If Senators and Congressmen stopped giving themselves a yearly P22 billion in pork barrel, we’d be saved!

It’s a good thing President GMA doused cold water on the puerile plan of newly-elected Antipolo Rep. Ronnie Puno (geez, until he got elected, many of us didn’t even know he was running, that clever fella) to "resurrect" La Gloria’s old party KAMPI in order to overthrow Speaker Joe de Venecia – and supplant him with whom? Did I hear somebody say Ronnie Puno?

What allegedly irked La Emperadora was the fact that the group, mainly consisting of neophyte members of the House, was name-dropping as its mainstays no less than the Presidential hijo, Pampanga Rep. Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo, and the First Gent’s younger brother, newly-minted Negros Occidental Congressman, Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo – who, if you’ll recall, owned up to being "Jose Pidal". (What a surefire way to stampede congressmen into joining the "new" KAMPI.)

The fact that the "revived" KAMPI (Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino) had been founded by GMA in 1997, since she needed a party at the time, apparently didn’t cut any ice with GMA. The message quietly, almost secretly, sent its 72 members was: The K-4 coalition and the Lakas-CMD are doing fine, thank you, so cease and desist lest you capsize the boat. After all, didn’t JDV do yeoman work in getting La Presidenta re-elected? The President needs ‘Sunshine Joe" and his sweet-talking ways today more than she needs Ronnie’s . . . er, talents. The election, after all, is over.

There’s an old American saying, which Americans don’t always follow. It says : "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it."

Enough political shenanigans and conspiracies already!

* * *

Incidentally, JDV has started the ball rolling towards his dearly-cherished "parliamentary" system by introducing the sweetener; namely, that President GMA – if the parliamentary form is adopted and implemented by year 2007 – why, can be both President and Prime Minister!

With the elections out of the way (all but the shouting and the protesting), I’m sure that the switch to parliamentary will now be hotly discussed and debated. My caveat is that it might, as in Italy, lead to revolving-door governments. For all his serious troubles and the vicious attacks hurled against him, the current Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who’s been in office only three years, has been the longest-lasting Prime Minister! What I fear if we try the same set-up here is that whoever becomes Prime Minister will be constantly – i.e., daily – dickering and bargaining with his fellow MPs (members of parliament) so they won’t cast a "no confidence" vote and dissolve the government. Even if the new Constitution declares that this wouldn’t apply for the first few years, it would eventually be the way Parliaments operate, governments get "dismissed," and new elections scheduled.

Then, we’d only have the same men and women, and dynasties to boot, ruling the roost – a change in script, but no change of cast. Those are the caveats I must insert. Otherwise, in desperation (since the present system, even more so our electoral process, has obviously broken down), I’m willing to try "parliamentary" on the off-chance that, somehow, it might work.

Moreover, the overwhelming plus of electing one Parliament as our legislative body is the fact that the quarrelsome, foot-dragging Senate would be abolished. (This is why Senate President Franklin Drilon and the Senators don’t want a change to "parliamentary" – they’d all, 24 of them, be out of a job.) Then, a switcheroo to "parliamentary" could – hopefully – be an occasion to amend the Constitution to also abolish "election by party-list", which was slipped into the 1987 Cory Constitution and has been getting the wrong persons, including hardline Communists and the Radical Left, sneaked into the House of Representatives under different patriotic-sounding party-list labels. Are these solons using their P65 million per year "pork barrel" or development funds to underwrite Communist rebellion? There may be no tangible "proof", but the suspicion lingers. Imagine the taxes of poor Juan de la Cruz being misused to underwrite a revolution or a Red take-over?

Let me say it loud and clear (stubborn bigoted me!): Our people should know who they’re electing, with his or her name posted and each aspirant personally campaigning for an individual, specific Congressional district. Sure, the names of party-listers are on the web-site, but who among our 32 million voters takes pains to access the web-site, and identify these people, and research their true backgrounds?

The so-called party-list can’t even be called a grand deception: It’s a sordid deception.

* * *

Do you know the best service our solons can do our nation?

