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Senators Mar Roxas and Edgardo Angara played the political
soothsayers in predicting that there will be multiple candidates for
president in 2010. In effect, they are already virtually conceding
this early that the opposition will not be able to field a single
candidate in 2010.
I fully agree with what they see in their
crystal balls. The opposition has many strong wannabes in Senate
President Manuel Villar, Sen. Loren Legarda, Sen. Ping Lacson and
Mar himself. Senator Angara said that opposition unity is but a wish
and this could not be realized “because Filipinos are not trained
to be united.”
I doubt if any among them would be backing out
of the 2010 fight. Mar has the Liberal Party and Senate President
Villar, the Nacionalista Party. Loren has the Nationalist People”s
Coalition which has been supporting both the administration and the
opposition since the 1995 election but what the heck! She has been
topping all surveys and she could join any party she wishes. Ping
has said he would not run if he places lower than fifth in the
surveys. I don’t expect him to go lower than that, so he is as
good as in.
Will a divided opposition bomb at the polls? I
don’t believe so. In fact, I am convinced that the next president
would come from their ranks. The 2004 election where two opposition
candidates (the late Fernando Poe Jr. and Ping) ran against GMA, is
not the appropriate example for there will be no incumbent in 2010.
I predict that Mar is not one who would be using GMA administration
as major issue in the hustings. As he has said, the dynamics for
2010 will not be the administration-opposition issue but who
has the best plan for the country.
Former President Joseph Estrada said that he
would run if the opposition fails to field a single candidate.
Sometimes, I think he is merely trying to jolt the nation with this
statement. Hey, I heard that he had just visited Bataan in the
company of Senate President Manny Villar. Could Erap actually be for
Villar on the sly? Note that his son, Jinggoy, went for Villar
instead of joining the “pure” (the others were “mongrel”)
opposition in the race for the Senate presidency.
Loren has kept mum about 2010 but she has been
traveling to the provinces, making one suspect that she is already
in a campaign mode—her silence notwithstanding. She has made
environmental protection her main preoccupation, although the
economy is also her concern. Oh well, she heads the Senate Committee
on Economic Affairs after all.
As for Lakas, the administration party, I remain
convinced that majority of its members are for a coalition with
another party, which I am inclined to believe is really the
Nacionalita Party of Senate President Villar.
The aviation fiasco
It looks like the downgrading of the Philippine
aviation to Category 2 by the US Federal Aviation Administration did
not come in one fell swoop with its report on January 8. Sen. Juan
Ponce Enrile said that the Air Transportation Authority (ATO)
should already have had an inkling of what was coming when the
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) conducted its
aviation safety assessment of the Philippines on July 23 to 27,
2007.
The findings of ICAO, according to Enrile,
caused the FAA to tell ATO on October 26 of its “serious concerns
regarding the ATO’s ability to conduct consistent, effective
safety oversight, and indicates that such oversight does not meet
ICAO standards.”
ATO, however, did not mention anything to the
Senate about the FAA concern during its budget hearings. In fact, it
asked for a budget of only P21 million, which the Senate granted. It
was only after the panic button was pressed did calls for remedial
legislation come out. To the credit of the House and the Senate,
they acted in timely manner in approving the bill abolishing ATO and
creating the Civil Aeronautics Administration of the Philippines (CAAP).
The CAAP will have fiscal autonomy so it could use its income of
about P2.1 billion a year to upgrade aviation facilities. It will
also have an initial capital of P50 billion.
The House bill was authored by Reps. Monico
Puentevella of Negros Occidental and Juan Edgardo Angara of
Aurora. The Senate measure was authored by Senators Edgardo Angara,
Jinggoy Estrada and Francis Escudero. Both chambers passed the bill
before the Christmas break. However, the bicameral conference
committee could not meet until Congress resumes its session on
January 28. It is not correct to say that the bill failed to pass
the bicam because the bicam has not yet convened.
SP Villar said he would press for a speedy
approval of the bicam report.
efrendanao2003@yahoo.com
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