Now it can be told that President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III has no word of honor. As headlined by GMA-7 news last Thursday evening, P-Noy has finally put the last nail on the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill saying that this was not a priority under his administration. I’m sure that many people out there are totally disappointed by this report… after all this was one of his major promises during the Presidential campaign of 2010. Now he is turning his back on that election promise. There goes his integrity!
Last Thursday, the headlines of the Philippine STAR declared, “President Aquino to do the right thing on Cha-cha — Palace. Well that information came from Palace Rasputin Edwin Lacierda during a press briefing that P-Noy would do the right thing when it comes to Charter change (Cha-cha) and term extension after consultations with the people.
So is Lacierda telling us that P-Noy wasn’t doing the right things before he agreed to do the Cha-cha? Lacierda should be extra careful in using his words! With the President’s sudden turn around on the FOI Bill, can Mr. Lacierda guarantee us that P-Noy wouldn’t suddenly do another 180 degree turn and do what is not right for the Cha-cha?
Anyway back to this “Good” that P-Noy promises to do with Cha-cha. First of all, I’m foursquare against this Congress arrogating upon itself to amend the 1987 Constitution simply because the Filipino people have lost their faith in their respective Congressmen and women. Until and unless every single Congressman or Senator named in the Janet Lim Napoles files are indicted and incarcerated… the reputation of this Congress is tainted or in tatters. So why should we allow them to mess up our Constitution?
If you ask me, the Philippine Constitution should only be amended through a constitutional convention (con-con) via duly elected delegates who should not come from the political class. Then there’s the question of that consultation that Mr. Lacierda is talking about. What consultation can the Aquino regime do in the last two years of his reign? Isn’t this a mere delaying tactic designed to ensure that P-Noy finishes his term?
So the big question bothering many people is whether P-Noy can really finish his term when out of the blue, this Congress has approved three of the four-impeachment complaints against him? At this point, I still strongly believe that Congress is merely trying to show to the Filipino people that they would not railroad the impeachment proceedings like they did for the impeachment of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona whom they impeached in just an hour’s discussion.
Now even though I still believe that this Congress would never impeach him, but for the sake of argument… what if Congress and the Senate decides to impeach Pres. Aquino? Naturally we expect that natural succession to fall upon Vice-Pres. Jejomar Binay. But then with the bad news hitting Vice-Pres. Binay squarely on his head is that charge filed by Atty. Rene Bondal that he over that Makati Office and Parking building.
In fact, two good friends of mine who are in the construction business intimated to me that the figures that the Makati officials presented during the Senate Blue Ribbon committee proves that the building is rally overpriced. Indeed for an 11-storey building to cost P2.3 billion, it’s a no brainer. But the Binays mistakenly thought that no one would dare cross them. They are the powers-that-be in Makati. He even calls this accusation, nothing but a smear campaign against him. Yet the Aquino Family supports his candidacy, starting with former Sen. Butz Aquino, What a crying shame!
So if Pres. PNoy is impeached… should we allow Vice-Pres. Binay to take over the helm of government, when he too should also be impeached? Wow! This is a potential crisis, a dilemma that no one expected to happen. But it could very well happen if and when Congress shows that it is truly independent of the Executive Branch. But then that is wishful thinking!
Meanwhile what has been written by fellow Star columnist Ma’am Chit Pedrosa of that Lipa Declaration last Wednesday where the National Transformation Council (NTC) has finally and officially surfaced and this group was a conglomeration of civic society with Christian clergy and Muslims and they are asking Pres. PNoy Aquino relinquish his post because he has lost his moral duty to lead this nation. The NTC that aims to restore our moral order. Of course we don’t expect Pres. PNoy to quit.
Actually the original name of the NTC was National Transition Council, which was patterned after the fall of the governments in the Middle East during the Arab Spring. But those transition councils haven’t helped their respective nations. Hence, what is really needed here is a Transformation Council to transform this nation and allow it to function for the Filipino people and not for our political establishment. The Filipino people should be given a chance to literally clean the slate and start anew before things get worse!
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