The morning after:
Senate coup revisited

One paper bannered an Erap hand in the coup, banking only on the supposed membership of Enrile in the latter’s party, and the perceived "closeness" of the two, which isn’t exactly true. They are friends, but they are not that close. Even when only the two of them survived the Cory juggernaut in the first elections under the 1987 Constitution that re-installed a two-chamber Congress, they were not that close. Estrada, who tries to be friendly with everybody, and forgives anyone and everyone at the drop of a tear, fake or feigned, knew the political value of the wise Ponce Enrile, so that even if the latter did not support his presidential run in 1998, he reached out. He needed the cooperation of the Senate, and so politically, he bedded even with other unlikely political "friends" as Miriam Defensor Santiago. That paper cited an "administration senator" as its source, but the guy, who can easily be identified by any political observer, was also just speculating.

Truth is, Erap never knew until the night before, when his son Jinggoy told him. Did he inform his friend Manny V, the guy he made speaker, also the guy who impeached him with one dramatic bang of his speaker’s gavel? Obviously not.

Our friend and colleague Ellen Tordesillas probably had the closest narration of the events that led to Villar’s fall from the Senate presidency. Even speculations about Cha-Cha, and Villar’s supposed hand in Joc Joc’s arrest are all drivel, insofar as they are related to the latest Senate golpe.

Uneasy lies the crown, always, on the Senate presidency’s head. My friend Caloy Padilla remembers history when he cites Manuel Roxas’ ouster from the speakership and his quote "fell from the rostrum into the arms of the people". My friend Caloy insults the memory of Mar’s lolo by making such an odious comparison. Manuel Roxas was far more eloquent (the late Speaker Pepito Laurel, Caloy’s mentor as much as mine, described him as such a "great and fiery orator" and a sharp mind) than the head of the Nacionalista Party now. And no historian has ever attributed "conflict of interest" or "self-dealing" or some other such pecuniary peccadilloes to the first elected president of the Republic. Neither his son, Gerardo, who also became a highly respected senator of the realm. And Mar of the third generation does not self-deal either, nor has he ever been accused of dipping his fingers into the "kaban ng bayan".

With stealth and cunning purpose did Manuel Villar deal with the administration caboodle in the Senate immediately after he was re-elected to the Senate as an adopted candidate of the Genuine Opposition a year and six months ago. He refused to sit down with his GO team mates, Lacson and Legarda, nor oppositionists Roxas, Madrigal, Biazon, Aquino and Pimentel to discuss the politics of a chamber where they had an inch of a majority, assuming he and fellow "independent" Kiko Pangilinan, and Alan Peter Cayetano’s sister, would go on board. Even after Nene Pimentel, the initial candidate of the oppositionists, was no longer in the running. He chose his boys – Alan Peter and Chiz Escudero, and bedded them with his Wednesday Group led by Joker Arroyo, then talked turkey with JPE, Angara, and Gordon. Then they presented their combination of disparate forces to the stinking palace beside the stinking river, and got its imprimatur, along with which came the votes of Lapid, Revilla, Zubiri and Miriam. All along of course, he was briefing Erap, and promised the prestigious if useless role of "President Pro-tempore" to son Jinggoy. It was a brilliant political move – leaving out his perceived presidential competitors out in the cold.

So Gilbert Remulla (spokesman of Manny Villar), don’t give the public any of that drivel, about your boss’ order of arrest for Joc Joc, and the resumption of the fertilizer scam hearings. Your boss tarried and tarried in doing all these, and only when his indecision became obvious, and some other senators in caucus started challenging such indecision, did he act. Ask your Joker. He knows.

Going back to my friend Caloy’s recollection of the first Manuel A. Roxas, he eventually became Senate President as an ally of Manuel Luis Quezon, president of the Commonwealth when the Pacific war broke out. After the war and a brief interregnum before the elections that pitted him against MLQ’s successor, the taciturn Sergio Osmeña Sr. of Cebu, Roxas was yet technically the Senate President. So was the great MLQ when he was elected president. So was Ferdinand Marcos, who stole the Senate presidency from Amang Rodriguez past an unsuspecting Diosdado Macapagal, and from that perch, challenged the latter and won. But someone who fell from his perch, Senate President Jose Avelino of Samar and Bulacan, challenged his president, Elpidio Quirino, put up his own Avelino wing of the Liberal Party, and lost miserably in 1949. Why did Avelino place a miserable third, after Quirino and Laurel of the Nacionalistas, even if he was representing the Roxas loyalists of the Liberal Party, as he claimed? "What are we in power for?", his famous quote. In truth, even Avelino did not do anything the likes of which Manny Villar is accused of these days. His only fault was political candor, spoken in Castillian, "Para que estamos en poder?" to party mates, but an intrepid journalist scooped him. And in those days, you couldn’t buy off reporters.

