When did Arroyo turn nepotist?

It’s a good thing the foreign office cancelled Manila’s hosting of the Non-Aligned Movement’s interfaith prayer conference in Dec. It’s not so much because government attention is distracted by the monumental job of post-Ondoy-Pepeng reconstruction. More than that, the hosting budget — a staggering P400 million — could spark fierce criticisms of more ostentation during a time of want.

Apparently Malacañang is still smarting from twits about Gloria Arroyo’s using up of P4 billion in calamity funds for her frequent foreign junkets. Notably this fund misuse was felt in the fielding of only seven measly rubber boats to rescue tens of thousands of flooded Metro Manilans marooned on their roofs. Before typhoon struck, Arroyo was very much in the news for $15,000- and $20,000-pig-outs in swanky Washington and New York bistros. By contrast hundreds of thousands of flood-landslide evacuees made do with mostly private and foreign relief. Palace spokesmen had blamed Arroyo’s latest survey ratings plunge on bad press about the extravagant spending.

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At what point did she change, you will ask?

Days after being swept into office by Jan. 2001 people power Gloria Arroyo wowed the public by doing the right thing. She declined to sign a presidential designation of daughter Luli as foreign-service officer, saying it smacked of nepotism. Actually Luli had long trained for a diplomatic career and her appointment was prepared weeks before Arroyo suddenly became President. Just the same, they both felt it didn’t look right for the mother to promote the daughter just then. Luli nobly sacrificed her dream so mom could be the good President she had promised to be in inaugural.

Nine years later it’s the entire opposite.

Last week Arroyo quietly but hurriedly signed into law a proposal specially written for another offspring. Republic Act 9716 would split into two the Camarines Sur congressional district of presidential son Rep. Dato Arroyo. This, reportedly so he could run another congressional term in half the territory, while accommodating in the other half returning political kingpin Rolando Andaya Jr. On reaching his maximum third consecutive congressional term in 2007, Andaya had “lent” the district to Dato while serving as budget minister, on condition that he would reclaim it in 2010. By splitting the jurisdiction, however, Andaya and Dato would both get to run for adjoining congressional seats. The catch, as decried during plenary debates on the bill, is the illegality of the split. The resulting districts both have been left with populations less than the constitutionally required 250,000, making R.A. 9716 inform.

The new law is almost certain to be questioned before the Arroyo-packed Supreme Court. A hasty ruling in favor of Dato’s political security could irreparably tarnish the judiciary. It would have suited public interest had Arroyo stopped political sycophants from enacting the pro-Dato law, the way she had refused to sign Luli’s appointment in 2001. But then, Arroyo clearly has turned nepotist. The only question is when, if she never was one when she first came to power.

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The examples I cited Friday of continuing environment degradation after Ondoy-Pepeng’s calamity incited numerous reactions. Readers were incensed that the Arroyo admin is blaming industrial countries for global warming, while playing blind to its own ecological failures.

From an attendee of a recent conservation confab in Manila: “No less than Environment and Natural Resources Sec. Lito Atienza hosted the UN’s International Convention for Green Industry. President Arroyo even signed a so-called Manila Declaration. But during the open forum, a Singaporean delegate remarked: ‘I flew all the way here and was so happy with the Declaration (blah-blah-blah). Then, when I opened the papers this morning I saw in the news that they were going to open a big coal powered plant in Cebu,’ He was angry with this highest form of hypocrisy. A Filipino in the panel tried to explain away the news by saying that the Philippines consists of thousands of islands, many beset by power-supply problems, and that the Cebu plant could be a temporary solution. The crowd booed him. I wanted to further ignite the audience by disclosing that the coal-fired plant in Mauban, Quezon, was due for expansion. Lucky for them, someone changed the topic.”

From a retied business executive: “In the ‘70s notable families went into the business of exporting to Japan the black beach sands of Barrio Libtong, Tagudin, Ilocos Sur. President Marcos happened to visit, noticed the shore erosion, and right there and then banned the quarrying of sea sand. Other laws have since been passed to criminalize such environmental ruin. Nobody dares sell Tagudin black sand these days, for they can’t get an environment clearance for it. So how come six coastal towns in the Senate President’s Cagayan province are exporting sand to Korea?”

From Luis Parayno, Pasig City: “I listened to your radio interview (Sapol, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ 882-AM) with DPWH flood control Engr. Lydia Aguilar. I was so disturbed by her disclosure that 70 percent of Metro Manila’s sewers, all built in the ‘70s, are clogged up. The MMDA is now in charge of all flood-control in the national capitol. Why has it not cleared the drains?”

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“When you love what you do, you become tireless. When you hate what you do, you become restless.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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