By Raissa Robles

Enrile & Pangilinan

Senator Juan Ponce Enrile will probably become Senate President, unless by some miracle and a nudge from those close to the current Presidential Palace occupant, Senator Francis Pangilinan will win.

As with most previous battles I have seen over the Senate Presidency, this present one has little to do with national interest and a lot with personal ambitions.

Whoever backs the winner in this contest gets to head a key committee that will add at least P6 million pesos a year (P500,000 pesos a month) to the spending money a senator can use for almost anything. Yes, ANYTHING.

Whoever backs the winner carries more clout within the state bureaucracy.

What I find disturbing, though, is that I have not heard any of them say exactly what legislation they want the Senate President to push or what laws the potential winner will back, or their stance on key issues.

Their arguments so far for backing one candidate over another consist of saying – I promised to support him or they did not want me in the party.

Senator Francis Panglinan did say that:

My decision to pursue the Senate Presidency is premised on our desire to push for genuine change for our nation…We trust that our senators realize the urgent and pressing need to establish a working majority in the chamber to ensure that we are united in helping solve the country’s many problems.

But he did not spell out what this is.

I know, I know, I should be used to this by now. But I’m not. I wish things would change and the only way they will is  if ordinary citizens demand more from their senators.

Which candidate for the Senate Presidency will be “independent”?

A number of senators have argued that Pangilinan should not become Senate President because they want an independent Senate. Independent from Malacañang Palace.

Let’s raise other points – which candidate is also likely to be independent from ex-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?

And which is a bigger concern for you – independence from President Benigno Aquino III or from ex-President Arroyo?

I raise these points because the identity of the next Senate President will determine whether ex-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will gain a foothold in the Senate.

(more…)

Exclusive

By Raissa Robles

By tomorrow Monday, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will barely have any cabinet secretaries left to convene a cabinet meeting and will no longer have her favorite, favorite general Delfin Bangit at her official beck and call.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile is right. General Bangit’s term of office as Armed forces Chief-of-Staff has just lapsed. Enrile said Bangit is now considered bypassed because he failed to get the nod of the Commission on Appointments (CA).

Enrile should know what he’s talking about. The Constitution designates the Senate President as the ex-officio Chairman of the CA. Its members consists of 12 other senators and 12 congressmen.  The CA is the Constitutional check on the president’s appointing powers.

But let me digress a bit to explain how President Arroyo has found herself in this strange mess of her own making, where at least 14 of her cabinet secretaries are now suddenly jobless:

1. Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral
2. Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales
3. Justice Secretary Alberto Agra
4. Agriculture Secretary Bernie Fondevilla
5. Budget Secretary Joaquin C. Lagonera Sr.
6. Education secretary Mona Valisno
7. Energy Secretary Jose Ibazeta
8. Environment Secretary Horacio Ramos
9. Public Works Secretary Victor Asis Domingo
10. Social Welfare Secretary Celia C. Yangco
11. Trade Secretary Thomas G. Aquino
12. Transport Secretary Anneli R. Lontoc
13. Economic Planning Secretary Augusto Santos
14. Labor Secretary Marianito Roque

[I would have added the Press Secretary but I've lost track who he or she is  since Cerge Remonde died. I'm also not very familiar which military generals, besides the military chief, have lapsed appointments. Someone will have to help figure this out. Maybe reporters Butch Fernandez or Fel Maragay can since they've covered Senate for a long time.]

Only the following cabinet secretaries can show up for any cabinet meeting since they have previously been confirmed for their current positions:

1. Finance Secretary Margarito Teves
2. Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo
3. Local Governments Secretary Ronnie Puno
4. Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman
5. Science and Technology Secretary Estrella Alabastro
6. Tourism Secretary Joseph Durano

If the 14 cabinet ministers who have not been confirmed insist on continuing in office, they could be charged with usurpation of authority, graft and corruption (because they would be spending government money while discharging cabinet functions, using government vehicles – you get the drift). Any contract they enter into would be void.

How this came to pass

For years, whenever Congress went on recess, Mrs Arroyo always issued what is called “ad-interim appointments.” Whenever the CA bypasses an appointed official, the appointment would lapse the moment Congress went on another recess. During the recess, Mrs Arroyo would simply reappoint the same official to the same post.

This became so blatantly routine that in 2007, Senator Benigno Aquino III proposed a law to stop this disrespect of Congress. [Presidents were supposed to take the hint that any official bypassed so many times should be replaced by someone else.]

Then Senator Aquino noted in his Senate Bill 1719 that:

In fact, a Cabinet official who has been successively by-passed for fifteen (15) times in a span of three (3) years have been re-appointed by the President and allowed to continue performing the functions reserved only to those officials whose nominations have been confirmed by the CA.

