Writing their own obituary

Sen. Joker Arroyo is ever a maverick. His sound bite that "senators won’t write their own obituary" proves it. On one hand, he twits the troika of Gloria Arroyo, Fidel Ramos and Joe de Venecia for railroading a switch to a unicameral-parliament form of government. On the other, he puts up his Senate colleagues for public rebuke.

Not writing their own obituary refers to senators’ long declared hate for unicameral legislature. For them, it would abolish their august chamber. No longer would they enjoy their esteemed position, as distinguished from the House of Representatives, of treaty ratifiers, impeachment judges, and presidents-in-waiting.

Looking deeper, though, refusal to write their own obituary has other implications. Bad ones. It would seem that senators, upon reaching their high office through national as opposed to district campaigns, begin to claim a franchise over that office. In resisting unicameral form, they become suspect of jealousy of anyone trying to enter their exclusive domain. It’s as though those presently occupying Senate posts have the sole right to run for reelection, in the wake perhaps of their pork largesse.

Pork has been of late an issue associated with senators. Often has it been pointed out that senators each receive an astounding P200 million per year to spend as they please. That’s a total of P4.8 billion a year to 24 special men and women who, whether with the Administration or the Opposition, are the first and loudest critics of any President’s priorities. Yet in spite of their P200 million each and criticisms, millions of schoolchildren still have no classrooms or books, and millions of parents have no jobs, water, food, medicine or roofs. It can only mean they are part of the problem, not the solution.

Talk of senators’ pork inevitably turns to other perks. The Senate is allocated P1.336 billion a year for operations. In the whole of last year it passed only four laws – or an average expense of P334 million per law. That is precisely the reason for a growing agitation for unicameral parliament. But senators will hear nothing of it; they won’t ever write their own obituary.

Talk of senators’ dismal lawmaking in turn inevitably veers to their other preoccupation: investigations. All Senate committees are engrossed at any given time with inquiries. Some of these elicit proof of graft, others squeeze out only publicity mileage, and all end up with no report or new legislation. One wonders why senators persist in such indulgence. And the answer lies perhaps in the un-audited allowances they receive as chairmen: P500,000 a month per major committee, P300,000 per minor one. And that’s still another reason to go unicameral.

Filipinos should be ever grateful to the maverick Joker for his sound bite. No, the senators will never write their own obituary. They’re not fools to part with their pork and perks.

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The story goes that, on Election Day of May 10, 2004, Sonia Aquino was preparing to concede her mayoralty bid in Tanauan, Batangas, when fate intruded. Fate came in the form of poll-watching schoolteachers and voters barging into her thank-you dinner for friends, presenting affidavits and letters detailing fraud by her opponent. So then days later Aquino filed with the Comelec a protest against the victory of Alfredo Corona with 31,942 votes, against her 28,201.

It would take the election body a year-and-a-half to decide her case. Ballots from 342 precincts in 26 barangays had to be recounted. On Dec. 22, 2005, the Comelec came out with 465 pages of findings. Its review showed thousands of ballots bearing the name of Corona obviously in the same handwriting of just one person. Thousands more proved fake, failing the ultraviolet test and showing these were printed on ordinary paper. Still more ballots were marked and thus had to be disqualified for bearing stars or asterisks beside the candidates’ names.

The Comelec declared Aquino the true winner with 27,482 votes, against Corona’s 24,380. It ordered the latter to vacate city hall.

Corona refused and supporters assailed the integrity and credibility of the election officers. These were, after all, the same associates of Virgilio Garcillano, the same awarders of a P1.3-billion automation contract that the Supreme Court had to void for anomaly, and the same spenders of another billion pesos to photograph and fingerprint voters for ID cards that never came.

Aquino, meanwhile, pleaded with the Comelec to enforce its order. She waited four more weeks for the agency to come out yesterday with a writ of execution, directing the police to evict Corona and the Department of Interior to install Aquino.

There’s a feeling in Tanauan that the writ won’t sail easy. The recount that found Aquino to be the winner may be accurate. But politicians and supporters never believe the Comelec.

The irony extends from the tiny city of Tanauan to the national scale. Opposition legislators want President Gloria Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro to step down for alleged election rigging – and make way for swift elections. Yet that special election will be handled by the same officials they accuse to be Garcillano’s cohorts in the Garci Tapes. To make it worse, they refuse to attend the Council of State that Ms Arroyo is calling to discuss electoral reforms.

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There are two ways to look at the 4,968 environment compliance certificates that outgoing Sec. Mike Defensor issued in just one year. It could be a testament to an output-oriented management style, since his 14 ECCs a day supposedly brought investments up fourfold, from P131 billion in 2004 to P518 billion in 2005. On the other hand, it could spell disaster soon from hasty studies of the impact of factories on lakes, and of buildings on aquifers.

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