The presidency of the Senate was no longer as important a vantage point from which to aim at the presidency after Cory Aquino was installed by people power. Salonga fell from his rostrum, and a year later, also lost his presidential bid. Maceda lost his Senate crown, and later lost his bid for the mayoralty of Manila. Angara, who also lost the Senate presidency, likewise lost his vice-presidential bid to then Sen. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Truth is, the senators compared Villar with his immediate predecessor, Frank Drilon, who steered the chamber in a far better manner. Villar’s leadership begins and ends in a caucus, eschewing floor debates, very boardroom, very "tayo-tayo." And the minority, as well as those in the majority with whom he was not too hunky-dory, always felt left out. The resentments already seethed in the second quarter of 2008.

Then the C-5 double insertion came up, which Ping Lacson thought was a DBM trick to impound savings for the Doña and/or Andaya to toy with. It turned out to be a smoking gun that led to the mystery of the road called C-5. When Jamby Madrigal got hold of documents from the DPWH, the mystery unravelled, and out came Villar’s self-dealing. In the wake of such devious manipulations, the Republic lost at least 1.2 billion pesos in consummated road right-of-way payments to Bro. Mike Velarde , because Manny Villar wanted the C-5 re-routed to another longer, more snake-like thoroughfare, each bend designed to pass through his corporation’s properties. And got paid for it too, again from the kaban ng bayan, more than another legislator, Ompong Plaza of Agusan del Sur, whose family properties were paid 4,000 per square meter versus 15,000 for Villar’s. And who negotiated with the DPWH, for and in behalf of the other property owners? Why, according to the documents, Manny Villar and his spouse, Cynthia, congresswoman of Las Piñas!

At that point, Villar’s numbers started to cave in. A senator from his side observed to a cabinet member in the Senate when the JPEPA was ratified after waiting for Jamby Madrigal’s expose in a privilege speech – "open and shut." To which the cabinet member replied, "Masyadong reckless". (I heard it. This is a first person account. And they didn’t mind sharing their conversation with me in the gallery.)

"C-5 at Taga" was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It gave reason to the senators increasingly disenchanted with Villar’s "leadership" style to plot and count numbers. The wonder of it all is how they managed to keep it a secret from Manny Villar and his staunch allies until the last minute. Probably that explains why the numbers were deliberately kept at just nine senators when the Senate resumed session on November 10. And after the bolantic encounter last week, the nine senators started to talk in earnest to the "soft-core" supporters of Villar, treading very carefully, practicing the same stealth with which Villar blacked them out in June of 2007.

Which is why Erap found out last. And the last 13th vote was ascertained only in the morning of the putsch. Lito Lapid was never "consulted." Baka malaman pa ng Malacañang, and a monkey wrench is thrown. Kanya pala bumoto muna kay JPE, tapos binawi. Tulak nang puso, kabig ng Malacañang?

Now Villar’s media friends ascribe baser motives to the new majority. Par for the course. Squabbling daw over committee chairs. Perhaps a little wrangling here and there, because unlike in 2007, where the administration-opposition coalition was cobbled by Villar through chair-dealing, this was not, because there was a common purpose, and there was a need for absolute secrecy. Naturally, the spoils come after. In 2007, the spoils were partitioned before the presidency. Note that Alan Peter Cayetano was given the Blue Ribbon, plus education. Wow! And Pia Cayetano had Health, plus Environment, plus Accounts, plus Ethics. Wow again!

The political pot boils. Some are boiled, some are merely scalded

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The morning after, Manny Villar pushed through with a campaign stump. He invited the barangay chairpersons of the City of Manila to an eatery called Tramway in Quezon City. (One barangay chairman from the third district refused to go – "Bakit, wala bang kainan sa Maynila?" asked he.) Of Manila’s 900 barangay chairs, some 370 came, but the place overflowed with former barangay chairmen and kagawads who made sabit to their chairmen. In all, there must have been 800, packing the place, and many had to leave because the place had become an oven. Cynthia sobbed, recounting the fall of her husband from the Senate presidency. But Manny forced a smile, and preened about his latest survey numbers.

The chairmen chatted throughout, and favourite topic was C-5 at Taga. In the end, they waited for the envelope, but none was forthcoming. I guess that’s the problem when you’re filthy rich. Everyone comes expecting.

O tempora, O mores!, the Romans would have rued. Such is the Philippine political system. No money, no honey, as the GI Joes would say. Ah, but Manny has plenty.

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e-mail: (banayo_at@yahoo.com)

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blogsite: (litobanayo.blogspot.com)

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The resignation of Senator Manny Villar as Senate President was no surprise but the choice for his replacement was shocking to say the least. It is unfortunate that the opposition Senators have short memory on how the new Senate president, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile turned his back to the group who took him in its wings to be part of the Senatorial line-up just to join afterwards the administration side of the political arena and where he blindly supported and sided with Gloria Arroyo and her cohorts.

