PBBM: Concerned enough

Does the President care? Does the President know what’s going on? Is he concerned about all the allegations of corruption and the troublesome members of Congress that have been pushing for the Vice President’s impeachment and culpable violations of the Constitution resulting from the 2025 General Appropriations Act?

Yes, he is, and I recently learned quite a lot of details from a trusted PBBM ally. After distancing myself from directly commenting on the political and financial chaos that has beset the PBBM administration, a source asked to break bread with me regarding the matter and the lunch was entertaining as much as it was frustrating.

According to my source, PBBM first took note of the scandalous 2025 budget when “Presidential Ate” Senator Imee Marcos called out the proposal as being in violation of the Constitution, as well as pointing to the AKAP fund as legislated vote buying.

My source told me that the President called out and told off the people behind the insertion-filled budget in front of several Cabinet members. But that was only the beginning. The more the President learned, the more he got pissed.

Not only was the proposed budget in violation of the Constitution, but the President’s staff also informed PBBM that not only were there insertions (meaning funding requests that had not been requested by the government but inserted to benefit certain members of Congress and the Senate), even worse, another set of insertions were allegedly inserted into the insertions before reaching PBBM!

By then, a presidential relative allegedly received a second serving of sermon from President Bongbong Marcos Jr. As a result of the double dip sermon, the relative sulked and made himself scarce at events at Malacañang as well as the family reunion gathering later in the month.

During the family reunion in Malacañang, the relative allegedly hosted his own clan reunion out of town. But given a choice between Malacañang and the province, the out-of-town clan reunion ended up with poor attendance because his kin were not about to snub PBBM.

Given all the work and travel that PBBM had to do in December, he was not happy about being left to do the dirty work of resolving the budget as well as taking responsibility for the mess that Congress made. It was also evident that the more he tries to fix the problem the messier it becomes.

According to my source, the 2025 budget left PBBM “between a rock and a hard place.” By being in violation of the Constitution, the 2025 budget could be the sword of Damocles hanging over PBBM’s head as he could end up facing an impeachment complaint for not vetoing the budget.

The dilemma facing PBBM is that if he vetoed the budget, it could take up to the end of March to present a new one, if not longer. There would be no motivation for Congress and the Senate to pass a clean and lean budget without their “pork,” particularly the senate’s AKAP.  One option which seems to be the plan now is to pass the cured budget and then realign or redirect program funding once the dust settles.

Which leads to the back story on the removal of Congressman Zaldy Co as chairman of the appropriations committee. His removal was meant to express the President’s displeasure. The story is that the President and First Lady Liza Araneta called a meeting in Malacañang, during which the President made it clear that he was displeased with the fallout from the controversial 2025 budget.

My source claims that PBBM told his son, Congressman Sandro, to declare the chairmanship vacant, which expectedly caused disagreement from Cong. Sandro and Speaker Romualdez. But the President stood firm on his decision. When Cong. Sandro suggested that someone else do it, the First Lady told him to show some respect and do as his father says, which is what happened upon the resumption of Congress.

President Bongbong Marcos can only do so much without rocking the boat. According to one source, the President has so few people he can rely on, and they are getting mired in factionalism and intrigues. Instead of being his allies and helping manage the government, conflict among relatives and political feuds have become the biggest obstacle to realizing PBBM’s vision.

The irony, according to an older “kamag-anak” is that today’s mad house is nothing new. In the time of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. there were even bigger egos and competing interests among the Marcos and Romualdez clans. But what FM Sr. was good at was drawing the lines and setting the rules of engagement. Everyone knew what they could put their hands into and what was off limits.

Perhaps the President can start by hosting a family corporate conference like the many families in business have started doing in the last decade. With the help of political officers, technocrats and corporate planning experts, PBBM can draw the line, impose a system or process to be followed for any plan, action or intent by all members of the family related to government affairs.

While the separation or balance of power is set in the Constitution, we all know how real politics plays out and operates differently. As such, the PBBM administration now needs to set up a system of rules, something they did not do when PBBM first thought about running. Only when you have rules can you properly play this game.