We are facing an immense, multibillion-peso budget and fiscal deficit. The GMA government is frantically attempting to tax everything in sight in order to raise money to bail out our bankrupt country. Why are we bankrupt? Let’s fact it. Because our politicians spend government money recklessly, without self-discipline or hindrance, like it’s Mickey Mouse money or fun money. For example, if our Senators and Congressmen only stopped giving themselves a huge, outlandish "pork barrel" fund per annum – each Senator gets P300 million annually, every Representative P65 MILLION per annum – our government would save P22 BILLION per year.

Of course, each legislator claims that these are funds that go "back" to the people. Yep, tell me another windy.

If we save P22 billion yearly, we’d be well on our way to solving the deficit problem. It’s a case of simple, honest arithmetic. What does a Senator, who has no home constituency to serve, need P300 million yearly in pork barrel for? His pet charities or projects? What if – reductio ad absurdum – their pet projects or charities are mostly themselves?

* * *

The first Cabinet "change" is that President GMA has named her Teacher’s Pet and favorite general, Angelo T. Reyes, Secretary of Interior and Local Government, a position which – if used with an eye to personal political advancement – is more vital than that of Reyes’ earlier posting, Secretary of Defense. Even when he was anti-Kidnap Czar, GMA was always full of praises for Angie Reyes for having "crushed" kidnapping. And the anti-kidnap campaign, with Reyes’ picture in it, has continued to run innumerable ads on television – keeping Reyes in the limelight even though he foreswore his anticipated bid for Senator (or even President?). Foreswore, indeed, might better read, "postponed".

The Reyes replacement of resigned DILG Secretary Joey Lina is no Cabinet reform at all. Reyes simply switched jobs in the same Cabinet.

The President will have to send a clearer message of revamp and reform in her next Cabinet appointments. A rigodon or a game of musical chairs won’t do.

Two posts, of course, bear watching. How they’re filled will signal whether or not GMA plans to pay a political debt to an influential religious sect. These are the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Land Transportation Office (LTO). During the previous Joseph Estrada Administration, the DOJ was headed by two members of the Iglesia ni Cristo, first Justice Serafin Cuevas, then Justice Secretary Artemio Tuquero. The LTO, for its part, had for decades been "influenced" by the INC, its final boss during that era having been Col. Filemon Cuevas. In fact, during Erap’s administration, Atty. Benjamin Calima, house counsel of "Mon" Cuevas’s Amalgamated Motors Philippines, Inc. (AMPI), had been the LTO chief.

So, abangan.

On the other hand, the DOJ post is being eyed, with equal ferocity, by a member of the House of Representatives who played a key role in the joint canvass committee. The former solon, whose term just ended (he was term limited in his Visayan district) has been lobbying for the DOJ Secretaryship, even hinting that the post had been offered to him by GMA as early as February this year.

Since I returned from Rome, nothing but political talk and rumors about Cabinet posts being filled by this guy or that, or this lady or that, have besieged my ears. I know that I’m home.

At least, while there has been a lot of backstabbing, nobody – unlike Rome – has been stabbed to death in the Senate. At least, I must add, the stabbing to death of Julius Caesar was a straightforward, though murderous event.

Here, even the Senate Presidency may be up for grabs, despite the confidence being exuded by the incumbent Senate President Frank Drilon.

For instance, if GMA gets annoyed by – let’s say – Franklin continually opposing a shift to a parliamentary form of government, La Emperadora might turn to his challenger, Senator Manny Villar. A Villar "upset" of Frank is not as far-fetched as one might think. Villar, I’ve heard, is supported by the Opposition Senators, who number eight. If he managed to attract additional support of Senators Joker Arroyo, Kiko Pangilinan and Ralph Recto, Villar will be in reach of the top Senate post. A little push from Malacañang could topple Drilon – by one vote.

But these are merely whispers, or wheels within wheels.

How could our politicians remain happy if they weren’t perpetually plotting? These hijinks also keep our media busy, speculating and gossiping. I wish we could somehow abolish "politics". But here it’s not just a way of life – it’s a way of making a living.