JDV’s ouster will have minimal effect on business
The “bloody” showdown in Congress may well be over by today, and when the smoke clears, Joe de Venecia will most likely be ousted as Speaker. A number of businessmen called me and were quite concerned about the change in the House leadership and how it could affect business. Quite frankly, nothing much will change as far as business is concerned.
What’s happening in Congress is all part of the way politics is played in this country. The writing on the wall is clear – it was obvious JDV is on his way out especially after he unleashed his son Joey and gave him the go signal to blow the whistle on the ZTE deal. The move was largely believed to be Joe de V’s attempt at revenge over earlier moves to oust him as Speaker – which he successfully deflected for a while. GMA retaliated by unleashing her two sons – and the tag team of the two Arroyo boys proved to be a double force mightier than the tempest created by Joey III’s ZTE exposé.
Perhaps it is really time for JDV to leave the scene and pave the way for the leadership change that younger congressmen have been clamoring for. To many of them, JDV belongs to old, traditional politics. Joe had already made history by being Speaker for an unprecedented five terms; so perhaps it’s about time he passed on the leadership baton to someone else.
The Speakership has always been dependent on the support of the “powers that be” – and that’s obviously the President. I remember the brother of my father, former
Ironically, one account has it that it was Joe de V, who was then a protégé of his former father-in-law, the late Speaker Eugenio Perez, who maneuvered a political strategy to install Liberal Congressman Kune Villareal as Speaker. The 25-year-old Joe de Venecia urged Vilareal to organize a so-called “allied majority” to swing the balance of power to the Liberals which was then outnumbered 77 to 27 by the Nacionalista Party where my uncle was affiliated. In just 34 days, the account goes, the Liberals were able to control the House, outnumbering the Nacionalistas 54 to 37.
Apparently, this was the same strategy that JDV employed when he formed his “Rainbow Coalition” in 1992 which had him installed as Speaker, despite Lakas-NUCD having less than 40 Congressmen at the time.
Meantime, there are talks floating that Opposition stalwarts are reportedly making quiet moves for JDV to join them for a renewed impeachment attempt against GMA. If that happens, then that’s probably the time when political instability begins to rear its ugly head again, which could ultimately affect economic stability.
In this country, politics will always be the name of the game and what’s currently happening in Congress is nothing new. The outcome will have some effect on the political scene, but business will go on as usual with markets doing a correction here and there, but the economy will continue to have a positive and steady pace upwards.
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The awarding ceremonies for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award will be held today with six award categories acknowledging the country’s best entrepreneurs in various fields. From the six finalists, an overall winner will be chosen to represent the country at the World Entrepreneur of the Year Award this May in
SGV Foundation introduced the Entrepreneur of the Year-Philippines in 2003 and of course, founder Washington Sycip will be giving out the awards to the finalists, one of whom is Ambassador Joey Antonio who was a schoolmate at the Ateneo. Joey is the chairman of Century Properties Group, one of the country’s biggest players in the real estate industry which currently employs 3,000 people and has over $2 billion worth of assets under management. Among its prominent projects include Essensa East Forbes, hailed by Asiaweek as the best residential building in the
I must congratulate all the awardees. They’ve stuck it out in this country and taken risks in spite of all the political instability in the past. They all deserve their awards.
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