Politics of confusion

People were caught by surprise, if not shocked, to hear Mar Roxas suggest that President Aquino should be given another term. It would seem like Mar is already throwing in the towel as far as running for president in 2016 is concerned. But one of his close friends told me it was probably just a kneejerk reaction to the claim of Vice President Jejomar Binay’s camp that some people in the Liberal Party have been sending overtures to adopt the VP as a guest candidate. Naturally, that puts Mar in an awkward position as to where he really stands as far as an endorsement from the president is concerned. We are told the agreement within the Palace inner circle is that the survey ratings by the end of this year will determine whether Mar should run or not.

But with what we have seen so far, it looks like those ratings aren’t going to get any better. And with the Aquino sisters not averse to the idea of Binay as successor to the president, expressing willingness to endorse the vice president, it’s becoming more and more evident that Mar’s chances are getting slimmer. In fact, Kris Aquino publicly admitted that she and her sisters have been discussing the idea among themselves.

Perhaps to save the situation for Mar, one Palace spokesperson said the president will not stop his allies from amending the Constitution and could still change his mind about running again. But earlier, another Malacañang spokesperson said the president has absolutely no intention of seeking another term. Now we are all confused. But I guess that’s what politics is all about — a game of confusion. As Confucius said, “one step backward, two steps forward” — or maybe as they say — “confuse the enemy.”

With the floodgates open, some Congressmen are now contemplating the idea of lifting term limits for themselves — prompting Speaker Sonny Belmonte to strongly assert that the Constitution provides only one term for the president without any reelection, and that the constitutional amendments he is pushing have to do with the economic restrictions, not term limits. 

The May 2016 elections is still 21 months away but it’s obvious that politicking (the right word would be jockeying) is already in the air — which could distract the administration from the need to fast track key infrastructure projects that are still pending. Although the economy has been moving rapidly with unprecedented growth in the past several years, the World Bank sees a lower projection for the Philippines this year and 2015, citing the need to accelerate structural reforms and increased investments in infrastructure to sustain high growth.

Arangkada Philippines — an advocacy paper of the American Chamber whose recommendations were culled from discussions with hundreds of Filipino and foreign investors — has long been saying that the Philippines is “underinvesting in physical infrastructure, with its public sector infrastructure budget consistently below three percent of GDP.”

This perspective is shared by other analysts who see the country’s growth prospects constrained by delayed infrastructure projects especially in Metro Manila, which remains to be the central business hub in the country. Take for instance the LRT-MRT common station project that has been in the pipeline for almost a decade. The whole idea for the common station project is to provide a systematic rail system that would make it convenient for commuters to transfer from one station to another and more importantly, lessen the traffic congestion along EDSA by transporting more passengers via the MRT-LRT lines.

The project hit a major snag when out of the blue, Transportation Secretary Jun Abaya suddenly announced that they were transferring the project location and are changing the original design — to the chagrin of SM Prime Holdings that already entered into a memorandum of agreement with the government  (DOTC/LRTA) for the common station to be located at the SM City North EDSA Mall.

The funny thing is that even Abaya’s own technical people at the DOTC do not agree with the project relocation, saying this could open up more legal problems from the operators of the proposed MRT-7 line. Even DPWH Secretary Babes Singson himself is recommending the adoption of the original design concept for the common station. Perhaps belatedly realizing the legal fix that he has placed the DOTC in after SMPH filed a case to compel government to honor the memorandum of agreement, Abaya now floats the idea of two common stations, as usual announcing it first to media even before formally broaching it to the concerned group. Once again, the public is confused. We are certain this has nothing to do with politics — or does it?

A few days ago, the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center happily announced that 18 major infra projects worth P602.2 billion will be rolled out before June next year. But how can we convince investors that these projects will be on track when earlier ones continue to be derailed due to legal complications?

While corruption greatly undermines the reform initiatives of the administration — as can be seen in the fallout from the Disbursement Acceleration Program and the Priority Development Assistance Fund — it is interesting to note that infrastructure problems are seen as the leading obstacles to economic progress according to a recent World Economic Forum competitive report.

A fixed six-year term for the president was precisely put in place by the Constitution to minimize the distraction of politics. This administration should focus on finishing all the projects and reforms it set out to do. When politics comes into play, everything starts to get muddled. Let’s not confuse the people. Or more appropriately, let’s not confuse the “bosses.”

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