‘Stage father’

It is so easy to tell that Congress clowns are back in town at the rate they make a lot of crazy antics, ridiculous stunts, somersaults, or just anything that could land them in the media limelight. In fact, we have been seeing renewed frenetic politics these past few days alone.

This is because the third and final regular sessions of the 13th Congress resume today. And by tradition, the state of the nation address (SONA) of the President caps the joint opening sessions of the Senate and the House of Representatives later today at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City.

In her SONA last year, President Arroyo lamented about leading ‘two Philippines,’ in allusion to the deep divisions of Filipino society. One year after, how many Philippines will there be now by Mrs.Arroyo’s count?

With barely less than a year in the calendar of legislative sessions of Congress and with the May 2007 elections in the horizons, any major changes in either Chambers might again derail the approval of vital bills still pending at the legislative mills. This is not to mention sideshows related to Charter change and impeachment cases filed against the Chief Executive.

Over the weekend, outgoing Senate president Franklin Drilon announced that he sees a smooth turnover of the leadership in the Upper Chamber to Sen.Manuel Villar Jr. While it was billed in compliance with the ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ on term-sharing between Drilon and Villar, rabidly independent Senators insisted the matter of Senate presidency is a collective decision by the entire Senate. And so the majority will vote today to formally install Villar.

But the dynamics at the Lower House are different from the Senate. The Lower House is practically run by the Speaker as the sole decision-maker, including who to designate as chairperson, vice chairperson or members of a committee. Of course, the Speaker’s choices are largely culled from the members of his so-called ‘rainbow coalition’ at the House.

Speaker Jose de Venecia will decide who would be the new chairman of the House committee on ways and means to replace outgoing Tarlac Rep.Jesli Lapus, one of the remaining stalwarts of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) in Congress.

Lapus gives up this powerful committee chairmanship to assume his Cabinet post as Education Secretary by Aug. 1. Automatically, the four incumbent vice chairmen of Lapus in this committee are first in the list of the nominees that the Speaker will choose from, all of whom belong to the ‘rainbow’ coalition. They are: Reps. Herminio Teves, (Lakas, Negros Oriental), Exequiel Javier (Lakas, Antique), Eric Singson (LP, Ilocos Sur), and, Alipio Cerilo Badelles (NPC, Lanao del Norte).

Although Lapus has no say as to who will succeed him, I don’t think their NPC leadership would give up their control of this powerful committee under their coalition agreement with the Speaker.

There were so much talks in the past that Lapus and Teves had entered into ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ on the term-sharing of the House ways and means committee. When President Arroyo appointed former Land Bank president Margarito Teves to become her Finance Secretary in July last year, there were concerns raised against this supposed "gentlemen’s agreement" because it would mean a father-and-son team who would be crafting and implementing the tax laws of the land. To his credit, Lapus stood his ground that he did not enter into any supposed ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ with Teves.

Last Friday, the senior Teves went to town to denounce what he suspected was a ‘leak’ by Malacañang Palace of an Executive Order (EO) that withdrew a previous directive given to the Finance Secretary. Actually, it was Administrative Order (AO), No.156 that President Arroyo signed on July 4,2006.

AO 156 repealed AO No.133, dated Dec. 27, 2005 entitled ‘Strengthening the Powers of the Secretary of Finance Over the Bureau of Customs.’

AO 156 did not state any ‘Whereas’ clause, or the reasons why such directive was issued. The existence of AO 156 came to public knowledge from a "scoop" story by our Palace reporter Aurea Calica who got it by sheer legwork, research, and hard work. This STAR scoop story was not a product of any kind of ‘leak’ we lapped up, hook, line, and sinker. And certainly, our story was not ‘erroneous’ as claimed by one national daily which is notoriously noted for such kind of sloppy reportage.

The 85-year old Congressman was frothing in the mouth in accusing presidential Chief of Staff Michael Defensor as the source of the "leak" of that scoop story of The STAR. Brandishing a clipping of Aurea’s published story, the elder Teves said he has asked his son to resign his Cabinet post because Defensor purportedly broke their agreement that this EO won’t come out at all. We don’t know anything about that deal the elder Teves claimed to have struck with Defensor.

Had the elder statesman talked first with his son, he would have known that Aurea got in touch with the Finance Secretary, as per my instructions, to get his reaction on this STAR ‘scoop’ story on the same day she got hold of the copy of AO 156. And what did the Finance Secretary tell Aurea? He said and I quote: ‘It’s (AO156) only about reshuffling. I am aware of it (repeal) and agreed to have the Order (AO 133) revoked since I can exercise the same powers under my mandate (as finance secretary).’

The Finance Secretary adverted to Section 703 of the Tariff and Customs Code. This provision of the law was also clearly explained in the June 24 memorandum sent to President Arroyo by senior deputy executive secretary Joaquin C.Lagonera. In his memo to Mrs.Arroyo, Lagonera reminded the President about this existing provision of the law that cannot be repealed by any executive issuance like AO 156.

It’s a good thing that we have a very sober Finance Secretary. While it appears to be a well-meaning protection for his son, the elder Teves was turning out like a stage father. But governance is not about family affairs. It is bad enough we have political dynasties since time immemorial. We cannot afford to have elders of the family meddling in the affairs of the government.

The concerns of Rep. Teves over AO 156 would have gained more sympathy from the public had he raised more valid grounds, rather than personal ones, on what could be the undeclared intent of this Palace directive. With Cha-cha and mid-term elections just around the corner, what could be the real reasons of this Palace directive? We can just speculate.

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