If the opposition Senators had a quid pro quo arrangement with Enrile, they might be in for a surprise. This man with Machiavellian intelligence has time and time again showed his mastery of manipulating people to his advantage. He has still a year to decide on becoming a Brutus to Gloria but until then he will feign allegiance to the institution he is serving and will be a puppet to the powers that be who can literally destroy him, financially, socially and physically.

President Arroyo’s economic adviser yesterday likened the country’s economy to a car "running flat," even as he warned against complacency in dealing with the global financial crisis. "I would liken the Philippines to a car that is running flat but still running. But the problem is that the nearby gasoline stations are closed," said Albay Gov. Joey Salceda. Salceda warned that the Philippines would be hit hard by the global economic crisis after leaders of the world’s largest economies apparently glossed over the real problems besetting the global economy. He said there appears to be some complacency in government in dealing with the fallout of the global financial crisis. This is compounded, he said, by the 20 largest economies or the G20’s failure to face the real issues in the crisis. "Nobody (in the G20) is calling for sacrifices. Nobody acknowledged resource depletion, which is half the problem," Salceda said in a telephone interview. "There is an underlying belief that by throwing money at the problem, it would be solved." "I think the global ethos is better than panicking. There is nothing about protecting the poor," he said. Salceda pointed out that even as the crisis is still to worsen, greed among financial giants could not be satiated. He cited the $700-billion bailout plan for bankrupt US financial institutions where large insurers try to buy the imperilled firms so they can get chunks of the financial assistance. He said "most disturbing" is the "domestic complacency in government in not acting quickly to shore up the country’s defenses against the global economic meltdown." Salceda said the Philippines should take advantage of the "lull before the storm" by immediately increasing deposit insurance and seeking other sources of foreign funding. He said the effects of the financial meltdown in other countries were slowed down not by bailouts but through increasing deposit insurance. "What we see are false starts and very little to prevent a cycle of crisis," he said. Salceda said more than 70 percent of the national government’s incremental foreign funding came from sovereign bonds that are essentially handled by the US financial giants that have collapsed. He said the worst-case scenario for the Philippines is zero-percent growth. But he gave this only a 10 percent chance of happening.. A three- to four-percent growth next year has a 50 percent chance of happening, he said. "We will be hit hard but we will fare better than our neighbors that will be hit worse," he said. Salceda said there are only two policy options for the government: "Pain nowand more pain later, or more pain now and gain later."

New visa seen to boost economy Foreigners who employ at least 10 Filipinos can stay in the country indefinitely. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Monday signed the new rules for foreigners in hopes of providing more jobs for Filipinos in anticipation of an economic slowdown next year. With the new "special visa for employment generation" (SVEG), qualified non-immigrant foreigners will be extended "multiple entry privileges and conditional extended stay without need of prior departure from the Philippines ," according to Executive Order No. 758. This is the first time the visa has been issued. The privilege will also cover a qualified foreigner’s spouse and unmarried children–legitimate, illegitimate or adopted–below 18 years old. Trade Secretary Peter Favila said the new policy was meant as an incentive to encourage more "legitimate investors to come on board." Official figures show that direct foreign investment accounts for about 15 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), while comparable regional economies attract 20 percent or higher. "We envision that if we make it easy for foreign investors to acquire a visa that allows them to indefinitely stay in the country, we encourage them to infuse their capital into the country and, thus, provide jobs for Filipinos," said Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan. But Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez made it clear that the government was also wary of the security implications of the EO, particularly on the possibility that terrorists could take advantage of it. "We will coordinate with all the intelligence agencies," Gonzalez told reporters after Ms Arroyo signed the EO in Malacañang Monday. "We are also a gateway to terrorism. You cannot just extend visas to people whose backgrounds may not be desirable." Section 2 of the EO prescribes that the SVEG will be made available only to non-immigrant foreigners who are "not a risk to national security." Applicants are also required to "actually, directly or exclusively engage in a viable and sustainable commercial investment/enterprise" in the country to go with a "genuine intention to indefinitely remain in the Philippines." The immigration bureau, however, has not made it clear if foreigners can keep such a visa even after their businesses no longer employ Filipinos. Most other visitors are allowed to stay at least 21 days, depending on their nationality. Most visas can be extended for up to a year. In the EO, Ms Arroyo noted that 2.9 million Filipinos were unemployed as of April this year, a discouraging figure considering the prospect of an economic slowdown–or even recession–by next year.

Apart from the new visa privilege, Malacañang is implementing emergency employment and livelihood opportunities across the country, apparently to help cushion the effects of possible layoffs. Libanan sought to douse fears that the SVEG would legitimize the status of foreigners illegally staying and even doing business in the country. "They are not covered," he told reporters, noting that the bureau would coordinate in the matter with other agencies such as the Department of Trade and Industry and Department of Labor and Employment.