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By Efren L. Danao, Senior Reporter
President Gloria Arroyo will not run for Congress in 2010 and
there will be no convening of a Constituent Assembly at the
inaugural session of the Fourteenth Congress, Senate President Juan
Ponce Enrile said on Sunday. President Arroyo has kept silent on her
political plans for 2010 amid speculations that she would run for
Congress in the Second District of Pampanga, her home province. Her
eldest son, Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, represents the
district in Congress.
Enrile said during an interview over radio
station dzRH that he understood why the President had kept mum on
what she intended to do.
“Anybody who understands the dynamics of
leadership knows that the moment she declares she would be out of
politics after 2010, she will immediately be a lame duck
president,” he added.
Enrile said that once Mrs. Arroyo became a
political lame duck, there would be a loosening of loyalties and her
followers would be looking for other personalities.
“By not declaring her political plans, she is
saying that she is still a force to reckon with in the future,” he
added.
Enrile contended that the President is under no
obligation to announce her political plans, and anybody who demanded
that she did so was being disrespectful.
“You can suspect anything but who are you to
tell the president, ‘You must tell me your political plans?’ If
I were the president and I would be asked that, I would tell that
person: ‘Who are you to tell me that? How many votes can you
deliver?’” he said.
Enrile also shrugged off speculations that
Speaker Prospero Nograles would take advantage of the joint session
on July 27 to constitute Congress into a Constituent Assembly, or
“Con-Ass.”
The Senate president said that the joint session
would be held only to hear the President’s State of the Nation
Address (Sona).
“I know my parliamentary rules. The moment the
President has finished her Sona, I will immediately adjourn the
Senate session,” he added.
During the joint session, the speaker and the
Senate president can call for the convening and adjournment only of
their respective chambers. Nograles cannot demand the continuation
of the joint session once Enrile has adjourned the Senate session.
No more time
Enrile has been calling for constitutional
amendments but he admitted that there is no more time left to do so
before the 2010 presidential elections.
“You can’t finish the amendments in a few
months. We need a lot of time to debate proposed amendments and
study their repercussions,” he said.
Enrile pointed out that even the focusing of
amendments on economic provisions of the Constitution would already
be time-consuming. He said that there are many facets of the economy
and identifying which should be opened to foreigners would entail
lengthy debates.
“Let us amend the Constitution after 2010. But
there will be a problem if the next president would be against
it,” he added.
Meanwhile, Sen. Richard Gordon warned the House
of Representatives also on Sunday that it would turn the Philippines
into another Iran or Pakistan if it insisted on convening a
“Senate-less” Con-Ass.
Most of the congressmen, in adopting House
Resolution 1109, believe that the three-fourths vote needed in a
Constituent Assembly to amend the Constitution could be achieved
through joint voting. All 23 senators are against this because their
votes would be rendered irrelevant by the more numerous congressmen.
Gordon advised congressmen to stop such move as
it is only creating further disorder, “Which could escalate to an
uproar like what happened in Iran and Pakistan.”
Risking chances
By speculating that Mrs. Arroyo would eye a
congressional seat after she steps down from office, administration
critics are “risking” their chances in the 2010 elections,
Malacañang said also on Sunday.
According to Gabriel Claudio, the presidential
adviser for political affairs, it is not important whether the
President is compelled by law to resign before running for Congress.
What is more relevant, he said, is that the elections would take
place.
Mrs. Arroyo’s critics claimed that she is
planning to run for congressman while her allies in the House of
Representatives amend the Constitution to effect a shift from a
presidential to a parliamentary form of government. Hence, they
further claimed, she can aspire to be prime minister and remain in
power under the parliamentary system.
Lawyer Romulo Macalintal, the President’s
election lawyer, said that Mrs. Arroyo does not need to resign
should she seek another public office because there is no legal
prohibition against her possible congressional bid.
Macalintal added that Section 14 of Republic Act
9006 had repealed Section 67 of the Omnibus Election Code that
requires the resignation of elective officials running for another
position.
Resignation, he said, applies only to appointive
officials once they file their certificate of candidacy.
Grace won’t mind
The President seeking a seat in the House of
Representatives poses no problem to Gov. Grace Padaca of Isabela.
But during the weekly Balitaan sa Tinapayan news
forum, Padaca clarified that the 2010 elections should be respected
and that the President, if she chooses to run, must ensure that no
“undue advantage” would go her way.
“We cannot prevent her from running if she
wants to. I would be the last person who will stop her from running
as congressman or for any other electoral post since nobody could
stop her from doing so. All I want is that there would be no goons,
the elections should be clean and their true essence would be
respected,” the governor told The Manila Times after the forum.
When asked on possible plans of Malacañang
allies in Congress to groom Mrs. Arroyo as prime minister, Padaca
said, “Those are all speculations. The question now is will she be
treated the same way now when she goes down as president?”
Give it to “Erap”
For former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada,
his running for president for the second time is made impossible by
the conditions of the pardon that Mrs. Arroyo had granted him,
Malacañang said also on Sunday.
“Everyone has purposes and motives. On the
matter of former President Estrada, the conditions [of the executive
clemency] say he’s not allowed to run again for any elective post.
Now, I’m sure his lawyers have an idea how to interpret that,”
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said.
“But we have to give it to him. What the
former president is doing [indicates] that he is really prepared to
help his countrymen. And if the law and the opportunity permit him,
he can serve again,” he added.
Enrile said also on Sunday that Estrada is
dead-set on running for president next year and is now preparing for
his bid.
During the radio interview over dzRH, the Senate
president, who is perceived as a close ally of the deposed leader,
disclosed that Estrada, whom he had been accompanying around the
country for sometime, had purchased two-brand new helicopters and 20
vans for next year’s campaign.
Enrile warned those who are also eyeing the
presidency that they would have a hard time in their bids once
Estrada runs. Estrada is said to remain popular among ordinary
Filipinos.
The Senate president expressed the belief that
Estrada could still seek reelection but he conceded that this legal
question would be best decided by the Supreme Court.
Estrada won the presidency in 1998 but was
deposed in 2001 for alleged corruption. He was detained after being
convicted of plunder but his successor, President Arroyo, pardoned
him in 2007.
-- Angelo Samonte, Ruben D. Manahan 4th And Francis Earl A. Cueto
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