The VP cannot publicly attack the President
For the sake of the nation, we cannot go on having the top two officials of the government attacking each other publicly. It is just like a father and a mother hitting each other in front of their children and the community. We have always been kind to the Vice President in all our past columns, only because we believe that each one has the right to be presumed innocent until his guilt is proven in the proper forum and by competent and sufficient evidence. We always stand by the basic principle that a public official should not be pilloried before the Senate, nor be persecuted in a trial by publicity. There is an Ombudsman and a Sandiganbayan and the Senate should stop misusing the investigation in aid of legislation in order to bully a political opponent. And we stand by these principles. But we cannot tolerate a public attack against the President by VP Binay.
The President appointed VP Binay to two very important and strategic Cabinet posts: that of HOUSING and of the OFWs, both as Czar. Even if Binay belongs to the opposition, the President trusted him to be a part of the team. In fairness to the Vice President, he did toe the line for more than four years now. But when he started attacking the administration, and even criticizing Malacañang on the manner by which the President is treating Ex PGMA, his stay in the official family has become untenable. The VP has already crossed the Rubicon. He has broken the barrier. For the sake of delicadeza, it is time for him to cut and to cut clean. The President no less declared publicly: He is free to go. That is how the cookie crumbles.
This is nothing new. The late Vice President Doy Laurel was sacked by then President Corazon C. Aquino when the conflict between the two reached a boiling point. It is recalled that Doy Laurel was the most probable and the most prepared candidate of UNIDO against President Marcos, until the Cojuangco group and the Makati Business Club, as well as the Church pushed the reluctant and unprepared widow of Ninoy, Cory to go for the presidency. Doy had to be prevailed upon to give way in order to avoid a split in the opposition. Laurel made a sacrifice. When he was installed as Vice President, the lawyer in him could not help but disagreed with Cory's decisions, on matters of policies and principles.
Also, during the time of Erap, her Vice President, GMA always took a different view, not only because they belonged to different parties but also because GMA perhaps thought that she was a competent and well-educated economist, while Erap is a college dropout. The rivalry between the two culminated in what we now refer to as EDSA Two. Erap was impeached and was convicted of plunder and GMA assumed the presidency. In fairness to her, she granted Erap a conditional pardon, perhaps out of remorse, or out of a sincere compassion for a very popular former President. Then GMA appointed Senator Teofisto Guingona Jr as vice president. Again, history repeated itself. Guingona accused GMA of plunder and the rest is history.
President Diosdado Macapagal was President Carlos P. Garcia's vice president. Macapagal was Liberal, while Garcia was Nacionalista. They were always at odds. Until Macapagal defeated Garcia in the 1961 national elections. All those precedents however are quite different from the situations of President Noy and VP Binay. Today, Binay is a part of Aquino's official family. If he can no longer stomach the decisions of the President and the rest of the Cabinet, then the only honorable option for him is to resign. And the time is now. Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
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