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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.

President Diosdado Macapagal revoked all 350 appointments made by his predecessor Carlos P. Garcia the very next day after being sworn into office before his adoring family, which included 14-year-old Gloria.

Last week, the Supreme Court cited the ruling which upheld what Macapagal did 49 years ago. In the same ruling penned by Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin, he said:

the appointment of the Chief Justice is any President’s most important appointment”

And then Bersamin promptly and inexplicably told an exiting president she could continue to wield that “most important” power, even if by doing so the next president could be denied the chance of ever exercising that power. If Arroyo appoints someone who will only reach the retirement age of 70 years old after six years, her successor will not even get to use that presidential power that Bersamin deemed “most important”.

The Supreme Court has turned a blind eye on the reality that Pres. Arroyo has already made “that most important appointment” not just once but twice – with her appointments of Artemio Panganiban and Reynato Puno to the post of Chief Justice.

If she insists on making a third “most important” appointment, how greedy is that? (more…)

I nearly fell of my seat while reading the newly-issued Supreme Court ruling allowing President Gloria Macagapagal-Arroyo to make midnight appointments to the high court in the twilight of her presidency.

Because in that same 62-page decision, the Supreme Court explicitly states that Section 15, Article VII of the Constitution:

in effect deprives the President of his appointing power ‘two months immediately before  the next presidential elections up to the end of  his term.’

In Pres. Arroyo’s case, the court said,

the period of the ban on midnight appointments (starts) on March 10, 2010.

Wait a minute, I told myself. Didn’t General Bangit take his oath of office as Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff on March 10? I remember this because I filed a story for South China Morning Post about that, but my editor told me to hold off submitting it by one day due to lack of space.

Just to make sure I wasn’t wrong, I scoured the Office of the President website. Sure enough, it stated that on March 10, 2010:

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo today presided over the assumption of command by new Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Delfin N. Bangit, who she said, will ensure the continuity of the military’s role in keeping the nation strong.

“Congratulations,” the President said to Bangit as the latter assumed the AFP command from Gen. Victor Ibrado, who retired today upon reaching his mandatory retirement age of 56. It was Ibrado’s 56th birthday today.

General Bangit’s appointment therefore took place on the first day of the constitutional ban on presidential appointments. But the ban allows for one exception, according to the same court ruling issued just the other day, March 16, 2010:

“The exception (to the ban) allows only the making of temporary appointments to executive positions when continued vacancies will prejudice public service or endanger public safety.”

Going by that ruling, General Bangit’s appointment is only temporary and will lapse by June 30, when President Arroyo’s term also lapses. Not when he turns 56.

Hmmm.

Will all the other military appointments following that of General Bangit also lapse on that day? Bet you’d like to know, generals.

Nearly eight years ago I asked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,  “I’m sure a lot of women are dying to ask you this question.”

“And since you are not a widow, they would like to ask you this question. You don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but a lot of women are dying to know – do you still have sex?”

The 55-year-old mother of three replied  “Plenty” – and gave a toothy smile.

Last January 22, when she hosted a a surprise dinner for 23 officers and members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) I asked her a milder personal question about her hair. Now I’m not so sure if her reluctant reply pertained to my question eight years ago or two Fridays ago.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and FOCAP

During the hour-long dinner, Mrs Arroyo was at her gracious best but she was not all that candid. I must say, it took all of our reportorial skills  to get her to talk about her former college student and now leading presidential contender Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. She refused to talk about her party’s presidential standard bearer Gilbert Teodoro or about her feelings towards the Ampatuans – her long-time allies now accused of murdering 57 people including 30 journalists.

The ease with which she talked to reporters vanished in 2005 when wiretapped tapes of her, suggesting she was trying to rig her 2004 poll victory by a million votes, leaked out.

During her dinner some of that ease returned as she talked about the presidential palace, her girlhood and her Palace chef. Only to vanish when she refused to answer many questions she deemed “political” or which asked about her “feelings”.

