Part 2
The first installment of this essay discussed how then-President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino failed to deliver on the promises she made on the campaign trail when she was running for the presidency in early 1986. It also stressed that Aquino’s regime was more corrupt than the authoritarian administration of President Ferdinand Marcos it replaced. In addition, the Aquino regime pretended to be honest and benevolent. It was likewise an incompetent administration.
For instance, the Presidential Commission on Good Government created by an Aquino decree was empowered to order the sequestration of properties believed to be ill-gotten wealth of President Marcos and his family, and of officials identified with them. Many corrupt PCGG agents extorted money through the indiscriminate issuance of writs of sequestration.
Almost all top posts and seats in the governing boards of corporations sequestered by the PCGG were given to corrupt individuals with close ties to the PCGG—often to spouses of officials with links to Aquino and her relatives. Many of them did not even have the slightest experience in corporate management.
As Marcos’ successor, Aquino enjoyed the goodwill of the United States government and those of other countries. Aquino could have easily convinced American and other foreign creditors to condone a substantial percentage of Philippine debts which she blamed on President Marcos, but Aquino refused to do so.
Aquino released the leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines who were detained under the administration of President Marcos, including Jose Ma. Sison. Soon thereafter, Sison escaped to The Netherlands where he currently enjoys a luxurious lifestyle while his communist cadres continue to kill Filipino soldiers in the countryside, even up to present times.
The task of drafting a constitution is best left to a constitutional convention composed of delegates elected throughout the country. Instead of calling for a constitutional convention to draft a new constitution for the country, Aquino created the 1986 Constitutional Commission for that purpose. The individuals composing the commission were appointed by Aquino. With the exception of a few independent-minded commissioners like ex-Labor Secretary Blas Ople, those appointed to the commission were staunch Aquino supporters or sycophants.
After about a year, the commission came out with a tediously long draft charter with numerous inherent defects. Those defects were discussed in a series of essays published under this column last month.
The draft charter was ratified in a plebiscite held in 1987. It wasn’t much of a choice for the people—either an indefinite dictatorship under Aquino, or a government operating under a defective constitution.
In 1987, Aquino’s brother, Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr., won a seat at the House of Representatives, representing Tarlac province. Because he was the president’s brother, Cojuangco easily became the most powerful politician in the country. Even House Speaker Ramon Mitra Jr. was viewed by political observers as a glorified minion of Cojuangco.
There was also Nicanor de Guzman Jr., a congressman known for his close ties to Cojuangco. De Guzman was convicted for violating the firearms law.
Despite being a Marcos hater, Aquino copied many of the practices of her predecessor.
For example, during his authoritarian regime, President Marcos exercised executive power, as well as legislative power. Marcos, however, shared his legislative power with the Batasang Pambansa. For her part, Aquino abolished the 1973 Constitution so that she can exercise executive and legislative power. Unlike Marcos, however, Aquino did not share her legislative power with a legislature. Thus, Aquino was both a chief executive and a one-woman super-legislature.
Starting in 1973, it was inevitable that the justices of the Supreme Court were all Marcos appointees, owing to the eight years Marcos had been in power. On the other hand, Aquino demanded the mass resignation of the justices of the Supreme Court right after she seized power. Like Marcos before her, Aquino filled the Supreme Court with her appointees, but unlike Marcos, Aquino did so immediately upon assuming the presidency.
In 1983, when Ninoy Aquino opted to end his exile in the United States and to come home to Manila, the Marcos administration canceled Ninoy’s passport and refused to issue him a new one. Six years later in 1989, when Marcos planned to return to the Philippines from his exile in Hawaii, the vindictive Aquino government did the same—it refused to issue a passport to Marcos.
The Aquino government also acquiesced in the removal of the American military bases in the Philippines without bothering to strengthen the Armed Forces of the Philippines. As a result, the AFP became and continues to be the weakest military force in Southeast Asia.
Despite the separation of Church and State mandated by the Constitution, Aquino allowed her favorite friar, Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, to play an influential role in national politics, including the appointment of high-ranking officials. Sin’s influence in the Aquino government encouraged many priests and nuns to get involved in political affairs.
Citizens have the right to criticize the government because the taxes they pay finance the operations of the government. On the other hand, the post-Aquino regime Catholic Church clergy keep on meddling in national politics, without paying taxes.
Aquino’s publicists repeatedly claim that she restored press freedom in the country, but they fail to mention that Aquino is the only Philippine president to file libel charges against two veteran journalists—Louie Beltran and Maximo Soliven. The libel case was ultimately dismissed by the Court of Appeals.
Also, Aquino’s publicists deliberately failed to mention that the Aquino regime was marred by numerous coup attempts, the last of which almost succeeded had it not been for the intervention of American war planes.
It is also worth mentioning that in the exercise of her legislative power, Aquino abolished the Department of Energy. That blunder made the Philippines the power outage (brownout) capital of the world. Her goof-up had to be undone later on by Congress.