‘Throwbacks’

COMMONSENSE By Marichu A. Villanueva (The Philippine Star)

Using the social media language “throwbacks,” may I share these memories of having covered the past four Presidents up close and personal at Malacañang. This is to lay the basis of my previous assertion there is nothing new or novel in the attempts by certain political quarters to deliberately fan the talks of extending the term of President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III.

For someone who supposedly started the countdown since day one in office on June 30,2010, President Aquino is now being made to appear by his allies as having an open mind for a second term in palace. From his own countdown, President Aquino has 688 days remaining from his six-year term.

The official spokespersons identified with the bloc of the ruling administration party cited P-Noy is but human to change his mind. If we are to believe them, P-Noy maybe cajoled into acquiescing to the wishes of his “bosses” – the Filipinos – if there is widespread clamor for him to extend his term.

However, those at the Palace bloc identified with the presidential sisters shot down these trial balloons. Certainly, the Aquino siblings would staunchly help preserve their late mother’s legacy of having restored democracy in the country after EDSA-1 as enshrined in our 1987 Constitution.

Ironically, spreading loose talk on term extension was first applied during the administration of P-Noy’s late mother, former President Corazon “Cory” Aquino. It was the brainchild of her then executive secretary and now Senate president Franklin Drilon. Before he became the “big man at the Senate,” Drilon served as the so-called “little President” during the last two years of the Cory administration.

Mrs.Aquino was being seen then as a “lameduck” President towards the last stretch of her term. At that time, there was already so much jockeying among contenders wishing to become Mrs. Aquino’s “anointed” candidate in the May 1992 presidential elections. She had simple qualification for her presidential candidate as someone who would provide continuity of what she had started.

The pro-administration Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) stalwarts in Congress were pushing for the late Speaker Ramon Mitra. On the other hand, former defense secretary and EDSA-1 hero, Fidel V. Ramos supported by his sister, then Sen.Leticia Ramos-Shahani started their own party called Lakas ng Tao that merged and eventually became the Lakas-National Union of Christian Democrats with the late Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Raul Manglapus.

As Palace allies tried to outsmart each other to get presidential anointment, Drilon casually dropped statements to Palace reporters that Mrs. Aquino may opt to run for the presidency herself. Drilon opined Mrs. Aquino was not covered by the ban on re-election since she was not elected under the 1987 Constitution.

Eventually, Mrs.Aquino picked Ramos as her “anointed” presidential candidate and won by a slim margin over his closest rival, now Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

Drilon would later admit to us he got the tacit blessings from Mrs.Aquino. According to Drilon, his agreement with Mrs. Aquino was that she should neither confirm nor deny him.

So for quite a long time, Mrs.Aquino kept everybody guessing and did not say a word about her real intention to quietly retire from politics as she did.

Towards the end of his administration, Ramos also tried but failed this tack of term extension through Charter change (Cha-cha).

In the case of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, she did a reverse psychology and succeeded – albeit her re-election and stay in office for nine years remain under clouds of doubt. Since she only succeeded into office ousted President Joseph Estrada after the EDSA-2 in January 2001, then Vice President Arroyo was certainly not covered by re-election ban. She surprised her political foes when she declared during Rizal Day speech in 2003 that she won’t run in the May 2004 presidential polls. As it turned out, she ran and won and the rest is history.

Fast forward. The possible extension in office of P-Noy gained life after Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Mar Roxas II publicly expressed his personal wish to see the son of Mrs. Aquino continue in office for another six years. That is, if the Constitution permits it.

Precisely, that’s the undeniable reality. Our Constitution only provides a fixed term of six years and no re-election for the President.

This is in relation to ongoing initiatives of P-Noy’s allies in the 16th Congress to amend the Constitution through legislation. Led by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., the Liberal Party (LP) initiated Cha-cha bills seeking specifically to amend certain economic provisions viewed as overly restrictive.

Last week, the Speaker made it clear he would not allow efforts by certain LP stalwarts to propose additional Cha-cha amendments to include lifting of term limits for elective officials.

This term extension cropped up a few days after Vice President Jejomar Binay’s disclosure that some LP stalwarts sounded him out about his possible adoption as “guest” candidate for the 2016 presidential race. The Vice President casually shared this with Palace reporters who covered the opening of the commemorative exhibit marking the fifth death anniversary of Mrs. Aquino last Monday at the Glorietta mall in Makati where P-Noy and his sisters were also present.

Binay’s gambit paid off. He apparently drew out to the open light the LP forces working from the dark shadows to boost the candidacy of Roxas as their presumptive presidential standard bearer. Roxas has been terribly lagging behind Binay who has been topping the surveys on presidential preferences among candidates likely to run in 2016.

Incidentally, the poll protest of Roxas against Binay at the Presidential Electoral Tribunal remains pending up to now. Roxas was P-Noy’s erstwhile vice presidential runningmate but lost to Binay during the May, 2010 elections.

An early bird, Binay was the first to declare his bid in the next presidential elections in May, 2016. Roxas, on the other hand, continually hemmed and hawed whenever asked about his possible throwing his hat in the next presidential race.

While still projecting himself as a reluctant presidential candidate, Roxas threw the monkey wrench of term extension for P-Noy. But by making P-Noy as the moving spirit for his term extension, these talks are giving us “throwbacks” of the worst nightmares we had in our country.