Waiting for 2016

One of our editors limped into the newsroom the other day looking like a wet puppy, wishing the worst for government officials in charge of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT).

He had to take a bus from Makati to Manila’s Port Area, he groused, because he and other passengers were told to disembark from the westbound MRT line at the Guadalupe station. They weren’t told why.

I informed him of what I learned from news reports: that operation of the MRT line was suspended because the underground tracks from Buendia to Ayala Avenue got flooded. A water pump on standby for such emergencies also failed to work.

There was no typhoon and the rain induced by a low-pressure area on Tuesday morning was not unusually heavy.

The explanation elicited from the editor another frenzy of head-shaking and enraged condemnation of the MRT and transportation officials. For this kind of work, they want six more years?

That rage – over stalled railway services, the abominable traffic, high food prices, rising water costs, and soon, another power crisis – is the biggest impediment to the dream of President Aquino (yes, Juana, he’s interested) and of the Liberal Party’s MAD bulong brigade for another six years in power.

Yesterday P-Noy continued to refuse to issue a categorical denial that he would seek a second term, which will require a rewriting of the Constitution.

It will depend on his “bosses” the people, he reiterated. This is starting to sound like the public officials who invoke divine guidance in justifying their actions.

There ought to be a law requiring psychiatric counseling for any public official who claims to have a direct line to God.

So far P-Noy, who has stood up to the Church on the Reproductive Health Law (good for him), has not invoked divine guidance in his actions. And so far, it looks like he gets guidance from the public pulse, which he believes is reflected in reputable surveys.

For the nation’s health, however, it may be a good idea for presidents to see a shrink occasionally, if only to ease the heavy burden of the office. (It might at least cure P-Noy of his nicotine addiction.) His incessant griping about judicial overreach is starting to border on the pathological, with symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Yesterday P-Noy expressed confidence that his falling ratings would improve. When he insists that his term extension will depend on the people, our guess is he’s referring to the results of the next independent surveys.

Unless it’s another steep drop, however, I don’t think he’s going to change his mind ASAP about staying in power for another six years.

His late mother Corazon Aquino was so right: power is intoxicating. People never imagined that her only son would one day be held up as an example.

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As with his mother, there must be a substantial number of Filipinos who wouldn’t mind seeing P-Noy stay longer in Malacañang.

What they would mind is seeing the same MAD bunch in power along with P-Noy.

People loved Cory Aquino; we saw that in her death. But by the time she reached the end of her six years as president, Filipinos were ready for leadership change, hoping that the next one would be able to fix the blackouts lasting up to eight hours daily that were crippling Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon.

Pinoys gave President Cory a parting gift: victory for her endorsed successor. Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago of course still disputes Fidel Ramos’ victory, saying she was a victim of dagdag-bawas.

Ramos’ victory also owed much to the man himself rather than the reflected glory of an Aquino. FVR had the EDSA hero cachet, the mass appeal and sense of humor of his closest rival. He was not lacking in brains, and he was not saddled by the traditional politician’s image that bedeviled the ruling party’s bet, then speaker Ramon Mitra Jr.

Run that checklist of required pluses for the presumptive standard bearer of the Liberal Party (LP) for 2016 and you will see why the ruling party has to dangle the possibility of P-Noy seeking a term extension.

That the leader of daang matuwid has been tempted by the possibility of staying longer in power can only be another minus for the LP’s standard bearer (so far the one, the only, according to party stalwarts).

The party of the late Ninoy Aquino is supposed to stand for the true, the good and the beautiful (oops, sorry, that line belongs to Imelda Marcos). Perpetuating officials in power – especially incompetent officials in charge of basic services such as transportation – goes against the values espoused by the LP.

These days the LP has become identified with the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), and an ongoing effort, through retroactive legislation, to save the necks of those responsible from criminal prosecution.

The buzz in legal circles is that daang matuwid is trying to swing a revised version of the unanimous Supreme Court ruling against the DAP, to ensure that the architects of the stimulus program will be credited with good faith and cannot be held liable administratively and criminally.

It’s too bad that P-Noy and his officials had to raise the term extension bogey (it is a bogey in this country) in pushing for constitutional amendments to curb judicial overreach.

The lack of restraint in the exercise of judicial power is a genuine concern especially among investors. The Charter is ripe for amendments, and the current administration would have been the best time for Charter change, under a president who was originally perceived to be indifferent to power.

Now we know better.

Before P-Noy and his MADmen lust for six more years, they should give the public good reason to fear that the country will collapse if daang matuwid ends as scheduled at noon of June 30, 2016.

So far the fear factor isn’t there. Yesterday, the MRT service was again disrupted by smoke that hissed out of a train. P-Noy isn’t going to be impeached over this, or even over the DAP. But impatience is starting to set in for 2016, when a new team can take charge and, it is hoped, do a better job.