In the course of passing President Aquino's reform budget for 2011, the House of Representatives allowed trapo politics to rear its ugly head. The House passed a malicious resolution calling for the resignation of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, the honourable Secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles. And for what grave policy or program failure did the House ask for the head of the government's effort to peacefully end insurgencies and rebellions? Sec. Deles allegedly insulted a first-term Muslim congresswoman in the course of explaining the peace process to her. The House does not pass resolutions like this simply because one of its members got insulted.
Four possibilities about the real reasons for this resolution may be cited why this incident looks like the really ugly face of trapo politics.
- One possibility is that this resolution is the handiwork of political backers of the midnight appointee at the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos whose removal and replacement, which these politicians blame on Sec. Deles, endanger the realization of their lucrative rackets at this new government office.
- A second possibility is that the manufactured grievance was turned into an attack on a former Hyatt 10 member as an example of the growing influence in the House by former President now congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
- A third possibility is that this resolution calling for the resignation of a competent Cabinet member handling a sensitive mission is a naked attempt to create a possible political debt from the President who may want to keep such a Cabinet member. Payment for this debt may then be exacted at a high price later.
- A final possibility is that this attack by the minuscule minority in the House could not have proceeded, much less succeeded, without at least the incompetence or maybe even the complicity of some leaders of the House majority supposedly behind the President. In this possibility, the factional infighting within the Cabinet may have now spilled over to the House majority.
One, some or all these possibilities could be true. In any case, the resolution harms the country by falsely suggesting that the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process will have problems in securing political support for any peace agreement that might eventually be negotiated. The resolution also creates opportunities for needless intrigues between the Executive and the House of Representatives. A less than definitive response by the President to the resolution can signal weakness early in the administration's term and could limit the reforms possible in this presidency that came to power with so much promise and hope.
Certainly, the resolution should be rejected outright. Having differences in opinion with a congressman is not a justifiable basis for a Cabinet member to resign. Giving in to a resolution passed under duress in the final stages of deliberating the President's first budget will only make his next five budget deliberations more costly.
We, former senior government officials, believe that this incident is an opportunity for the President to demonstrate his leadership of the political coalition for reforms that supported his election. Taking the ''daang matuwid'' demands a new type of politics. The President should take steps to consolidate the House majority under the leadership of Speaker Belmonte. He must make it known that he regards this resolution as a failure of the House majority that should not be repeated. The President should also show in his statements and actions that he is strengthening, not weakening, the hand of Sec. Deles in dealing with the challenges of taking the ''daang matuwi'' to peace. Finally, the President should serve notice that politicians practicing trapo tactics like holding the budget hostage for malicious resolutions like this will be met with all measures available to the President to punish those who do these and reward those who fight these.
References:
Mario Taguiwalo
Former Undersecretary
Department of Health
Mobiline: 0917 526 9001
Former Undersecretary
Department of Health
Mobiline: 0917 526 9001
Jesus Estanislao
Former Secretary
Department of Finance
Mobiline: 0918 934 1038
Former Secretary
Department of Finance
Mobiline: 0918 934 1038
Narzalina Lim
Former Secretary
Department of Tourism
Mobiline: 0917 524 7649
Vitaliano Nanagas
Former Chair
Development Bank of the Philippines
Mobiline: 0922 879 7420
Former Chair
Development Bank of the Philippines
Mobiline: 0922 879 7420
