First orders of business

With the historic result of May 9, the post mortems continue to fascinate both readers and the ones who write them.

Of particular interest, looking forward, is the new president’s agenda. Looking back to 2016, in the first month of his presidency, Rodrigo Roa Duterte immediately delivered on one of the major planks of his platform – the all-out war against illegal drugs.

Philippine STAR editor-in-chief Ana Marie Pamintuan’s column yesterday recapped the BBM campaign commitment to lower prices of commodities and utilities, and to provide jobs.

Away from the center. The central plank of the BBM platform was also presented to us in the campaign the same way it was done six years ago as the roadmap for the Duterte administration. That issue is Federalism.

Undeniaby, Federalism has been placed front and center of the BBM bucket list. The other phenom of the 2022 campaign, No. 1 senator Robin Padilla, also continues to remind all that the real raison d’etre for his topping the senatorial race was the quest for empowering the provinces.

President BBM could have chosen any party but he ran as candidate of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, to underscore the urgency of the return of the issue to national prominence. With his landslide win, the safest wager is that Federalism will play a leading role in the BBM plan of action and will figure in his inaugural address. If so, it should be further fleshed out in the first State of the Nation Address.

Public debates on shifting to Federalism are still warm in the oven. PRRD abandoned the push midway through his term, acknowledging that Congress wasn’t as eager for it. But he left a legacy of efforts to bring the public into the conversation, through the perfunctory preparatory commissions and grassroots consultations.

Even as the President conceded his Federalism wish, he continues to this day to encourage constitutional amendments. His enduring cassus belli for this is something he reiterated just this week: scrap the party-list system. PRRD calls the system evil, exploited by the wealthy, financed by drug lords and used as a front for communism.

The adoption of a Federal system, of course, entails constitutional change. Every administration, at some point, confronts the challenge of navigating a path through shackles (on government action) also known as protections (of individual rights) imposed by the Constitution it inherits. Since its adoption in 1987 as the aegis of president Corazon Aquino’s attempt at restoration, we’ve sat through consistent attempts to jumpstart the reform process. Even her chosen successor repudiated the same as forces aligned with president Fidel V. Ramos pushed for the grassroots spawned People’s Initiative to amend the Constitution. Understandably, only president Benigno C. Aquino III had no desire to take part in any such movements.

Economic freedom card. The ostensible reason has always been to revisit the nationalistic provisions. But we are all woke to the ruse and know the hidden agendas lurking: lifting of term limits, nuclear weapons and foreign bases, dynasties, parliamentary form, party-list system. No one really has openly messed with the constitutional guarantees of individual freedoms but just these past years, we heard of efforts (surfacing during the terror bill debates in Congress and in the Supreme Court) to dilute the Bill of Rights to hold speech and expression more accountable.

Even if president BBM should have a congenital enmity against a Constitution reactionary to the regime that preceded it, there is no need for him to go off-message and shed the unity optic. We know that there is no love lost but any action taken against the Constitution will not be seen as petulant since the urgency of reform is almost as old as the Constitution itself. With advocates like senator Padilla not just pushing but shoving, we are likely to see a ConAss or ConCon among the new administration’s first orders of business.

And they’re off... The congressional races are mostly resolved, with winners all over duly proclaimed. The Senate derby has its national following. Surely, “trending” results will confirm that Robin Padilla’s topping the race dominates national discussion, after BBM’s win and Leni’s loss.

As we wait for their respective terms to start, first the pleasant/unpleasant business of jockeying for leadership posts.

In the House, we hear of a two-horse race for the Speakership between former House Speaker and former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Majority Leader Martin Romualdez. This is really an internal party struggle, rather than a fight among parties, as both of them are with Lakas-CMD. Will they resolve the matter in house or does this linen get washed in public? If the latter, we are looking at a free-for-all where party affiliations are again, diminished, in favor of personal commitments.

In the Senate, it’s more nebulous. Not parties but alignments dictate the coalitions that will elect Senate presidents. With results returning more than a majority aligned with the Duterte and now Marcos administration, president BBM may also be inveigled to weigh in. Floated are the names of Senator Cynthia Villar and Migz Zubiri.

President BBM is both former congressman and senator. Let’s see how he takes his 31M, 58 percent majority out for a spin. Conventionally, that mandate is seen a gift. But it is also a guide, to do what you have to and not have to watch your back. Given this, then the conventional wisdom will be to step in rather than step out. With more than a majority of senators clearly aligned with him, even the Senate presidency may see the hand of Malacañang knocking.

For the president’s men, there is also jockeying behind the scenes. The traditional deference to a new president’s choices is expected. No need to wave the majority mandate to the Commission on Appointments. Of course, the first among equals in the Cabinet will be the vice president who, constitutionally, is appointed without need of confirmation.