A cause my one vote will support

In school, we are taught how our government works. Among the things we learn is that the three departments in our constitutional structure namely the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary are co-equal and co-independent, no matter how we read the original discourse of Montesquieu on the subject. Yet, they have among themselves some ways of checking one another for the end purpose of keeping their healthy balance of power, all for common weal.

Although the impeachment process is the constitutionally enshrined way of holding certain high public officials accountable to the people, we can consider it as an extreme mechanism of check and balance. When the president, for example, goes out of bounds and commits any or all of the acts that are deemed impeachable, the way to check the presidency is thru impeachment.

There were more attempts to impeach Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo than any other president in our history. I am not saying that the sheer volume of the complaints lodged against her somehow indicates the rapacity with which she has misused her power, but future historians will certainly examine what prompted citizens to dare put her in the crucible.

When the future writers look back to the era of Pres. Arroyo, (assuming the scuttlebutt to change the constitution and make her Prime Minister fails to materialize) they will be stunned by the way Congress (mis)handled the complaints. They will realize the significance of the characterization of the process being political. I dare say that some of them will be embarrassed while others will be indignant in the manner their respected congressmen made their stand. Of course, still others will find forgiveness in their hearts to justify the role played by their favorite lawmakers that made a mockery of a hallowed constitutional process.

It will not be impossible for this incoming breed of opinion makers to conclude that one tool available to the president in quelling easily the numerous impeachment complaints against her was her generosity to our representatives, most of them, at least. They will replay video footages of legislators coming out of meetings with the president carrying oodles of unreceipted and undocumented money and be shocked by the callousness with which they attached to their immoral acts. How they will react to the position of a Cebuano congressman who publicly acknowledged receiving a substantial “Christmas cash gift” from the president and yet hours later denying to have accepted the money, will be something to watch out for.

The non-discreet distributions of hundreds of thousands of pesos by Malacañang operators were systematic. Obviously, the intended beneficiaries among shameless lawmakers were well known to the president and so they were marked. But, beyond the cash dole outs, the office of the president has a seemingly inexhaustible source of government largesse. What is horrifying is that it is institutional.

This is euphemistically called the pork barrel although it has changed names in government’s attempt to hide its odor. These are taxes allocated to legislators for their non-legislative work and they are commonly believed to be the source of both patronage and corruption. Through the control of the release of congressional pork barrels, the president commands the loyalty of lawmakers. Those legislators who show some kind of political independence as to call a spade a spade, find that the valves leading to their barrels are shut. And the only way to open them is to compromise their independence. In the Arroyo regime, some, rather, many, did.

It is therefore against the “political interest” of a person aspiring to become our president to adopt the policy of doing away with the pork barrels no matter the correctness of this thrust. Once a presidential candidate proposes the idea of scrapping the pork, he eases his grip on the skewed loyalty of most of the lawmakers. But, if one such aspirant for Malacañang dares to commit to do just that, he may just gain more supporters than congressmen can generate. For him, I will cast my one and precious vote!

* * *

Email: [email protected]