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Speaker Jose de Venecia of Pangasinan will surely be
reelected as speaker of the House of Representatives in the next
Congress—which will also span the legacy phase of the Arroyo
administration. There should be no doubt about that eventuality,
despite threats from Cebu.
JdV is a master of mustering the
consensus among congressmen. He has a knack for knowing the interest
of every congressman in a collegial body, and responding to it
favorably and quickly. He may have difficulty in winning the
presidency, but many consider him an ideal speaker—just like Jose
Laurel Jr. and Cornelia Villareal in pre-martial-law days.
Besides, he takes pride in
championing certain advocacies that he believes uphold the national
interest. Somebody said that JdV is a traditional politician with a
cause, a political operator with a philosophy.
On the matter of winning the
speakership, JdV has the numbers. The Lakas congressmen dominate the
chamber. As for the fraternal Kampi, its members are also for JdV,
even if they revel in the noise created by some Kampi leaders. The
opposition presented by Camarines Sur Congressman Luis Villafuerte
and Cebu Rep. Pablo Garcia are simply nuisance.
President GMA, the head of Lakas
and Kampi, is aware of the situation in the House. She knows that
JdV will win hands down. Besides, she has to support the Pangasinan
lawmaker because of JdV’s proven loyalty. Unlike another Lakas
stalwart—his name is FVR—who has shown ambivalence in supporting
GMA in her moments of difficulty—JdV has been steadfast.
If Pablo Garcia wants to have a
chance of beating JdV, the Cebu congressman must present a definite
platform of governing the House. He should not simply harp on
“regaining the prestige,” which is vague and hard to determine.
In the case of JdV, his program is written and verifiable.
You may disagree with JdV on may
points, as in his previous advocacies for Charter change via
constituent assembly. He has lost that one, but even the pro-Charter
change say that amending the 1987 Charter should be an option in the
not-so-distant future.
What I like about JdV is his
advocacy of the peace process, even if his initiatives do not end in
a peace treaty. But we have to acknowledge that JdV’s initiative
with the RAM and the military adventurers have led to decline in
casualties. As for the talks with the NDF, we can say that it is now
in a pause, but eventually both sides will have to talk for
settlement.
Come the SONA and the election of
officers of the Senate and the House on the third week of July, the
assembled congressman will vote for JdV for speaker. This is because
the nation has no choice but to elect him.
Change RP negotiator
in aviation talks
It seems that the Philippines has
not succeeded in finding a negotiator for aviation talks with other
governments. It seems that the current one, Undersecretary Edward
Pagunsan, is not qualified to speak for the nation’s interest.
Events have show that he can easily be influenced by foreign
interests. Can the President do something about this? Here is an
account of a recent discussion between South Korea and the
Philippines.
“The air talks between the
governments of the Philippines and South Korea resulted in very
disturbing if not onerous provisions that again undermined the
sovereignty of this country due to the actions of the head of the RP
negotiating panel, Department of Transportation and Communications
Undersecretary Edward Harun Pagunsan.
“The new agreement allows
capacity rights up to 19,000 seats per week on the Philippine-Korea
routes—which is one of the demands of the Koreans—as against the
current 6,800 seats a week, a whooping 179-percent increase.
“When the Koreans denied the
demand of the RP panel for daily 5th freedom rights or to be able to
fly from Manila to Seoul onto the US and Canada, Pagunsan hardly put
up a fight . . . Pagunsan kept saying we have to bow to the more
economically and technologically advanced Koreans.
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