Yearender: The Vice President; A test of GMA-Noli alliance
December 27, 2005 | 12:00am
July was the month most crucial for Vice President Noli de Castro, when his alliance with President Arroyo was put to the test and he was closely watched if he would abandon his running mate in the May 2004 elections at the height of political turmoil.
Not only the legitimacy of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s presidency became suspect after a supposed wiretapped conversation between her and an official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) surfaced, but the Vice President’s mandate was also questioned with accusations that he benefited from electoral fraud.
De Castro broke his silence on the "Hello, Garci" scandal last June 29 when he issued a statement through his chief of staff, lawyer Jesse Andres, that he wanted Congress to decide on the fate of the President following her public apology for a "lapse in judgment" in talking to a Comelec official, widely believed to be former commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, during the vote-canvassing period.
In a press conference, Andres said De Castro was in favor of pursuing the truth on the fraud allegations.
The Vice President initially gave the impression that he had distanced himself from Mrs. Arroyo. But he described her public apology as a "courageous act."
De Castro could have abandoned Mrs. Arroyo and taken advantage of the controversies and scandals the First Family was facing with various congressional inquiries into wiretapped phones and jueteng payoffs.
Although De Castro would never initiate or support an impeachment complaint against the President, Andres said, neither would he oppose it.
He also defended De Castro from his detractors, saying the Vice President was very much ready and qualified to assume the presidency — if and when there was a vacancy.
De Castro said that the call for his resignation was "baseless" and a constitutional "shortcut" was convenient only for parties who wanted to seize power.
On June 11, De Castro accused some politicians of being behind the destabilization moves and expressed concern over the "orchestrated" move to topple the government.
The political situation began to deteriorate as rallies massed at EDSA and Makati City when De Castro and his family flew to Hong Kong to celebrate his 56th birthday. But even there, anti-Arroyo personalities followed him to convince him to take over the presidency a la EDSA 4.
But De Castro belied last July 9 that he "conspired" and arrived at a "compromise" agreement with the resigned members of the Arroyo Cabinet and Liberal Party leaders to demand the President’s resignation.
On July 10, De Castro said the Almighty was the first to answer his appeal to the Filipino people to give the President a second chance. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) asked Mrs. Arroyo to make the necessary decision and moral discernment instead of demanding her resignation, considerably diffusing the political tension.
Not even former President Corazon Aquino’s renewed call for him to take over the presidency could sway him, even if he admitted that Mrs. Aquino’s call to rally behind the Constitution... "should be accorded due deference and serious thoughts."
Making his position on Cha-cha (Charter change) clear, he urged the House and the Senate to heed the President’s call for unity and nation-building to limit the "collateral" damage of the political turmoil for the country that is poised for take-off.
While he urged congressional leaders and members to adhere to the Constitution in response to the President’s giving the go-signal to amend the Charter, De Castro said that a consultation with the public and an information campaign should be launched by the government.
De Castro, it can be recalled, was among 16 senators who signed a resolution during the 12th Congress supporting a constitutional convention as a mode of amending the charter.
He noted that the President’s change in her decision to push for constituent assembly instead of ConCon was because of the entirely different situation the country was facing.
The day after the impeachment complaint against Mrs. Arroyo lost in an overnight vote last Sept. 6, De Castro said that the people will be the final judges of the majority decision in the House of Representatives.
While the opposition vowed to bring the fight to the streets, De Castro called for sobriety and prayerful discernment.
Last Nov. 30, the Black and White Movement’s 12 midnight ultimatum and call for the Vice President to abandon the President and take over the presidency again fell on deaf ears.
"You must come to court with clean hands."
This was the call made by De Castro’s lawyer Armando Marcelo on July 7 for defeated vice presidential candidate Loren Legarda for saying that it was possible that De Castro’s votes were also tainted.
Marcelo said Garcillano’s sworn disclosure of Legarda having conversed with him during the height of the May 2004 national elections "resoundly" confirmed that she came to the Supreme Court sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) bearing her protest with "unclean, impure hands."
Election lawyers Romulo Macalintal, Marcelo and Andres, said Legarda should raise her issues before the PET instead of discussing them with the media which was not under oath.
They accused Legarda of capitalizing on the much-publicized wiretapped conversations to bewail her unsupported claims of widespread cheating in the vice-presidential race.
