IF YOU are not concerned about a newspaper report that says 90 percent of the P3-trillion budget was effectively released in the first week of 2016, I am.
According to the news story, budget officials are saying that this should have far-reaching impact on the country’s much-delayed “infrastructure program.”
This development, according to the report, contrasted sharply with last year’s disbursement program, in which the release of the equivalent amount of the nation’s monies happened well into the budget year—September, to be specific.
Santa Banana, the Budget Secretary said that this front-loading of the government fund was the result of a new policy at the Department of Budget and Management recognizing that the General Appropriations Act as the release document. The old practice required a Special Allotment Release Order before actual cash is released to a government agency.
Political analysts and observers have said that the only way administration candidate Mar Roxas can win the presidency is for the Aquino administration to flood the country with cash before Election Day. This, or have Comelec resort to the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines’ “hocus PCOS.” This is supposedly how the administration senatorial candidates won in 2013.
With the release, the Aquino administration will be able to make a miracle happen and have Mar win.
The opposition and other sectors, in pursuit of a fair, honest and clean election, should question this move. How could the GAA become a release order already? Is this even legal?
My concern is that President Aquino and his clone Budget Secretary Florencio Abad may again be playing around with the people’s money. Remember how they did so with the Priority Development Assistance Fund and the Disbursement Acceleration Program?
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One of the PR consultants of the Mar Roxas-Leni Robredo tandem for next year’s elections showed concern about the inability of Mar to beat the survey ratings of Vice President Jojo Binay and Mrs. Mary Grace Natividad Kelly Poe Llamanzares.
I told him that I am offering some unsolicited advice for Mar, whom I still consider a friend (although he may not return the favor).
First, Mar’s handlers should remake his image before the populace. He was made to look like the man of the masses, Mr. Palengke, one who carries a sack of rice or driving a pedicab. The people cannot relate to this because everybody knows Roxas is a rich boy. People also think he is indecisive, or a “teka-teka” official. For many, Mar is a fake.
Second, the handlers should build his image as a man eminently qualified for the presidency. He has had years of experience in both the Executive and Legislative departments.
Third, there must be emphasis on his honesty and integrity in public office. Mar has never be charged with corruption in all the time he has been in government.
Fourth, and most importantly, Mar should be his own man and not a clone of the President. Why mouth the meaningless “Daang Matuwid” mantra of BS Aquino III? This has become a big joke.
In fact, I would go as far as saying that Mar’s association with President Aquino is the kiss of death.
I am offering this unsolicited advice for Mar as a friend. If he listens to me, he’ll have a big chance of winning the presidency. But, Santa Banana, the question is this: Can Mar disassociate himself from BS Aquino III this late in the game?
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A vice president is known to be just a breath away from the presidency. He or she is a spare tire just in case something happens to the incumbent president.
Thus, an incumbent president doesn’t give a vice president too much importance, often appointing him only as an adviser of sorts. This gives the vice president more time to campaign nationwide, knowing full well that after six years, he could seek the presidency next.
This is unlike the vice president of the United States who automatically becomes the president of the Senate. This is something worth considering when we amend the Constitution.
In the current political maneuvering leading to next year’s polls, Mar’s running mate, Liberal Party vice presidential candidate Leni Robredo, has come up with something new with respect to the role of the country’s second highest official of government should play.
Essentially, Leni said that the vice president should not use the position as a leverage to advance ambitions to eventually occupy Malacañang. She contends that if the vice president sets aside what could be a consuming desire for the presidency, “your intention (to help) will be pure and your commitment to provide public service will be full.” Leni added that the vice president’s role should be inspirational, “because you will be able to draw a lot of attention to your advocacies which we need to push for our country.”
“I have always said that the vice president should not have an ambition to be president because the moment he or she thinks about it, then that is the end of him or her. Instead of concentrating on the job of vice president you will just use the position to campaign,” Robredo said. She made that statement in a recent appearance at the University of the Philippines where she and vice presidential candidate Senator Chiz Escudero were engaged in what was billed as a debate.
Santa Banana, that statement makes me think about the role of the vice president under our Constitution. As far as I know, I think it was only ABS-CBN broadcaster Noli de Castro who did not salivate for the post when he was VP to GMA. In fact, there were attempts on the part of the “Hyatt 10” for De Castro to oust GMA at the height of the “Hello Garci” scandal, but he did not bite.
As a long-time observer of the political scene, I am convinced that Robredo, who is a neophyte member of the House of Representatives, cannot be classified as belonging to that much-reviled specie called “trapo,” or traditional politician. I also believe that she will walk her talk should lady fortune smile on her bid for the vice presidency.
Hers is a truly refreshing view, a totally new perspective. We need unorthodox ways of looking at things or doing things. I would think Robredo deserves a look as a candidate. Sad to say, being a neophyte congresswoman, she needs more exposure nationwide.
Both Escudero and Alan Peter Cayetano, for instance, have admitted aspiring for the position. And should Senator Bongbong Marcos win, I have no doubt at all he will be running for the Palace post come 2022. He is only 58 now, and will just be 64 by then, compared to Vice President Binay, who is now 73, and Davao City mayor Rodrigo “Du-dirty” already 70 years old.
Bongbong can count on the support of the Solid North, plus the regional base of the Romualdezes in Eastern Visayas, particularly in Leyte, and even among the Ilocanos in Mindanao.
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I am surprised that the government’s top lawyer, Solicitor General Florin Hilbay, has come out upholding the Senate Electoral Tribunal ruling that Mrs. Llamanzares is a natural-born Filipino citizen, and is therefore qualified to run for senator in 2013.
The solicitor general is supposed to be speaking and defending government as its top lawyer. But, my gulay, now he is lawyering for Mrs. Llamanzares. He may claim that he is lawyering for the SET, a constitutional body, but in effect, he is defending Mrs. Llamanzares.
Being a lawyer himself, didn’t he read the dissenting opinions of the three Supreme justices—SET Chairman Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, and members Associate Justice Arturo Brion and Teresita Leonardo de Castro that in conflict of laws between international and domestic laws, domestic laws prevail? And because she is unable to prove otherwise, Mrs. Llamanzares is not natural born.
I wonder where Hilbay finished his law.