With barely three days to go before the new administration takes over, early negative vibes are already beginning to show within the Noynoy inner circle. All of these can easily be traced to the “blame game” and “whodunit” on how Mar Roxas could possibly have lost to Jojo Binay. This is not exactly a great way to start a new administration even before the new President could occupy the hot seat in Malacañang.
Already the cracks are beginning to show judging from what P-Noy’s “Tito Peping” (Cojuangco) is saying. He’s blaming Mar’s group for intriguing him with his nephew saying the president-elect should be careful of listening to people who have been able to hop from one administration to another. Obviously he was referring to Mar Roxas who was DTI secretary both under former president Joseph Estrada and PGMA, short of calling Mar “super balimbing.” On the other hand, Mar’s group totally blames Tito Peping for allegedly junking Mar and endorsing a Noy-Bi ticket, prompting Peping Cojuangco to say that he regrets having supported Mar Roxas.
It is now obvious that Vice President-elect Binay is caught in the middle of this crossfire, with Mar’s group reportedly blocking his appointment to the DILG post. It’s a pity because Jojo’s expertise is being put to waste. Besides, everybody knows Binay was a staunch ally of Noynoy’s mother, the late president Cory Aquino.
But history seems to be repeating itself. As we all remember, his mother’s coalition with Doy Laurel broke up almost immediately after EDSA I. Ironically, the same was also true after EDSA II when the so-called civil society broke up with GMA’s administration. The once-tenacious supporters of Gloria became some of her bitterest enemies. So one wonders if this is really a Filipino trait.
People are hoping these “negative vibes” are not an indication of how P-Noy’s administration is going to be like in the next six years. At this point, Filipinos are ready to give Noynoy a lot more slack than usual, cognizant of the fact that indeed, the responsibility he will carry as President is absolutely enormous. Right after the May 10 elections, some people who only had the best intentions for Noynoy told the young President-elect to be more cautious in making pronouncements.
However, P-Noy said he did not recognize the appointment of Chief Justice Renato Corona, and he made it worse by requesting an associate justice to administer his oath. As one Noynoy cousin sadly put it, “Okay na sana with the barangay captain na lang.” Certainly there are many, including Liberal Party stalwarts, who believe that it simply was unnecessary for the incoming president to alienate a co-equal branch of government, whose powers are vested in the so-called Cory Constitution. Technically, it would even appear that the judiciary is the most powerful branch of government. It can even tell the President and Congress what is legal and what is not. In fact it can even send a President to jail like in the case of our friend, Erap Estrada.
In “The Art of War,” Sun Tzu teaches about giving the enemy a graceful exit and allowing him to save face in order to gain more productive results without added bloodshed, so to speak. In the case of Gen. Delfin Bangit, his dismissal could have been done in a better manner, taking into careful consideration the military mindset. As things stand, Bangit’s hurt pride - although some say he is partly to blame for it - has driven the general to issue statements about setting dangerous precedents, warning that what happened to him could happen to others as well. That is - to be unceremoniously relieved or worse, to be humiliated into resigning from one’s post.
It doesn’t help either that outgoing Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales has also joined the fray, announcing that he will form a “shadow cabinet” - virtually a rival faction - whose main task is to become some sort of watchdog that would give “alternative policies” that would effect real change through careful planning and intensive study - as if to imply that the incoming Cabinet’s programs are the exact opposite. It’s not hard to see where Gonzales’ rancor is coming from. Noynoy’s undisguised dislike for the current Defense chief was exacerbated by perhaps an unintended insult when he jokingly refused to refer to Gonzales as “honorable” because of the latter’s criticisms.
At the onset, there’s really nothing wrong with candor. In fact, this is a trait that is often appreciated by foreigners who cannot understand the tendency of Filipinos to “beat around the bush.” But when you are the Commander-in-Chief, what you say, even if said in jest, carries a lot of weight. In fact it’s multiplied a hundred times simply because you said it. President Noynoy will soon realize all these in due time.
By the time the 15th president sets foot in Malacañang after noon of June 30th, there will be 4,320 more Filipinos born on that day (at a population growth rate of 3 babies per minute). Petty grievances with negative vibes have no place in this country because we simply don’t have the luxury of time. Everyone must do his share in supporting the new President because after all is said and done - he is supposed to be the new leader of all Filipinos - all 94 million of them and still counting.
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