They said Legarda, however, conveniently failed to mention that in almost all of the provinces cited in the conversations, particularly those in Mindanao, she incurred the highest number of votes.
De Castro’s lawyers said that Legarda’s protest is a "fruitless" quest as they advised her to give up and instead use the money for the 2007 elections.
On Aug. 19, De Castro agreed to let the PET decide on the credibility of her new and strongest weapon in the person of former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) handwriting expert Segundo Tabayoyong in proving that the administration committed massive electoral fraud based on the election returns seized by the police during a raid at his rented room.
He accused Legarda of elevating her electoral protest to "trial by publicity" from "forum-shopping" instead of leaving the matter to the PET.
De Castro’s camp however encouraged Legarda to pursue all available legal remedies to recover the election returns (ERs) seized by the police if she indeed believed that the alleged tampered election materials were of any legal use to her.
His lawyers said last Dec. 12 that his lead over Legarda in the recount of votes ordered by the PET widened.
De Castro headed a delegation of Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) officials last April to confer with Chilean housing officials and experts on their highly successful housing program "viviendas socials."
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the visit of De Castro, chairman of the HUDCC, to Chile augured well for the continued enhancement of Philippine relations with Chile.
The meeting also aimed to address the Philippines’ housing shortage and proliferation of informal settlements in the capital of Santiago.
The Philippines and Chile have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on socialized housing, a joint undertaking first raised by Mrs. Arroyo with her Chilean counterpart, President Ricardo Lagos, at the sidelines of the 9th APEC Economic Leaders Meeting (AELM) in Shanghai in 2001.
During their meeting at the sidelines of the 12th AELM held in Santiago, Chile last year, the two heads of state agreed to the full implementation of the memorandum, and Mrs. Arroyo informed Lagos that she will send the Vice President himself, as the country’s housing czar, to Chile and work towards the full realization of the project.
The HUDCC meanwhile asked the Department of Finance (DoF) last July to grant value added tax exemption for houses valued at P2 million or less.
The housing agency is also seeking an increase in the ceiling for socialized housing to P300,000 from P225,000.
He said that the VAT exemption and increased socialized housing will make the housing sector investor friendly, help solve housing problems and decongest Metro Manila of informal settlers.
The Vice President admitted that of the total demand for housing units until 2010, only 1.1 million shelter secured units or 33 percent can be shouldered by the government while the rest would have to be filled up by the private sector with the help of local government units.
According to De Castro, the HUDCC also tapped Official Development Assistance (ODA) to assist cities and LGUs to improve their capacities in providing essential infrastructure and basic services to their constituents.
The government has also extended continued support for tested housing multi-stakeholder and cost-effective housing programs like Gawad Kalinga and Habitat for Humanity.
De Castro lashed at the critics of the Arroyo administration who are allegedly behind the disinformation campaign in the North Rail project which they do not want to be successful.
He said he and the heads and representatives of the government’s shelter agencies involved in the relocation of the "riles" settlers have to visit the relocatees often because of reports they have been receiving about the railway project.
Budget Secretary Romulo Neri said that the US$400 million loan granted by China to the Philippines is "aboveboard" and almost a "giveaway" to the government because of the long payment period and three percent fixed interest rate.
The Vice President represented last August the Philippines in paying last respects to King Fahd, leader of the world’s top oil exporter and key US ally, in Saudi Arabia.
De Castro was accompanied by his wife Arlene, who hails from the prominent Sinsuat clain of Cotabato, in Saudi Arabia, headed straight to the guest house to condole with the family of King Fahd and was also met by the King’s half-brother and successor to the throne, Crown Prince Abdullah.
The Vice President, also adviser on overseas Filipino workers, led the country in paying tribute to King Fahd as a "champion for skilled Filipinos during his reign, OFWs and their families who were given important opportunities to lead better lives."
King Fahd, 83, had been hospitalized since May 27 when he was admitted for acute pneumonia. His half-brother Crown Prince Abdullah, de facto ruler for a decade, was anointed as his successor.
De Castro also represented the country in paying last respects when Palestinian President Yasser Arrafat died last year.
After a five-year respite, "Kabayan" De Castro returned to the airwaves last June 18 by hosting the weekly radio program "Para sa iyo ...Bayan."
