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That is the question confronting the senators and congressmen who
are members of the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA).
Last week Sen. Ana Consuelo Madrigal invoked
wholesale Article 20 of the bicameral body’s rules, thus
preventing the promotion of 24 ranking officers of the Armed Forces
of the Philippines. She raised her objection in plenary session
although other CA members do not recall her doing so when the
appointment of the same officers were being tackled at the committee
level.
Agusan del Sur Rep. Rodolfo Plaza told the
Kapihan sa Sulo media forum Saturday that while Madrigal may have
attended the pre-plenary deliberations on the officers’ promotion,
he does not recall her coming on time.
Madrigal, according to CA and Senate sources, is
notorious for her tardiness. Even columnist Angelito Banayo, in his
testimony before the Senate blue-ribbon inquiry into the NBB-ZTE
deal, revealed that Madrigal came late to the “secret meeting”
former economic planning secretary Romulo Neri had with Sen. Panfilo
Lacson, star witness Jun Lozada and others in Makati last December.
According to CA rules, any member can invoke
Section 20 to suspend consideration of any nomination or
appointment—including those favorably recommended by a standing
committee and the chairman—without question from the rest of the
bicameral body.
So why did Madrigal invoke Section 20 last
Wednesday?
Other CA members said they believe it was her
way of getting back at her colleagues who did not go along with her
two weeks ago when she tried to block the promotion of a general who
had a run-in with jailed Sen. Antonio Trillanes 4th, another Jamby
favorite.
“She was awake but sleeping,” was how a
published report quoted Plaza as saying about the incident when
Madrigal failed to hear the name of the officer when it was read
during plenary session for confirmation.
The only other CA member who agreed with
Madrigal when she wielded her one-woman veto last Wednesday was
Lacson—to the surprise of no one.
The Ping and Jamby tandem has been the motive
force behind the NBN-ZTE probe, seemingly superseding the
blue-ribbon committee chairman Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.
A number of Senate reporters noted that Lacson
and Madrigal—putative partners in the 2010 presidential
election—now seem to be “running the chamber, setting the
agenda, overstepping even some of their more senior colleagues,
including those who also belong to the opposition.”
A veteran newspaperman who has covered the
chamber since the 1990s noted how the Ping and Jamby team seems to
be exercising greater influence over their fellow senators than
Senate President Manuel Villar.
The tandem’s newfound sense of power has
evidently extended even to the CA. However, most of the 22 other
members of the bicameral body now feel that Madrigal, as abetted by
Lacson, has gone too far.
Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, a former AFP chief of
staff, fumed after Madrigal invoked Section 20. The former Marine
general, who took up the cudgels for the officers affected by
Jamby’s stunt, moved to amend the CA rules if only to prevent her
from repeating it in the future.
Madrigal responded that she blocked the AFP
officers’ confirmation because she wants to “reform” the CA.
“As minority floor leader of the commission, I
invoke this powerful provision of our rules to send a strong
message: Reform the commission now!” Madrigal said. “Tapusin na
natin ang bata-bata at padrino system sa Commission on
Appointments.”
Madrigal’s reformist posturing, however,
failed to impress most of her CA colleagues—and the public.
Sen. Richard Gordon summed up the annoyance with
Madrigal when he said: “She must explain to everyone and to every
individual here that has earned star rank through blood and guts
that she is using it fairly—without whim, caprice or
arbitrariness.”
So, how do you solve a problem like Madrigal who
evidently will not hesitate to brandish Section 20 just to make a
point, no matter how bizarre?
Former Sen. Francisco Tatad said, also at the
Kapihan sa Sulo, that any CA member “who does not actively
participate in the pre-plenary deliberations should not be allowed
to invoke Section 20.”
The leading opposition figure added that
objections to any appointment should be voiced at the committee
level, which Madrigal apparently failed to do in the case of the 24
AFP officers whose careers she has put on hold and whose individual
reputations she has besmirched—with Lacson’s collaboration.
Tatad, however, did concede that the CA could
stand some reforming. He said that the bicameral body needs to be
“more proactive,” as he recalled the case of former Chief
Justice Hilario Davide Jr. who was named the country’s permanent
representative to the United Nations—even without CA confirmation
and despite the fact that he is past the mandatory retirement age of
70 for public officials.
But that’s another matter—or is it?
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