EDITORIAL - When power begins to ebb and slip away

President Aquino recently invited all congressmen for lunch in Malacañang. Of the 287 members of the House of Representatives, only 134, or less than half, showed up to honor the invitation. The purpose of the lunch was for Aquino to make a last-ditch pitch for Congress to pass his pet but controversial Bangsamoro Basic Law proposal. He may have also wanted to measure his political support in the House.

It appears he failed miserably in either endeavor. Not only did more than half of the House snub the invitation, the House also failed to subsequently muster a quorum when it met in session hours after the lunch. Worse, the number of those who showed up at the session was even less than the number that was present at the Palace for lunch.

There can be as many interpretations for these development as there are people willing to interpret them. But there are at least three readings that readily stand out from all the rest. These are: 1) Most congressmen no longer feel as inclined as they may have used to be to pass the BBL. 2) They feel it far more important at this stage to mind their own political interests than be mired in BBL deliberations. 3) Aquino has now truly entered that phase of being a lame duck.

These developments naturally have their positive and negative effects. The main positive impact of the House not being able to pass the BBL is that the country has been spared from being rushed into a situation over which it may only regret later. At the very least, Filipinos only have the word of Aquino, on one side, and the MILF, on the other, that the BBL is good for everyone. And those are naturally biased perceptions.

Clearly, the BBL needs to be studied beyond what these two sides have been telling the Filipino people. Maybe the sacrifices of the 44 SAF troopers who gave up their lives in the Mamasapano massacre were preordained by divine providence. Maybe it had to take the gallantry and heroism of those men to open the eyes of everyone that, hey, maybe we are being rushed into giving the MILF what they want by way of the BBL at the expense of what is beneficial for all.

A negative aspect of Congress not being able to muster a quorum is that precious time is being sacrificed for the sake of individual political interests. Time that could have been spent sewing up loose ends of legislative work are now spent sewing up the loose ends of preparations before the campaign for the 2016 elections goes full blast.

As to whether or not Aquino has entered the lame duck phase of his presidency, it is up to his bosses to determine whether that is a positive development or a negative. However direction the public mood might swing, it should be a sobering thought for Aquino to realize he no longer enjoys the command authority presidents enjoy at the height of their power.