The first airing of the new program on the Lopez-owned radio station dzMM was likened to a "star-studded" event because the guests were Cabinet members and ranking police officials.
De Castro said he chose to host a weekly program in dzMM over the government-owned Radyo ng Bayan because he had worked for the Lopez-owned radio station for more than 20 years and served as its vice president for radio before he was elected senator in 2001.
He said he will be more effective in hosting the program on dzMM where he will not be accused of "propaganda."
He receives no talent fee for his program, which he said is for public service.
Not only the legitimacy of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s presidency became suspect after a supposed wiretapped conversation between her and an official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) surfaced, but the Vice President’s mandate was also questioned with accusations that he benefited from electoral fraud.
De Castro broke his silence on the "Hello, Garci" scandal last June 29 when he issued a statement through his chief of staff, lawyer Jesse Andres, that he wanted Congress to decide on the fate of the President following her public apology for a "lapse in judgment" in talking to a Comelec official, widely believed to be former commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, during the vote-canvassing period.
In a press conference, Andres said De Castro was in favor of pursuing the truth on the fraud allegations.
The Vice President initially gave the impression that he had distanced himself from Mrs. Arroyo. But he described her public apology as a "courageous act."
De Castro could have abandoned Mrs. Arroyo and taken advantage of the controversies and scandals the First Family was facing with various congressional inquiries into wiretapped phones and jueteng payoffs.
Although De Castro would never initiate or support an impeachment complaint against the President, Andres said, neither would he oppose it.
He also defended De Castro from his detractors, saying the Vice President was very much ready and qualified to assume the presidency — if and when there was a vacancy.
De Castro said that the call for his resignation was "baseless" and a constitutional "shortcut" was convenient only for parties who wanted to seize power.
On June 11, De Castro accused some politicians of being behind the destabilization moves and expressed concern over the "orchestrated" move to topple the government.
The political situation began to deteriorate as rallies massed at EDSA and Makati City when De Castro and his family flew to Hong Kong to celebrate his 56th birthday. But even there, anti-Arroyo personalities followed him to convince him to take over the presidency a la EDSA 4.
But De Castro belied last July 9 that he "conspired" and arrived at a "compromise" agreement with the resigned members of the Arroyo Cabinet and Liberal Party leaders to demand the President’s resignation.
On July 10, De Castro said the Almighty was the first to answer his appeal to the Filipino people to give the President a second chance. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) asked Mrs. Arroyo to make the necessary decision and moral discernment instead of demanding her resignation, considerably diffusing the political tension.
Not even former President Corazon Aquino’s renewed call for him to take over the presidency could sway him, even if he admitted that Mrs. Aquino’s call to rally behind the Constitution... "should be accorded due deference and serious thoughts."
While he urged congressional leaders and members to adhere to the Constitution in response to the President’s giving the go-signal to amend the Charter, De Castro said that a consultation with the public and an information campaign should be launched by the government.
De Castro, it can be recalled, was among 16 senators who signed a resolution during the 12th Congress supporting a constitutional convention as a mode of amending the charter.
He noted that the President’s change in her decision to push for constituent assembly instead of ConCon was because of the entirely different situation the country was facing.
The day after the impeachment complaint against Mrs. Arroyo lost in an overnight vote last Sept. 6, De Castro said that the people will be the final judges of the majority decision in the House of Representatives.
While the opposition vowed to bring the fight to the streets, De Castro called for sobriety and prayerful discernment.
Last Nov. 30, the Black and White Movement’s 12 midnight ultimatum and call for the Vice President to abandon the President and take over the presidency again fell on deaf ears.
This was the call made by De Castro’s lawyer Armando Marcelo on July 7 for defeated vice presidential candidate Loren Legarda for saying that it was possible that De Castro’s votes were also tainted.
Marcelo said Garcillano’s sworn disclosure of Legarda having conversed with him during the height of the May 2004 national elections "resoundly" confirmed that she came to the Supreme Court sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) bearing her protest with "unclean, impure hands."
Election lawyers Romulo Macalintal, Marcelo and Andres, said Legarda should raise her issues before the PET instead of discussing them with the media which was not under oath.
They accused Legarda of capitalizing on the much-publicized wiretapped conversations to bewail her unsupported claims of widespread cheating in the vice-presidential race.
