An administration nearing the end of its term should be more concerned about the good and lasting legacies it will leave behind. It must foster unity rather than division in the nation. By this time, the least it can do or should have done is to avoid creating more enemies, stirring more controversies and inviting more valid criticisms. Unfortunately, PNoy’s administration is doing exactly the opposite. He persists in sowing dissension among the people by his controversial and divisive moves.
Picking up a fight with the Supreme Court just because it has rendered several decisions not to his liking is really wrong. Worse here is that the SC still has to resolve a motion filed by government lawyers for reconsideration of one of these decisions particularly on the DAP. Openly and publicly attacking and antagonizing an independent and separate body empowered to resolve the pending case against his administration is a big no-no especially for PNoy who is supposed to be our President primarily bound to observe the constitutional principle of separation of powers among the three independent branches of the government. Such move is a clear act of coercing the SC Justices to change their unanimous stand on this matter and will thus merely drive them to dig deeper and maintain their position to avoid the public impression of succumbing to pressure.
PNoy should have already stopped his tirades against the SC after the initial salvo. Unfortunately he still persists and continues with his attack. And more unfortunate in this regard is that in attacking the court again, he has even misinterpreted or misread its decision. There is nothing in the decision which already presumes PNoy and his DBM Secretary Abad’s guilt of misusing public funds. The SC in fact ruled that if they are charged with such crime they are still presumed innocent until it is proven beyond reasonable doubt that they are in bad faith. The SC merely mentioned the issue of good or bad faith that will determine their liability.
Another divisive and controversial move recently made by PNoy and his party mates is floating the idea of changing the charter for purposes of enabling him to run again as president for another six years, as well as for clipping the powers and the “reach’ of his pet peeve, the SC. While there are mixed signals from Malacañang and his party mates about his real stand on these divisive issues, PNoy has never categorically and clearly declared that he is against those moves.
These current happening as well as the proven events in the past about the use of the pork barrel funds to oblige members of Congress to toe the line particularly in the enactment of pet bills like the Sin Tax Law, RH law and others, have prompted a group of Filipino citizens of different personal, professional social and economic backgrounds and political persuasions and religious beliefs, to come up with a declaration under the auspices of the National Transformation Council, reaffirming their “deeply held convictions and beliefs about the common good and their highest national interests, in the face of the most pressing challenges.” More specifically they pointed out the following:
1. The “grave peril in the life of the nation from the very political forces that are primarily ordained to protect, promote and advance its well-being, but which are aggressively undermining its moral, religious, social, cultural, constitutional and legal foundations;
2. The unbridled and unpunished corruption and widespread misuse of political and economic power in all layers of society that have not only destroyed our common conception of right and wrong, good and bad, just and unjust, legal and illegal, but also put our people, especially the poor, at the mercy of those who have the power to dictate the course and conduct of our development for their own selfish ends;
3. Incumbent President Benigno Simeon Aquino’s subversion and violation of the Constitution by corrupting Congress, intimidating the judiciary, taking over the treasury, manipulating the automated voting system, and perverting the constitutional impeachment process.
4. The damage done by President Benigno Simeon Aquino 3rd to the moral fabric of Philippine Society by bribing members of Congress not only to impeach and remove a sitting Supreme Court Chief Justice but also to enact a law which disrespects the right to life of human being at the earliest and most vulnerable stages of their lives, in defiance not only of the constitution but above all of the moral law, the customs, culture, and consciences of Filipinos.”
The gathering gave birth to a National Transformation Council (NTC) that they said will stand up against the most pressing challenges facing the country and fight for the common good.
So they welcomed the council’s “proposal to open broad public consultations on the need to modify and strengthen the presidential system or to shift from the Unitary / Presidential system to a federal / Parliamentary System, endowing such structure with:
I) A totally independent judicial department, free from any kind of intimidation or bullying by either the Executive or the Legislative Department, and with the sufficient wherewithal to clear the backlog of the courts and fast-track all cases;
II) A merit-driven, professional civil and military service;
III) A totally transparent government budgeting, procurement, disbursement, accounting and auditing systems and procedures; and
IV) An irreproachably independent and completely dependable electoral system, free from the virus that has corrupted the Automated Voting System Since 2010.”
In conclusion this group of Filipinos all over the country who gathered in Lipa last August 27, 2014 declared that they have lost their trust and confidence in PNoy and even asked him to relinquish his position.
Such a drastic call undoubtedly shows that PNoy will be leaving us with dangerous and harmful political, social, cultural and moral legacies.
E-mail: attyjosesison@gmail.com