Boom, ‘evil genius’ at work

Boom! The cat is out of the bag. Finally, President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III broke his silence on supposed snowballing calls for extension in office, or another six-year term. To do this, the country’s 1987 Constitution must first be amended to allow term extension. While he was still congressman from Tarlac until he became senator and now President, he has steadfastly spoken against any Charter change (Cha-cha) until that TV5 interview last Wednesday.

The interview took place around 2:30 in the afternoon Wednesday, taped live at P-Noy’s office at Malacañang. An hour later, we had breaking news that a Metro Rail Transit 3 coach overshot the tracks. But later in the day, it turned out something much worse got derailed at Malacañang.

Making a 360-degree turnaround, President Aquino jumped the gun on the burning guessing game in the political field. He is now saying the 27-year-old Constitution needs to be amended. And this is not just to lift term limits of elected officials like the President. In fact, P-Noy echoed his desire to see much wider amendments that include clipping the powers of the Supreme Court (SC).            

With his popularity rating diving in the last two years of his term, P-Noy is making a big gamble. The Chief Executive is obviously making use of what remains of his political capital of positive two-digit approval rating. All chips in.

Originally, a Palace staff said P-Noy is keeping his countdown in office. As of today, he has 684 days until he steps down at noon of June 30, 2016.

His Liberal Party (LP) allies apparently got the upper hand this time. No less than LP president-on-leave, Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas II raised last week the trial balloon for a term extension of P-Noy.

Roxas threw the monkey wrench after the Aquino sisters echoed their conformity for Vice President Jejomar Binay to be anointed by P-Noy as “guest” candidate in the next May 2016 presidential race.

P-Noy’s sisters shed tears with him during his penultimate state of the nation address (SONA) in Congress last month when he vowed to protect at all cost the legacy of their late parents, the late President Corazon Aquino and slain Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. In his SONA, P-Noy declared his every intention to ensure a transition in office to the succeeding President who will take over a more graft-free government and economically better country.

Less than a month after his dramatic SONA, P-Noy is taking a different tack. So what gives?

P-Noy’s latest words on term extension and Cha-cha were seen as some kind of political maneuver with the same objective: to project him as no “lame duck” President in the last two years of office. They just tweaked Cha-cha with amendments: to de-fang the High Court and make it less than co-equal branch of government with the executive and legislative.

Former Sen. Joker Arroyo previously likened P-Noy to the late dictator President Ferdinand Marcos whom he first dubbed “evil genius” after the latter invoked the 1977 Administrative Code as basis for his control over government funds. Joker found similarities between P-Noy and the late dictator in the way they think in disbursing the people’s money.  Then as active human rights lawyer during the dictatorship, Joker recalled how Marcos squandered the people’s money using such power under the Administrative Code later amended in 1987.

”The evil genius tag I mentioned then has now become for real,” Joker bewailed.

Like Marcos, Joker noted with dismay how P-Noy deviously is using the amended Administrative Code of 1987 as legal basis for the use of P147 billion in government “savings” under the so-called Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP). Joker was baffled why P-Noy invoked the 1987 Administrative Code – signed into law by Mrs. Aquino – in justifying the DAP. Despite this, the SC struck down as “unconstitutional” four specific provisions on how DAP was mis-used. Joker served as executive secretary during the first two years of Mrs. Aquino’s administration.

Joker asserted these provisions in the 1987 Administrative Code remained dormant and never invoked during Mrs. Aquino’s term. Neither did succeeding Presidents, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada, and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, he cited. Four Presidents did not use it for the past 25 years until P-Noy, Joker stressed.

Despite his critical views against DAP, Joker swore he is against calls to impeach P-Noy. He believes LP men like Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad are the ones behind the “evil genius” designs who should be held accountable.

 None of the three impeachment cases is expected to prosper, including the DAP case filed against P-Noy on alleged culpable violations of the Constitution. Given the number of LP allies of the Aquino administration who dominate the 16th Congress, P-Noy need not worry being impeached in his last two years in office.

But P-Noy definitely faces the prospect of being jailed like his two immediate predecessors, Estrada and Arroyo, who both got sued and detained after losing immunity they previously enjoyed while still in office. With LP blocking his Binay option, it is not totally unexpected P-Noy is trying to protect himself this early from such dire possibility.

But even if Cha-cha and term limits succeed, these would certainly not apply to P-Noy. The President cannot sign into law any self-serving legislation like the Cha-cha bills pending in Congress. His LP allies are now trying the Constituent Assembly track to ram Cha-cha through.

As I’ve said before, there is still life after six years at Malacañang for the 54-year-old bachelor President, other than eventually getting married. By way of unsolicited advice, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal suggested to P-Noy he could follow the lead of Estrada (now Mayor of Manila) and Arroyo (now Congresswoman of Pampanga). Both ran and won in election for lower office. Or another option, Macalintal added, P-Noy  can run as Vice President instead.

This about-face of P-Noy has actually long been expected given his personal history of changing his mind. While the President is supposedly keeping his cards close to his chest, Joker and the rest of us could only second-guess or speculate the next moves of an “evil genius” at work. Go Cha-cha, boom or bust!