Still, the occasion gave me a momentary glimpse of the power and the pomp of the presidency, its lonely isolation, and the woman who was determined to hold on to it for as long as she could.

I did not get any hint she was ready to clear out her desk by June 30 when her term ends.

At short notice. An invitation to dine with her, even at several hours’ notice, was highly unusual and one I seized at a moment’s notice. She had not seen FOCAP since 2007. A press conference in 2008 was abruptly canceled after we were told she would only talk about the economy and would not entertain political questions.

I was curious why the President wanted to meet us on the same day she waved goodbye to the remains of her press secretary, Cerge Remonde.

Her terms for engaging the foreign press quickly became evident. At the entrance to the presidential palace, the guards impounded all tape recorders and cameras on orders of the palace media relations office. It was a first for many of the journalists, including me, who have covered Palace events in three previous presidencies.

The media handlers later explained that no tape recorders and cameras were allowed because it was a strictly social event. A Palace photographer would snap photos. The confiscation disoriented me somewhat because we were informed earlier that while there was no formal Q and A, the President “may answer questions”.

Didn’t she want to be quoted correctly? And it would have been bad manners for us to scribble throughout the meal.

It turned out alright in the end, because someone else, who asked to remain unnamed, enabled me to put together almost the entire dinner conversation. Besides, Mrs Arroyo never told us it was off the record.

(more…)

I wasn’t going to write about poll automation just yet. I thought what President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo told the foreign press corps last Friday, January 22 was old hat, until I saw the presidential palace story on the dinner:

PGMA assures foreign media there will be no failure of election

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last night assured foreign correspondents there will be no failure of elections in May.

In a dinner she hosted for the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) at the Palace, the President said she was assured by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that it is doing its best to complete the automated poll system before May. She said all the funds necessary for holding the national elections have been disbursed.

That’s funny. I did not come away from the Palace dinner feeling reassured that the automation was going great guns.

Oliver Teves of Associated Press shakes hands with President Arroyo while I (in brown coat) look on; left foreground is FOCAP president Jim Gomez; behind Jim is Dana Batnag of Jiji Press; on right background is Zhao Jiemin of Xinhua News Agency - PHOTO courtesy of Malacanang Palace press office

In fact I felt more apprehensive because of what Mrs Arroyo told us.

When I asked her – “Maam, are you personally worried” – about the automation?

Her reply did not give comfort. First she said, “Um”, and she looked up at the ceiling. Then she said, more like talking to herself, “I’m worried. I’m worried, but I – I have to go by what the Comelec said.”

Dear readers, tell me if I’m being paranoid by reading more than what the President really told us.

Help me out here by reading for yourself what President Arroyo (GMA) said – word for word – on poll automation during our dinner . I would like to thank a colleague in FOCAP for providing me with the specific quotes reprinted below:

FOCAP MEMBER: THERE ARE CONCERNS ABOUT THE AUTOMATION PROCESS.

GMA: Ya, thats why I called a national security council meeting. Because we needed to ask Comelec.

FOCAP MEMBER: ARE WE STILL ON SCHEDULE?

GMA:Ya, that’s what the Comelec said.

FOCAP MEMBER: WHAT ASPECT ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT, OF AUTOMATION?

GMA: Well, it’s not been tested. So we expressed the concern that everybody —

FOCAP MEMBER (ME): MAAM, ARE YOU PERSONALLY WORRIED?

GMA: Um – I’m worried. I’m worried, but I – I have to go by what the Comelec said.

FOCAP MEMBER: WHAT IF IT FAILS?

GMA: They said it might fail in some – some areas. But it cannot, but not nationally.

FOCAP MEMBER: WHAT ABOUT THE AUTOMATION ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT?THE COUNTING,THE–

GMA: I don’t know, I don’t know. It’s just that –

FOCAP MEMBER (ME): YOU’RE UNEASY

GMA: I don’t know. Like all of you. Like all of you. It’s more –

FOCAP MEMBER: WHAT STEPS ARE YOU DOING TO AVOID A FAILURE OF ELECTIONS?