To read a copy of Senator Aquino’s bill, click on this.

He proposed that anyone bypassed thrice by the CA should be considered “ineligible” for that post. His bill was naturally tabled by Arroyo’s Senate allies.

So Pres. Arroyo went on doing it. Last year, when quite a number of cabinet secretaries resigned to run for office or to get more plum and tenured posts extending beyond her presidency, Arroyo again started shifting cabinet secretaries around much like a decorator rearranges  furniture.

When March 10,2010 came, the 14 cabinet secretaries I mentioned had not been
confirmed for their CURRENT POSITIONS by the CA. For instance, Dr. Cabral was earlier confirmed as Social Welfare Secretary but not as Health Secretary.

March 10 ushered a situation that happens only once every six years during a presidential election.

March 10 was when the ban on presidential appointments came into effect for the just-ended campaign period. The Constitution’s Article VII Section 15 on the Executive Department states that:

Two months immediately before the next presidential elections and up to the end of his term, a President or Acting President shall not make appointments, except temporary appointments to executive positions when continued vacancies therein will prejudice public service or endanger public safety.

Mrs Arroyo skirted this ban by antedating appointments, including General Bangit’s, before March 10.

However, there is another Constitutional provision that President Arroyo and her presidential palace minions apparently forgot until it was too late. That was why her congressional allies were frantically trying to convene the Commission on Appointments recently.

Paragraph 2,  Section 16 of the same Article VII of the Constitution clearly states:

The President shall have the power to make appointments during the recess of the Congress, whether voluntary or compulsory, but such appointments shall be effective only until disapproval by the Commission on Appointment or until the next adjournment of the Congress [italics mine].

Lemme see. This means the designation of 14 cabinet secretaries as well as that of General Bangit – whose appointment papers were all signed while Congress was on recess or during the campaign period – all these designations lapsed the moment Congress adjourned once again.

And Congress adjourned last Friday. Sorry, President-elect Aquino, there is barely an Arroyo cabinet to meet with your cabinet secretary-designates for the transition.

Oops.

Official Senate photo

Senate chief Juan Ponce Enrile is nimbly transforming himself into a champion of democracy and honest elections, trying to leave behind like an abandoned snakeskin his long-held role as suppressor of basic freedoms.

But what is he really up to?

The May 31, 2010 issue of Tribune newspaper quoted him as saying on radio station DZBB that “my target” for proclaiming the next president is June 15. But then he added:

If there will be any snag, it still should not be later than the 28th or 29th of June.

He vowed:

I will not allow this country to be without a president by June 30. I will not let that happen even if they hang me.

Should we clap now that he is the people’s champ for democracy?

I would clap except for this tiny bit of information that I got two weeks ago that makes me suspect Enrile is up to something that in the end will benefit himself. Of course it could also benefit the Filipino people but that remains to be seen.

Two weeks ago, I was doing a story for my newspaper SCMP and I managed to talk
to ex-president Joseph Estrada’s closest ally, former Senator and Philippine ambassador to Washington Ernesto Maceda.

Enrile told Estrada – don’t concede

Maceda explained to me why Estrada will not concede to Senator Benigno Aquino III just yet. And he mentioned in passing that it was Enrile who advised Estrada not to concede.

He told me: “Manong Johnny advised (Estrada) against early concession.” Maceda quoted Enrile as saying that despite the swift counting of Smartatic and Comelec, as of 5 pm of May 11th, not a single COC (certificate of canvass) had arrived at the Senate.

Maceda is used to my being makulit – now how do I translate that into English? Bothersome with questions?

So I asked Maceda – are you saying Enrile met with Estrada and personally told him not to concede?

Maceda replied:

It was Enrile who strongly recommended that Erap not issue a statement.

For days I waited for Enrile to disclose that bit of information. But to this day he continues to give the public the impression that he has nothing to do with Estrada’s refusal to concede. That he will try mightily to resolve all issues that will snag Aquino’s proclamation when in reality, all he has to do is tell Estrada that he, Enrile, no longer has any objections to it and Estrada can already concede defeat.

Perhaps Enrile could explain why he is holding the entire nation hostage when he knows perfectly well that Aquino had nothing to do with the election cheating.

As for Estrada’s complaint, I believe now that he has reason to complain but it doesn’t mean he was robbed of his victory by Aquino, as what Koala Bear claimed in that suspicious videotape.

