Cha-cha: Noy as prexy, Mar as prime minister?

NOW NA!: If the popularity of President Noynoy Aquino holds up till 2016 and if his would-be vice president Mar Roxas is still interested in being Chief Executive, the Liberal Party should seriously consider amending or revising the Constitution. Now na!

The end-goal could be a parliamentary setup where Aquino would stay on as President, while Roxas, who would bounce back as senator in 2013, takes over as Prime Minister.

Being a largely ceremonial President (chief of state) will fit into the lifestyle and work habits of Aquino. And being Premier (head of government) will finally give presidential-wannabe Roxas a chance to hold the reins of government and function as the President’s “trouble shooter.”

It is not a perfect setup, but looks reasonable enough to consider. Now na!

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NOY-BI BLOC: If the Aquino-Roxas partnership, assuming it is alive and well, wants Charter change, it better move now while the generally supportive survey outfits are still assigning a high popularity rating to the President.

What will happen to Vice President Jojo Binay, headman of the political dynasty lording it over Makati, whose burning desire to rise to the presidency is no dark secret?

Binay’s ambition is his own problem. It should not stand in the way of a popular president deciding how this country moves or does not move.

But if it is true that a potent power bloc in Malacanang and the Yellow Brigade is for Noy-Bi holding sway and holding hands till-death-do-us-part, do not expect to catch Cha-cha music floating soon from across the Pasig.

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CHA-CHA SHUFFLE: Binay should block all attempts to tamper with the Constitution, which after all was the gift of his patroness, then President Cory Aquino, to the people after she liberated them from the Marcos dictatorship.

He should nourish his time-tested ties with the Aquinos. If he does not watch out, if he does not train a spotlight on himself and speak louder and more often, Binay might just get lost in the Cha-cha shuffle.

A regime revamp could undercut his maneuverings and those of the other presidential hopefuls — including Bongbong Marcos, Chiz Escudero, Franklin Drilon, Jinggoy Estrada and the usual evangelist-politicians.

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WHIFF OF POWER: Although Aquino might want to retire — like his mother — after his six-year term at the tender age of 56, expect his camp followers who are enjoying that intoxicating whiff of power at the top to convince him to cling on.

For him and them to hold on to power, the Constitution will have to be rewritten or replaced. That is easy to rationalize. After all, the haphazardly-prepared 24-year-old Cory Charter is in bad need of amendment, if not total revision.

The best time to do that is during the first two years of Aquino’s term when he can still claim popular support. It will be difficult to carry out Cha-cha in the second half of his term.

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KNOW THY ENEMY: Policemen worth their badges must know all the hoodlums and the criminal syndicates in their area. At any time, the police must be able to produce an order of battle on these underworld characters and then catch them at the opportune time.

It may be excusable if on a few occasions they sat down with crime lords over a bottle (singular) of beer. Better if in those eyeball-to-eyeball encounters they advised the scums in no uncertain terms to either change location or change occupation.

If police officers do not know the gangsters and the petty thieves in their areas, they should turn in their badges.

If the authorities are unable or unwilling to neutralize the criminal syndicates in their turf, the only conclusion is that they are either incompetent or in cahoots with them. On either count, they must be kicked out.

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RIOT RUN: I was heartened to hear that Director General Raul Bacalzo, PNP chief, is on a mild rampage relieving local commanders who have failed to neutralize carjacking and other criminal syndicates in their areas of responsibility.

My only fear is that Bacalzo might run out of reliable officers to replace the non-performing (or even colluding) officers in Camp Crame, the districts and the provinces.

The PNP chief and his boys know their business. There is nothing that we amateurs can suggest to them when it comes to police work.

It seems the only challenge to them is how to keep their noses clean until they have provided for their retirement and the requirements of their extended family. Money, oodles of it, could be tempting, and the syndicates know this.

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FIRING LINE: Bacalzo has just ordered the relief of Senior Superintendent Fernando Villanueva as Bulacan police director, over high-profile activities of syndicates in the province involving drugs, killings and carjackings.

Villanueva was replaced by Senior Superintendent Wendy Rosario, Central Luzon deputy regional director for operations who led the raid on the apartment of the gang implicated in the murder of car traders Emerson Lozano, Venson Evangelista and Lozano’s co-employee Ernani Sensil.

Earlier, Bacalzo relieved Senior Superintendent Constantine Agpaoa of Station 10 of the Quezon City Police after the van of a radio host was stolen in the Timog area. He also sacked Chief Inspector Alex Fulgar, a Makati precinct commander, after a vehicle of a cousin of Mar Roxas was stolen.

Many people asked if the police would have acted with dispatch, to the extent of relieving police commanders, if the carjacking victims were not prominent enough. Considering the alarming incidence, I guess the police chief would have acted resolutely whoever the victims were.

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