Twenty eleven

We welcome the first three days of 2011 with much hope and optimism. This is especially true for our nation after the last half of the year just past saw the first six months in office of the fledgling administration of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

President Aquino has reportedly been able to finally find and spend the “private time” that he has been longing to have, though briefly, during his first ever stay at the presidential mansion in Baguio City where he welcomed the New Year. His sneak trip to the country’s so-called “summer capital” did not escape being discovered again by media, though belatedly.

Since assuming office in June last year, our country’s first ever bachelor President often complains to Palace reporters about not being given any private moments, especially on personal pursuits of his potential first lady.

During our post-Christmas party of STAR editors and reporters last week, the group led by our Palace reporter Aurea Calica won the round in the “longest list” parlor game. They were able to submit the longest list of women who were publicly known as and rumored to be girlfriends — past and present — of Mr. Aquino.

Not necessarily in alphabetical or chronological order, their list included starlet Barbara Milano, broadcast personalities Korina Sanchez (now Mrs. Mar Roxas); Bernadette Sembrano (now Mrs. Aguinaldo); Joy (a staff at the Senate while he was still a Senator); Valenzuela Councilor Shalani Soledad; presidential fashion consultant Liz Uy; and stockbroker Len Lopez. Aurea’s list also named a certain Patricia Roque and Barbie Pelagos but they were classified as mere “chismis” (in the realms of the rumor).

The nocturnal travels of the President in Metro Manila on his supposed “cloak-and-dagger” dates with a few of them, however, have landed in the news. Caught by media, Mr.Aquino could only bemoan having lost all privacy.

The Presidential Security Group (PSG) must do a better job of allowing their boss the privacy that seems to elude him. Apparently, the President and his security escorts have not been discreet enough to cover their tracks. While always just a step behind, the media could still detect the presidential whereabouts, or get to know the presidential gimmicks wherever the Chief Executive goes and whenever he goes outside the Palace.

This is definitely a challenge for PSG chief Col. Ramon Mateo Dizon — how to serve the “privacy” and security requirements of the President. On the other hand, the PSG chief must also try to balance them with the rights of the public to know the presidential activities in and out of the Palace.

The short vacation of Mr.Aquino in Baguio City was spent, according to the PSG chief, mostly reading and pouring over vital documents. I could believe him because Mr. Aquino is a self-confessed rabid reader. He admitted to us spending much of his time reading voluminous papers, including the fine print of government contracts.

The presidential reading habit was validated to us by many of the Aquino administration officials. Among them, Philippine National Police (PNP) Director-General Raul Bacalzo recently confessed to us how he found out that the President reads page by page the reports and documents submitted to him. During his courtesy call, along with top PNP officers, at The STAR office last month, Gen. Bacalzo related how he appreciated their commander-in-chief’s taking time to reading their reports.

He said the President noted that certain pages of the PNP report on the Aug. 23 Luneta bus hostage case as submitted to the incident investigation review committee (IIRC) was topsy-turvy. The error, the PNP chief surmised, was perhaps due to human fatigue on the part of the one who prepared the copies of the voluminous IIRC report and unfortunately, the one with erroneous pagination was submitted to the President.

Because of this, Bacalzo recalled, he got a phone call from President Aquino, cautioning him to be very careful in such details because it might be misconstrued as trying to cover up for something.

Mr. Aquino was still learning the ropes of the presidency when this bungled police rescue incident happened on Aug. 23 last year. And fortunately, when it happened, the opposition leaders were still observing a much longer “honeymoon” than the first 100 days given by media to a new administration to settle down and get things going.

Senators Manny Villar and Loren Legarda separately told me that Mr. Aquino deserves at least one year “honeymoon” to allow him to feel his way around in the Office of the President.

The tandem of Villar and Legarda ran but lost as president and vice president, respectively, in the last May 10 elections.

In his case, Villar pointed out, he has intentionally shied away from making any criticisms of President Aquino because he might be seen as a sore loser. Or, if he makes a statement of support, this might be misunderstood as trying to ingratiate himself to the new administration.

Villar and Legarda, however, hastened to clarify that this does not mean they have abandoned their fiscalizing duty at the Senate to check against any abuses or mis-governance by the Aquino administration.

For now, Sen. Joker Arroyo has taken upon himself the main job of fiscalizing the Aquino administration. The maverick senator has, in fact, not relented in his continuing criticisms of what he termed as the “Student Council at Malacanang” to describe how the government is being run under President Aquino.

While most of the opposition stalwarts are still observing the one-year “honeymoon,” Joker is exercising his seniority rights to fiscalize the administration whether Mr. Aquino is ready or not.

The administration of President Aquino will still generally enjoy the first six months of 2011 with some breathing space. But the next half of 2011 will be critical when the self-imposed “honeymoon” of the opposition with President Aquino is over.