Enrile is the last person to take up the cudgels for someone who was cheated in an election. Fifteen years ago, Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr accused Enrile of cheating him of victory in the 1995 Senate race. Pimentel won his case against Enrile before the Senate Electoral Tribunal. Enrile tried to have the decision reversed by the Supreme Court but lost.

Here is the link to the ruling dismissing Enrile’s appeal.

I asked one of my sources why Enrile did not want Estrada to concede. My source laughed and said Enrile must be “horsetrading”. Perhaps he wants to remain Senate President for starters?

It must hurt Enrile so

That’s entirely possible. But there might also be another reason.

The sudden election of Senator Aquino to the presidency must hurt Enrile so. When he was around the same age as Senator Manuel Villar is today, Enrile lusted after the presidency. I interviewed him then for Business Day when he was at the height of this Martial Law administrator powers. He cut a dashing figure.

He made it known without saying it aloud that he intended to foil the presidential ambitions of then First Lady Imelda Marcos and the military chief Fabian Ver. He intended to succeed Marcos.

The plot that would have installed Enrile to power was unfortunately discovered by Marcos. Then people power came to Enrile’s rescue and prevented Marcos from killing Enrile.

And Corazon Aquino became president. She had no choice but to embrace Enrile
and make him defense secretary.

But that did not stop Enrile from wanting to be president. His chief aide-de-campe Gregorio Honasan led a series of bloody coup attempts – including one that laid siege to the Makati business district -  to try to dislodge Aquino from Malacañang Palace.

Fighting back, Mrs Aquino charged Enrile with the crime of “rebellion complexed with murder” and jailed him overnight, I think. It was sweet revenge to all the human rights victims of Enrile and Marcos. And that included the Aquino family, I guess.

Now Enrile is again confronted with the difficult task of proclaiming as president the son of the woman who foiled his precious ambition. Ooh, that must hurt.

Why fellow senators want Juan Ponce Enrile out of the Senate Presidency and it’s not just because of Villar’s maneuvers

It must be positively galling, delightful and astonishing for Juan Ponce Enrile to find himself once again within sniffing distance of the presidency of the Republic at the age of 86. (He shares the same birthday as Kris Aquino – on Valentines Day).

The first time Enrile was THAT CLOSE was in the twilight of Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship when he, Imelda Marcos and the military chief Fabian Ver were jostling for the top post. (This explains why Enrile made that remark to ex-President Joseph Estrada’s spokeswoman Margaux Salcedo that he had to sit through hours of Imelda’s non-stop prattle during martial law. Enrile described those painful episodes as “moments of intellectual constipation,” Margaux said.

I interviewed him then for Business Day newspaper and he came across as young, virile and dangerously attractive.

But at that time, Enrile was YES MAAM’ing Imelda all over the place despite his being the defense minister and martial law administrator. It was that or off with his head.

The second time Enrile nearly stepped inside the presidential palace was in the early days of Cory Aquino’s presidency when his clone and aide, Lt. Col. Gregorio Honasan, kept trying to unseat Aquino.

Now Enrile has a chance again because the 1987 Philippine Constitution puts him directly in the line of succession for the presidency in case anything happens to the president and vice-president.

Here is the pertinent provision:

Section 8. In case of death, permanent disability, removal from office, or resignation of the President, the Vice-President shall become the President to serve the unexpired term. In case of death, permanent disability, removal from office, or resignation of both the President and Vice-President, the President of the Senate or, in case of his inability, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, shall then act as President until the President or Vice-President shall have been elected and qualified.

But the problem is, Enrile’s senatorial term and the tenure of all congressmen end also this June 30, leaving a dangerous gap in political succession in case neither a President-elect nor a Vice-President elect is chosen or qualified by June 30 this year.

The Constitution states that

Where no President and Vice-President shall have been chosen or shall have qualified, or where both shall have died or become permanently disabled, the President of the Senate or, in case of his inability, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, shall act as President until a President or a Vice-President shall have been chosen and qualified.

Because of this, it is very very urgent for the Senate to replace Enrile NOW in the next few days before Congress adjourns basically for good on February 6.

Congress only resumes sessions from May 31 to June 4 to proclaim the winning president and vice-president. If there is no winner, we are in deep sh-t indeed.

So the most cautious and patriotic thing for the Senate to do is to shower Enrile with thunderous praise and ask him to make way now for someone whose term will end in 2012.

Whom do you pick as the next Senate President among these 12 senators who still have a shelf life of three more years?

Loren Legarda
Gregorio Honasan
Francis Escudero
Benigno Aquino III
Alan Cayetano
Panfilo Lacson
Manuel Villar
Edgardo Angara
Joker Arroyo
Francis Pangilinan
Miguel Zubiri
Antonio Trillanes

Let your voices be heard…