11th hour president

President Arroyo is leaving today for yet another official visit to the People’s Republic of China. And as in her previous trips abroad, Mrs. Arroyo has entrusted government affairs to Vice President Noli de Castro "to act for and in behalf" of the President while she is out of the country until Nov. 2. That is, if her plans to stay overnight in Hong Kong pushes through for a family rest and recreation there.

The President will go to Xiamen and Nanchang for business and trade meetings and then proceed to Nanning for the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)-China Summit on Oct. 29.

The President is bringing along a power-packed delegation of private sector business leaders led by Filipino-Chinese tycoons Henry Sy of the SM chain of malls, Philippine Airlines president and chief executive officer Lucio Tan, a dozen Congressmen led by presidential son, Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo and Presidential brother-in-law, Bacolod Rep. Iggy Arroyo.

While she is out on a five-day trip, the vice president automatically assumes his ceremonial assignment as caretaker of the government. As always, however, it is Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita who holds the fort in the Office of the President.

Ermita, otherwise called as the "Little President," is the direct link of President Arroyo in running the day-to-day affairs of the government while she is away. With modern telecommunications technology available, there is really no reason for her to have any difficulties running the affairs of the Philippine government wherever she may be in any part of the world.

This one is for trivia. Did you know that at one time Ermita found himself acting as President of the Philippines for almost eleven hours in 2004?

This was when President Arroyo and Vice President De Castro were both out of the country at the same time. In fact, I joined this trip to Chile to cover the Chief Executive in the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit held that year in Chile. On the other hand, the vice president was still on his way back to Manila after representing the President in the burial of the late Palestine leader Yasser Arafat.

So from 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 28, 2004 when President Arroyo left the country until 6 a.m. on Nov. 29 and Vice President De Castro was yet to return to Manila, it was Ermita who was "acting for and in behalf of the President." This brief interlude of Ermita in the country’s seat of power in Malacañang has been immortalized in the records of the Office of the President and signed by the President.

The record contained the presidential "instructions issued for the conduct of public affairs while the President and the Vice President are outside the country from the time I (President Arroyo) depart from Manila in the morning of Nov. 28, 2004 until the time that the Vice President arrived in Manila in the morning of Nov. 29, 2004."

This official document is framed and festooned in the office of the Executive Secretary at the Palace Guesthouse as testimonial to Ermita’s very short-lived tenure as acting President of the Republic of the Philippines.

Himself a retired General, Ermita can take pride and identify himself with his military superior, former President Fidel V. Ramos. Ermita definitely has reached the apex of his post-military career from an elected Congressman for three terms to having served in different departments as Cabinet Secretary to becoming Chief Executive for 11 hours.

Like in her past travels to other countries, there is again a flurry of coffee shop rumors of alleged coup plots. Still fresh in the minds of the people was the successful power grab in Thailand when former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted from office through a coup d’ etat. Thaksin was in New York at the time and was scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly last Sept. 19 when the Thai King gave his support to the ouster move against the Prime Minister.

Although she too is smarting from past military adventurism, but so far failed, President Arroyo can take comfort in the fact that no such Thaksin-like scenario can take place while she is out of the country. This is for the simple reason that we are not under a constitutional monarchy type of government like Thailand.

And speaking about form of government, she looked unperturbed as she nonchalantly shrugged off the defeat of the people’s initiative mode of Charter change (Cha-cha) that sought, among other things, the shift to parliamentary system of government. This was the impression I got from her a few hours after the Supreme Court (SC) voted the other day to reject the people’s initiative petitions of the Sigaw ng Bayan and the Union of League of Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP). I got to sense her sentiments on the matter after she paid her last respects to our dearly departed deputy managing editor Alex M. Fernando at The STAR office last Wednesday night.

"It (Cha-cha) has acquired a life of its own," President Arroyo kept telling us when I needled her on the consequence of the SC ruling on the administration’s timetable on Cha-cha. She reiterated she could not possibly dictate upon the Cha-cha supporters in Congress led by Speaker Jose de Venecia as to the next course of action to take. "As I said, it (Cha-cha) now has a life of its own," President Arroyo stressed. So the message is Cha-cha is still alive even if the SC killed the people’s initiatives by Sigaw and ULAP.

By the way, ULAP president Bohol Gov. Erico Aumentado, also joined President Arroyo in her trip to China. But before one jumps to conclusions, the governor is reportedly set to sign the Framework Agreement on Further Enhancing Friendly Exchanges and Cooperation with Jiangxi Province.

As of yesterday, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye could not definitely say yet the exact date of the President’s arrival because she might take the opportunity to "call it a day" again at the Hong Kong Disneyland with the First Family, in particular, with her three granddaughters.

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