Bypassing five Duterte appointees a sign of trouble  

There is trouble at the top, we should be very smart to detect and discern the signs. Outgoing president Rodrigo Duterte does not take it sitting down, seeing his most important appointments being bypassed by the Senate. And as an astute politician, he knows that the incoming president, BBM, had a hand in such a wholesale insult to his most important appointments. It is a virtual slap to the outgoing chief executive and we should expect a backlash to say the least.

We should remember that those who were denied confirmation by the Commission on "Disappointments" were the chairpersons of three constitutional commissions, the Commission on Elections, Commission on Audit, and the Civil Service Commission, as well as two commissioners of the Commission on Election. We are not stupid to believe the whispered alibi by Senate chairwoman Cynthia Villar that the reason for bypassing was lack of quorum. That was a very shallow attempt to hide the truth. We are smart enough to discern that members of the commission, especially the Marcos and Romualdez loyalists in the House were told not to appear so that not reaching a quorum would become a plausible excuse. But people are smarter than these trapos expect.

The bypassed appointees are very close to President Digong. The three chairpersons are all from Mindanao, two of them from Davao. Last February, President Duterte named Rizalina Justol to chair the very powerful Commission on Audit although there were many objections due to alleged pending cases against her. This Davao CPA who used to work for the Davao City local government when the president was still mayor, has earned the trust and confidence of President Digong. Bypassing her on whatever alibi is a virtual slap to the face of the outgoing chief executive.

In March, Karlo Nograles, erstwhile Cabinet secretary and spokesman for the president, is a distant relative of the Dutertes. He is the son of the former speaker and the nephew of the NLRC chairman, as well as a cousin of the young representative of Rizal. He looks very qualified and has excellent credentials as well as human relations and political skills. His bypass is another insult to President Duterte. Although the Nograles clan used to be the political opponents of the president's family, they have already reconciled and bonded as pillars of the Davao power block.

Saidamen Pangarungan is a Maranao and we all know that President Duterte has Maranao blood on his mother's side. The bypass of the Comelec chairman is not only a rebuff of President Duterte but an insult to the Marano people who helped BBM win in Mindanao. The same also with the bypass of Comelec commissioners George Garcia and Aimee Torrefranca Neri. Of course, Garcia used to be the lawyer of BBM and his bypass as commissioner can pave the way to his appointment as Comelec chairman. That means that Saidamen Pangarungan should be sacrificed. But the president will take that as a big rebuff. Expect a big backlash, knowing the president's character.

If you are smart enough to read the smoke coming from the chimney of Malacañang, you should know why the oath-taking of Inday Sara was advanced to June 19, and that the Supreme Court is hurrying up with the disqualification case against BBM. There must be something earthshaking that could shock us all before June 30. Until now BBM and Manong Rody have not met. BBM already talked to Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping but never to Manong Digong. I can smell a rat or a political bomb about to explode. I can be wrong, of course, but I can also be right this time.