The administration of President Benigno Aquino 3rd has different standards of morality – a high one for opponents and a lower one for itself, friends and supporters. This double standard was not expected when the President ran in 2010. Now, we have to grin and bear it.

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno lowered the public esteem for her office when she unilaterally issued a resolution that should have been ratified by the Supreme Court en banc. Worse, the resolution even purported to show that it had been ratified by the SC as a collegial body when it wasn’t.

Had CJ Sereno been an appointee of the former president, she would have been raked over the coals for taking the SC en banc for granted. Under another time and with different personalities, the Yellow text brigade would have gone to town scorching the CJ. Ah, but I guess it’s too much to expect the Yellows to take umbrage against one of their own, no matter how grave are his or her sins.

If CJ Sereno were to be judged by the same norms used against her predecessor, then her impeachment should be forthcoming. Of course, no such thing will happen, not to an appointee of President Aquino. And if CJ Sereno was not bothered by her conscience over the issue, then it’s useless to ever expect her to make a public apology, much less to resign. Why, she even gave no hint of embarrassment over the revocation of her resolution by the SC!
Oh yes, the President is also not applying to himself his standards when he was still an opposition senator. As a senator, he waxed indignant when the previous administration withheld some funds in the budget approved by Congress. This withholding, called impoundment of funds, negates Congress’ Power of the Purse and renders useless all its budget deliberations. Now that he’s President, he’s doing what he had criticized before, and he sees nothing wrong in doing it.

As a senator, he filed a resolution banning the reappointment of those who had been bypassed three times by the Commission on Appointments. Now that he’s president, he keeps on reappointing his Cabinet members who have been bypassed at least three times by the bicameral body. The view from the top is different, isn’t it?

On second thought, this thing about an opposition’s taking a different tack after becoming the administration is nothing new. During martial law, the political opposition rapped the “no-permit no-rally” policy as unconstitutional and an abridgement of the people’s rights. Well, that policy still exists despite the ouster of the dictatorship.

Then, there’s Presidential Decree 1177 or the Budget Reform Law that empowers the Executive to realign the budget and considers debt servicing automatically appropriated. The opposition during martial derided this PD, saying the people were “na-onse” or duped. What do you know! Since the People Power revolution, all attempts to repeal PD 1177 have been opposed by the administration which continues to realign budgets and automatically appropriates debt servicing.
 
Banayo, he with the clean image
In fairness to the President, he did make some excellent appointments. Among them was that of Lito Banayo as administrator of the National Food Authority. Many sectors have hailed his stewardship of the NFA as among the bright spots of the administration. When he resigned from the NFA to run for congressman in Agusan del Norte, many knew he would make a worthy legislator, somebody that the province would be proud of like they have been of the Amantes.

Lito is a silent but efficient worker. What’s more, he has a well-deserved clean image. That’s why it came as a great surprise to all who have known him when somebody charged him before the Senate Committee on Agriculture of rigging the bidding for rice importations.

I believe Lito when he said that all bids under his leadership were transparent and that the highest bidders always won. How can he be accused of increasing rice importation at the expense of local farmers when he reduced the levels of importation of rice from 2.5 million metric tons in 2010 under the previous administration to 860,000 metric tons in 2011 and 500,000 metric tons this year?

Lito stressed that of the 500,000 metric tons imported, 380,000 metric tons were brought in by the private sector and fully half or 190,000 of that import allocation were reserved for farmer importers. He’s also correct in disqualifying farmers’ groups with no financial capability to import rice. Such groups could only be mere dummies of rich traders.

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