They said Legarda, however, conveniently failed to mention that in almost all of the provinces cited in the conversations, particularly those in Mindanao, she incurred the highest number of votes.
De Castro’s lawyers said that Legarda’s protest is a "fruitless" quest as they advised her to give up and instead use the money for the 2007 elections.
On Aug. 19, De Castro agreed to let the PET decide on the credibility of her new and strongest weapon in the person of former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) handwriting expert Segundo Tabayoyong in proving that the administration committed massive electoral fraud based on the election returns seized by the police during a raid at his rented room.
He accused Legarda of elevating her electoral protest to "trial by publicity" from "forum-shopping" instead of leaving the matter to the PET.
De Castro’s camp however encouraged Legarda to pursue all available legal remedies to recover the election returns (ERs) seized by the police if she indeed believed that the alleged tampered election materials were of any legal use to her.
His lawyers said last Dec. 12 that his lead over Legarda in the recount of votes ordered by the PET widened.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the visit of De Castro, chairman of the HUDCC, to Chile augured well for the continued enhancement of Philippine relations with Chile.
The meeting also aimed to address the Philippines’ housing shortage and proliferation of informal settlements in the capital of Santiago.
The Philippines and Chile have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on socialized housing, a joint undertaking first raised by Mrs. Arroyo with her Chilean counterpart, President Ricardo Lagos, at the sidelines of the 9th APEC Economic Leaders Meeting (AELM) in Shanghai in 2001.
During their meeting at the sidelines of the 12th AELM held in Santiago, Chile last year, the two heads of state agreed to the full implementation of the memorandum, and Mrs. Arroyo informed Lagos that she will send the Vice President himself, as the country’s housing czar, to Chile and work towards the full realization of the project.
The HUDCC meanwhile asked the Department of Finance (DoF) last July to grant value added tax exemption for houses valued at P2 million or less.
The housing agency is also seeking an increase in the ceiling for socialized housing to P300,000 from P225,000.
He said that the VAT exemption and increased socialized housing will make the housing sector investor friendly, help solve housing problems and decongest Metro Manila of informal settlers.
The Vice President admitted that of the total demand for housing units until 2010, only 1.1 million shelter secured units or 33 percent can be shouldered by the government while the rest would have to be filled up by the private sector with the help of local government units.
According to De Castro, the HUDCC also tapped Official Development Assistance (ODA) to assist cities and LGUs to improve their capacities in providing essential infrastructure and basic services to their constituents.
The government has also extended continued support for tested housing multi-stakeholder and cost-effective housing programs like Gawad Kalinga and Habitat for Humanity.
De Castro lashed at the critics of the Arroyo administration who are allegedly behind the disinformation campaign in the North Rail project which they do not want to be successful.
He said he and the heads and representatives of the government’s shelter agencies involved in the relocation of the "riles" settlers have to visit the relocatees often because of reports they have been receiving about the railway project.
Budget Secretary Romulo Neri said that the US$400 million loan granted by China to the Philippines is "aboveboard" and almost a "giveaway" to the government because of the long payment period and three percent fixed interest rate.
De Castro was accompanied by his wife Arlene, who hails from the prominent Sinsuat clain of Cotabato, in Saudi Arabia, headed straight to the guest house to condole with the family of King Fahd and was also met by the King’s half-brother and successor to the throne, Crown Prince Abdullah.
The Vice President, also adviser on overseas Filipino workers, led the country in paying tribute to King Fahd as a "champion for skilled Filipinos during his reign, OFWs and their families who were given important opportunities to lead better lives."
King Fahd, 83, had been hospitalized since May 27 when he was admitted for acute pneumonia. His half-brother Crown Prince Abdullah, de facto ruler for a decade, was anointed as his successor.
De Castro also represented the country in paying last respects when Palestinian President Yasser Arrafat died last year.
The first airing of the new program on the Lopez-owned radio station dzMM was likened to a "star-studded" event because the guests were Cabinet members and ranking police officials.
De Castro said he chose to host a weekly program in dzMM over the government-owned Radyo ng Bayan because he had worked for the Lopez-owned radio station for more than 20 years and served as its vice president for radio before he was elected senator in 2001.
He said he will be more effective in hosting the program on dzMM where he will not be accused of "propaganda."
He receives no talent fee for his program, which he said is for public service.
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