The avid, malicious ‘guessing game’ on who’ll go or stay

In the former "Cold War" era, many governments, particularly its rival superpower the USA, employed "Kremlinologists" – experts on the power struggles and the Nomenklatura elite that ruled the Soviet Union.

One of the indications of who remained within the almighty Politburo and Praesidium was who stood closest to the Party Secretary General and President atop Lenin’s Tomb, while reviewing the march-past of the troops, tanks, armor, missile-launchers, and the banner-waving civic paraders on such major festivals in Red Square as May Day, Army Day, and the anniversary of the defeat of Fascism and Nazi Germany.

The disappearance of those who used to be on the podium with the likes of the top Party bosses, such as Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, Konstantin U. Chernenko, and finally Mikhail Gorbachev, was also noted by Kremlin-watchers.

The same thing is going on today with regard to the Imperial Court of La Emperadora Gloria once more in Excelsis. The "guessing game" is on – with wannabes desperately making their bids to eject present Cabinet members from their seats, so they themselves can grab them.

Every rumor, each straw-in-the-wind as to GMA’s choices – who’ll stay, and who’ll go – is examined with the jaundiced eye of a jewellery appraiser. For instance, when the President spoke at 28th General Assembly of the Bishops-Businessman’s Conference for Human Development, it was noticed by everyone that she took pains to highly praise Executive Secretary Alberto "Bert" Romulo, calling him the "personification of integrity" in government.

This declaration ought to send a signal to all those coveting Romulo’s position that Bert will continue being her Executive Secretary. Without hesitation, as I’ve said before in this column, I say "bravo" to such a decision. Bert, not only a gentleman and a man of principle, has performed his tasks as "Little President" with both humility and decisiveness. A Doctor of Laws sobresaliente from the Universidad Central de Madrid, he is also brilliantly well-versed in legal matters – a survival skill so essential in a nation so overloaded with a surfeit of heat-seeking and quarrelsome lawyers.

The rumor recently went around, even abroad, that Bert would be offered the Secretaryship of Foreign Affairs, a post which he, too, could fill with both distinction and savoir faire. His Spanish is excellent, his diplomatic finesse evident. He could have forged closer ties with the Hispanic and Latin American countries (with 500 million Spanish-speaking people on this planet), with a voting strength of at least 22 member-states in the United Nations. Either way, Bert would make a great Foreign Affairs Secretary.

But remaining Executive Secretary, at the President’s elbow, is best – if that is La Gloria’s intent.

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When Senate President Franklin Drilon, for example, asserted the President should appoint "credible" officials, his statement was welcomed as sound advice. What’s this we hear from Alikabok, and other reliable Malacañang sources – namely, that the Senate President has been pushing for the appointment of his brother, Cesar Drilon (nicknamed "Babe"), as Secretary of Agriculture? Meaning, that Babe Drilon is being pushed to replace Agriculture Secretary Luis "Cito" Lorenzo Jr. who has been so loyal to GMA that it hurt his own family business, which he abandoned to serve in the government, to the loss of hundreds of millions of pesos? Indeed, with so many pressures on him, poor Cito Lorenzo must by now feel very shaky.

The jockeying for Cabinet position is now intensifying, with detractors flinging bile on some in the Cabinet so that GMA will dismiss them – and fill the vacancy with the ambitious lobbyists themselves, or their kith and kin. Indeed, La Presidenta must purge her Cabinet of the incompetent, dishonest and arrogant, who are a millstone around her neck. But the replacements, now perceived to be "in waiting", don’t seem any better.

This is the make-or-break period of GMA’s new six-year term. We’ll know by what she does, and whom she appoints in the next few weeks, before she delivers her SONA (State of the Nation Address) very soon (July 27?), what the true state of the nation is.

She’s now stating that instead of merely creating six million new jobs (one million new jobs annually), she may even be able to magic-magic as many as ten million new jobs during her term. Excuse me, Ma’am. That sounds less like arithmetic than wishful thinking.

Wow! Ten million new jobs in a bankrupt nation? The election campaign is over, so let’s face harsh reality, put our shoulders to the wheel – and begin working: to save ourselves from penury and disaster.

Only if we earnestly face our mountain of problems, instead of engaging in fancy and self-delusion, can we return to progress.

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For starters, the Palace is beginning to realize that the immense budget deficit under which we’re being crushed won’t spur our legislators into passing new and additional tax measures.

Imposing new taxes is, alas, a "no-no" for politicians, particularly our politicians who would rather fiesta than sacrifice. What worries me is that Malacañang, in desperation, may come up with a sneaky way – rather a ruse –to circumvent Congress which is supposed to be the tax-authorizing body.

The Congressional mandate to impose taxes comes from Section 24 of Article VI (Legislative Department) of the Constitution, which declares that "all appropriations, revenue or tariff bills, bills authorizing increase of the public debt, bills of local application, private bills shall originate exclusively in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments."

In layman’s language, it’s clear that taxing power belongs to Congress and Congress alone.

With Congressmen and Senators now having their attention diverted to the question of "Cha-cha", i.e. Constitutional change to "parliamentary" and the debate on federalism, will Malacañang try a fast break – meaning, an attempt to raise revenue without going through Congress?

Heard on the wind is a plan to direct government agencies to raise their fees, penalties, fines and surcharges. The vanguard agencies in this revenue-generating drive are reportedly the licensing, franchising and regulatory agencies.

A word of caution, however, to overzealous agencies thinking of slapping arbitrary and confiscatory assessments without legal authority, subverting those assessments already established by existing laws. Under the Revised Penal Code, "demanding, directly or indirectly, the payment of sums different from or larger than those authorized by law" is illegal exaction (yep, "exaction") which is punishable by imprisonment.

We all know and understand, that our government, in these critical times, must raise money. But not by hook or by crook.