Joker’s warning

Fond memories of former Senator Joker Arroyo flooded media following his reported death last Oct. 5. Oftentimes described as “maverick,” the late senator lived up to his being a very independent-minded lawmaker in Congress.

As of this writing, the immediate family of the late senator reportedly has not decided yet when to bring his remains back to the Philippines. He supposedly died several days after undergoing open-heart surgery in the US.

Not one to be fussed over, Joker through his family left word that he did not wish any special rites for his demise, not even in the august halls of Congress where he used to lord it over lesser mortals among his colleagues.

Much has been said and written about his virtues, exploits and endearing qualities to his close friends and allies, especially his friends in media. But let me pay my respects to the man whom I first covered while still pounding the beat at Malacañang Palace as I personally knew him.

Following the February1986 EDSA People Power Revolution, Arroyo became the first Executive Secretary of the late President Corazon Aquino, mother of President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III. He loved to call us the “Malacañang brat pack,” not in a pejorative way. It was a term of endearment more than anything else – a general description of how young reporters we were then who covered the premier seat of government.

Arroyo, along with his Palace buddies, namely, former presidential legal counsel Rene Saguisag and presidential speechwriter Teddyboy Locsin, would cross swords with the “Malacañang brat pack” during our ambush interviews with them.   

We had a reunion of the “brat pack” in April this year and that was the last time we saw Joker still bubbly as ever at 88 years old. We reminisced those days and laughed about the past. Of course, we talked about the past in reference to the present – the administration headed by the only son of Mrs. Aquino.

He had no bitterness after parting ways a year and a half after serving the administration of Mrs.Aquino. Arroyo would later run for Congress. He never lost in any elections. He served three consecutive terms as representative in the former lone congressional district of Makati City. From Congress, Arroyo ran and won at the Senate where he served for two consecutive terms. Not once did Arroyo change his party affiliation.

Arroyo joined the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban ng Bayan (PDP-Laban). It was Tarlac Congressman Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, brother of the late Mrs.Aquino and one of the PDP-Laban founding leaders who recruited him to their party headed then by former Sen.Aquilino “Nene”Pimentel Jr.

Despite the ranks of their party decimated through the years and changes in administration, Arroyo remained rabidly loyal as PDP-Laban. He even poked fun at his own party as the only one that could afford to hold a convention in a five-star hotel in Makati City – for one table at the former Mandarin Hotel.

Sen. Arroyo continued to be the voice of reason, at times even tangling with whoever was the incumbent president over issues of national importance.

That’s why even after he retired from public service at the end of his second term as senator in June 2013, media kept communicating with him to get his views on pressing national issues.

At times, he would be the one to call up his friends in media like us at The STAR to have his official statements or request a press release for his athlete daughter get published. But Joker would always be mindful about our being pressed for deadline when he called us up just for banter and sharing latest coffee shop talk.

In one of his many telephone calls to us – with obvious feigned annoyance – Joker would call my attention: “Why is it your veteran (stressing on being veteran as in age) reporter Jess Diaz kept mentioning in his news articles describing me ‘Arroyo, who is not related to President Arroyo,’ when it is not even relevant to the story.”

 He was referring, of course, to former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who took over from former President Joseph Estrada after the impeachment trial where then Rep. Arroyo was one of the House prosecution panel members.

As senator, Arroyo figured in yet another impeachment trial, that of former Supreme Court chief justice Renato Corona who was subsequently convicted and ousted from office. In Corona’s case, Arroyo was one of three dissenting votes, the two others were Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

When I heard Joker’s voice on radio last Sunday from a taped voice clip by DzBB which interviewed him on Oct. 6, 2013, he was being asked then about the legality and constitutionality of the so-called Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP). President Aquino and several Cabinet officials led by Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Florencio Abad were among those being questioned in several petitions filed before the High Court.

The DAP was questioned after opposition Sen. Jinggoy Estrada revealed in a privilege speech he and other senators received P50 million each in exchange for the vote to convict Corona in the impeachment trial. 

After declaring parts of DAP unconstitutional in July last year, the SC on Feb. 3 this year released a modified decision. The new ruling said only the DAP authors can be held liable, unless a proper tribunal found that they acted in good faith. It now excludes from liability the proponents and implementors of the DAP.

During that radio interview two years ago, Arroyo aired a dire warning of the possible consequences on the part of President Aquino. Arroyo feared the incumbent President was apparently misled about his powers and authority as Chief Executive on the use of “lump sum appropriations” without benefit of any enabling laws passed by Congress.

He vividly recalled not even the late mother of P-Noy nor succeeding Presidents, from Fidel Ramos to Estrada to Arroyo ever used this specific provision of the 1987 Administrative Code to justify exercise on the use of “savings” and lump sum appropriations because of its inherent legal flaws.

That radio interview took place long ago but Arroyo’s warning is a foreboding of what lies ahead after June 2016 for P-Noy.