Contentious issues

There are two issues in Congress that could affect public interest and the future of this country.

One is the enactment of a committee-approved bill restoring the death penalty. President Duterte wants it back to enhance his war on illegal drugs. He wants five to six executions a day, either by firing squad, hanging, or lethal injection to instill fear among druglords, drug dealers and their protectors.

But the death penalty has not deterred crime! Only the poor suffer because the rich can afford lawyers to save them.

The house of Representatives seems to have become a rubber-stamp Congress. Will the President have his way on this one, too?

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Another contentious issue is the shift to federalism. It can happen this year. The 1987 Constitution needs to be amended, though. Former President BS Aquino had opposed this because it would mean tinkering with his mother’s charter.

The problem is that Mr. Duterte’s lackeys in Congress are bent on amending the Constitution, through a Constituent Assembly, supposedly in consideration of the lower cost.

And yes, there is also the problem of how Constituent Assembly would be undertaken. Will amendments be made via joint assembly, or with both chambers voting separately? The Senate should never agree to a joint assembly since they would be outvoted easily.

The bigger problem in Con-Ass is that there is nothing that can stop the House from pursuing their own agenda, like extending their term limits.

I believe in a federal form of government. Still I have to be convinced that a federal system of government is the cure-all for the problems in Mindanao. There will always be the problem of some regions being richer than others.

How problematic these issues are. I hope President Duterte can see the light at the end of the tunnel this year.

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We all know that BS Aquino used every means, short of destroying institutions like the Department of Justice, the Office of the Ombudsman, the Department of Budget and Management, the Anti-Money Laundering Council and even the Supreme Court to prosecute its political enemies.

The AMLC, for one, was used as a political tool by BS Aquino to go after the late Chief Justice, Renato Corona, who was convicted for the non-impeachable offense of failing to declare all his assets in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth.

Now there is House Bill 731, which seeks to amend Section 128 of the Central Bank Act, to insulate Bangko Sentral officials from the actuations of the AMLC, especially the political acts, which may be influenced by their loyalty to the appointing authority. The bill was filed by House Deputy Speaker, former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

“The BSP should be liberated from the burden of supervising the rigorous demands of criminal investigations such as those performed by the AMLC,” Mrs. Arroyo said.

AMLC Chairman and BSP Governor Amando Tetangco is a career official and has performed effectively. Even President Duterte said he could be appointed to his third term. The Central Bank Act allows the BSP governor only two terms; the law may have to be amended for this.

Arroyo’s bill strikes at the heart of political power being abused. Recall the time when BS Aquino used the AMLC in leaking the bank records of then-candidate Rodrigo Duterte during the campaign period.

I am glad Rep. Arroyo filed this bill.

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I wanted to go to Baguio City over the holidays but was told that doing so would be stressful. Almost everybody had the same idea. My family and I ended up staying in the city where traffic was so light.

I was told by my former student at Ateneo High School, businessman Roberto “Bobby” Ongpin, that his magnum opus—the Alphaland Mountain Lodges—was well under construction. In fact, Phase One is almost finished.

Last year, I had the opportunity to visit the place, some 8 kilometers along the Ambuklao Road. The only structure I saw then was Bobby’s three-bedroom wooden cottage on top of a hill.

The project where some 50 lodges will be built have already been identified. The first 20 units will be completed come Easter time. Phase 2 will start in early 2018. No less than 140 parties have shown interest. Ongpin expects the project to be completed in 2019. Ongpin has used nothing less than the best for the future owners of lodge houses.

I must give it to Ongpin. Despite losing P22 billion when he was chairman of PhilWeb, being tagged by President Duterte as an oligarch and being persecuted by BS Aquino, he remains standing.