GMA: We have to support the Comelec in everything they want to do. It’s their primary responsiblity but we’re suporting them. That’s why we called a National Security Council meeting. To ask them what they would need. We’ve made the budget tthat they need available.

FOCAP MEMBER: LET’S KEEP OUR FINGERS CROSSED.

GMA: They said they’re not entertaining a failure of elections

FOCAP MEMBER: NANDON BA ANG (IS THERE A )BACKUP PLAN IF EVER?

GMA: You know I can’t be their spokesman. You have to ask them. But then they made a presentation. What about failure of elections. They said there may be some but only in isolated areas, but not nationwide.

FOCAP MEMBER: SO WHAT DID THEY SAY IN SOME ISOLATED AREAS

GMA: Same as now. It happens. So they have their mechanism. But it doesnt affect the national anymore.

FOCAP MEMBER: THEY ASSURED YOU IT WON’T BE MASSIVE FAILURE

GMA: That’s what they said. They’re not entertaining national failure of elections, maybe in some isolated areas but not nationwide.

FOCAP MEMBER: DID THEY MENTION TO YOU ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF PARALLEL MANUAL COUNT?

GMA: They did not say.

FOCAP MEMBER (DANA BATNAG OF JIJI PRESS: – YOU SAID COMELEC IS NOT ENTERTAINING THE POSSIBILITY. DOES THAT MEAN THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT IS NOT PREPARING FOR THE POSSIBLITY OF A FAILURE OF ELECTIONS? OR ARE THERE PREPARATIONS?

GMA: As far as we are concerend, we would rather prepare to help Comelec succeed.

FOCAP MEMBER: IN CASE IT HAPPENS

GMA: You know, they said it’s not going to happen. So we take their word for it.

Since our Friday dinner, pronouncements from the Comelec have made me even warier.

Last Wednesday, Comelec Commissioner Armand Velasco told congressmen that they are prepared to do a manual count for 30% of the votes as part of their backup plan.

Do you know how big 30% is?

The registered voters now number 48,275,594 and 30% of that is 14.482 million.

That would definitely affect the outcome of the presidential polls.

Just to give you an idea, I will use some comparative figures that Ellen Tordesillas recently provided in her blog. She noted the following:

• Fidel Ramos won in 1992 with only 5,342,321 votes.
• Joseph Estrada won in 1998 with 10,722,295 votes or 31.39% of registered voters then.
• In 2004, Mrs Arroyo was credited with 12,905,808 votes or 29.64% of registered voters.

Given these trends, we should not be worried with an automation failure rate that could affect as much as 14.4 million voters?

There are other things I’m worried about. When I was listening to Wednesday’s Comelec and Smartmatic presentation before Senator Francis Escudero’s  Senate committee, I realized that the automation left very little margin for error as far as ballot distribution is concerned.

Let me explain. In all our elections,  Comelec only had to send out the number of ballots for each precinct nationwide plus a little extra for spoilage.

Now, because all the local candidates’ names from congressman down to councilor are printed at the back of each ballot, Comelec has to be very precise in delivering to every area.

In Quezon City for instance, ballots for District 1 should only go to District 1 and not anywhere else. Otherwise, the name of the candidates for congressman would be wrong. For the same reason, ballots for Quezon City cannot go to Manila since the names of the candidates for mayors and city councilors would be wrong.

For the first time, Comelec would have to practice that kind of precision especially in far-flung areas.

And some candidates could take advantage by finding ways for ballots, intended for certain areas where they are weak, to be diverted somewhere else.

From what I have seen of candidates’ behavior in previous polls, I am certain there are candidates who are even now trying to find ways to game the system for to their own advantage.

If you want to know more about what President Arroyo told FOCAP – about her hair, the grade she gave her former student Senator Noynoy Aquino, about life in the presidential  palace, etc – click on the link below:

Asking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo about sex was   easier than asking her about politics and her feelings