MANILA,
FEBRUARY 11, 2011 (MANILA STANDARD)
What was President Noynoy Aquino trying to prove by personally going to the Land
Transportation Office to renew his license on his birthday? Well, the spin
doctors of Malacañang probably wanted to make Aquino appear like just another
regular guy by pulling that stunt—sort of like that staged image of a
hotdog-chomping President on the streets of New York City.
True to his word, however, Aquino did not talk to reporters after making the
surprise visit to LTO to have his license renewed. After all, Aquino had vowed
that he would never again talk about anything car-related to media, after
getting stung for acquiring (with his own money or with others') both a Porsche
sports car and a bulletproof Lexus SUV in quick succession.
Of course, Aquino had hoped that by not talking any more about his cars, he
could end talk about their still-unclear provenance. Now, he no longer feels
compelled to show the documents covering his Porsche or to explain the "lease
arrangement" with the Lexus, having decreed that a topic obviously dear to him
is no longer to be discussed in public.
But by going to LTO for a license, Aquino and his handlers probably thought
they'd hit two birds with one proverbial stone. Aquino would get to prove (as if
any proof were still required) his jones for driving and he would also come
across as a regular guy who goes to LTO for a license like everyone else.
Well, Aquino surely proved that he can't wait to renew his license so he can
keep driving—even if you have to wonder how someone who should attend to
practically everything that this country needs could make renewing his license
his highest priority. Why a President has to drive a car himself when he
probably has an entire platoon of drivers at his command is a mystery, as well.
But in the future, perhaps Aquino and his media strategists can be persuaded
not to stage such cheap Everyman gimmicks like the one they pulled at LTO.
Whatever Aquino says, people still won't be able to relate to a President who
feels he has to tool around in luxury vehicles all the time—especially if he
refuses to fully explain how he got them.
* * *
We join former President Fidel Ramos in calling on the government and the
armed forces not let the death of former Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes go to
waste by allowing corruption in the military to continue. Ramos, himself a
former armed forces and defense chief like Reyes, said everyone from the
President to the lowest-ranked soldier and cop should be responsible for
fighting corruption.
"It will take more than the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and the House good
government committee to solve that problem [of corruption in the military],"
Ramos said. The effort "must come from every individual soldier and officer and
policeman… with the determined efforts and the leadership of no less than the
President."
Ramos also took issue with some lawmakers and various other critics of Reyes,
who have done everything to tar and feather the former defense chief as just
another corrupt military leader among many. Ramos said Reyes should also be
remembered as one of the prime movers of the "Edsa Dos" uprising in 2001.
"He, in fact, tried to save the Armed Forces of the Philippines and its three
major services [and the] Philippine National Police... We take it that way, that
his sacrifice is not in vain," Ramos said after going to Reyes' wake.
Ramos, as usual, is being chivalrous. The people who went after Reyes, after
all, were all motivated by what he did as chief of staff, which led to the
downfall of one Joseph Estrada.
Strange how the people who felt so outraged by Estrada and who hailed Reyes
as a hero in 2001 were silent when Erap's surrogates exacted their revenge on
the deposed leader's nemesis 10 years later. Stranger still that very few people
except the likes of Tessie Ang-See and Rex Robles can go out and offer kind
words about Reyes, now that he has taken his own life.
It was Shakespeare who said that the evil that men do lives after them and
that the good they do is often interred with them in their graves. So let it be
with Angie Reyes.
* * *
The standoff between the executive and the judiciary is nowhere as apparent
as in the case of Senator Panfilo Lacson, who has been absolved by the Court of
Appeals but whom Justice Secretary Leila de Lima still believes should be
arrested upon his reappearance. The CA, of course, has already ruled that the
lifting of the murder charges against Lacson resulted in the recall of the
warrant of arrest issued against the Senator.
De Lima, on the other hand, insists that the decision is not final and that
the warrant against Lacson still stands. Clearly, what happened recently in
Lacson's case is another example of the Executive branch of government in open
opposition to the Judiciary.
But the principle of separation of the powers of Congress, the President and
the Judiciary dictates that none of these branches should encroach on the work
of their co-equal branches. The doctrine was primarily developed to prevent the
concentration of power in one branch of government.
Of course, the first ongoing conflict between the Executive and the Judiciary
under this administration is well known. But these two branches must ensure that
the war does not extend to cases like the Maguindanao massacre.
That case has now also reached the Court of Appeals. Let's hope that the
justice that the relatives of victims seek is not thwarted by another skirmish
in the long-running war between two branches of government.
Chief News Editor:
Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011
by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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