as president on Jan. 20, 2001.

Any court resolution giving total victory to either side will not settle anything. It will only feed animosities, continue to divide the nation, and drag down the presidency of whoever comes out the victor.

From the darkness, a compromise suggests itself. The correct road to take might be the path discernable between where the forces of the two protagonists are girding for another bruising battle.

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OPPOSING ARGUMENTS: Most of the discussions we have heard and read in media favoring either side follow these lines:

1. For Mr. Estrada:On the day Mrs. Arroyo was installed president, neither Mr. Estrada nor majority of his Cabinet had declared him “permanently incapacitated.” Neither did he resign at any point. Therefore, he had not been removed from, nor had he given up, the presidency.
2. For Mrs. Arroyo:Her installation as president was valid. Even assuming it was legally tainted, what do we do now with all her official acts and all government transactions since January 2001? Voiding her presidency would plunge the nation into chaos, and we cannot risk that.

The root of the controversy lies in Mrs. Arroyo’s installation by Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide Jr. on Jan. 20, 2001. The ongoing hearing of plunder charges against Mr. Estrada before the Sandiganbayan, while important, is only a secondary issue.

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EARNEST DIALOGUE: With both camps seeing the world in black and white, with either side insisting in the total righteousness of its position and the total incorrectness of the other side, another Supreme Court ruling either way will not resolve the question.

With that, it seems that only a bloody confrontation approximating a civil war attended by the physical elimination of the leaders of the losing camp could allow us another stab at a fresh start.

But this violent solution is obviously not the way this suffering nation should go.

We think this is the time for us to gather in the middle ground and, by earnest dialogue, work out a compromise. The more lasting solution appears to us as more political than legal.

With due respect, we dare say that on this burning issue, the Supreme Court is better advised to lean back and allow an extra-judicial settlement.

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BUT IF IN ERROR…: We suggest that the Supreme Court, some of whose leading lights appear to be susceptible to divine guidance anyway, pray over the issue.

We’re sure they are already doing this, but we ask them to continue praying really hard and cleanse themselves of lingering bias — foremost in their minds not only the law that frail man has written, but true justice and equity inspired from above.

If after the total process, they or a majority of the court finds their declaration of permanent incapacity and/or resignation (of Mr. Estrada) constitutionally sound, then that’s it.

Let them say so clearly in response to any action that Mr. Estrada may raise or revive before the tribunal — and let us all sink or swim in the deluge, if any.

But if deep in their hearts the justices think they made a mistake in their pronouncements on those two pivotal issues that had been made the alternative bases of the Arroyo takeover, then we have a suggestion.

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THE FORMULA:The middle path between the two warring camps that we are suggesting is premised on the possibility that the Supreme Court had erred. Roughly, this is the proposed formula:

Upon completion of quiet negotiations, the Supreme Court will revise its previous ruling based on new pleadings, saying in effect that Mr. Estrada was neither permanently incapacitated nor resigned on Jan. 20, 2001, and was therefore still the president until that point.

But such a decision will be handed down only with the prior submission by Mr. Estrada of a formal letter or declaration of resignation dated or antedated to whenever is best under the circumstances. (This is more problematic than the variation below)

Or — we prefer this second variation — he will write and file (1) a document dated Jan. 20, 2001, saying he was going on leave, and (2) a letter of resignation dated at a mutually agreed later date.

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AFTEREFFECTS: The desired effects include:

1. Estrada’s basic claim that he was neither permanently incapacitated nor resigned — which only he (or a majority of his Cabinet in the case of incapacity) can determine — will be acknowledged by the court.
2. Estrada’s well-timed resignation will validate the Arroyo presidency, and all official acts of President Arroyo and all government transactions under her administration.
3. The Supreme Court’s error (the assumption is that the court will acknowledge the error) will not be perpetuated as part of the law of the land.

Using the second variation wherein Mr. Estrada just goes on leave first will also cover the claimed fact that Mrs. Arroyo was inducted only as acting president on Jan. 20, 2001.

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HEALING THE WOUNDS:This proposal will mean that Mr. Estrada would have lost the presidency (he has de facto lost it anyway), but he would have won his legal point. The compromise should be acceptable to him considering the extreme difficulty, under the circumstances, of his taking back the presidency on the basis of judicial processes.

With the Arroyo presidency thus validated, there will be no disruption in the functioning of the presidency and the rest of the bureaucracy.

Hopefully, this compromise will help heal political wounds.

Estrada followers raring to topple the Arroyo regime and Arroyo partisans lusting for the routing of the Estrada forces would not be able to claim total victory, but both camps would have won some important points in the process.

Both Mrs. Arroyo and Mr. Estrada can redeem the day (and themselves) and demonstrate their leadership by quelling negative reactions from their respective camp. Both of them can issue patriotic declarations and should make a big show of meeting each other in compromise for the sake of the nation.

This proposed formula for political settlement, with the cooperation of the Supreme Court, could be worked out only in private, brokered by respected persons acceptable to all parties. Obviously being still in the rough, it can stand refinements.