LEADERS of the minority in the House of Representatives urged the public on Wednesday to be watchful of Malacañang’s “machinations” on the move to amend the economic provisions of the Constitution and keep their guard up as the campaign for constituent assembly gains momentum.
In particular, the minority said the people should “watch what they [Malacañang and its allies] do and not what they say” because the real agenda, the ulterior motives, remain shrouded in mystery.
Citing the underspending of the 2011 budget, together with the bloating of various programs in the 2012 budget, the opposition said there is ample proof that the administration’s word cannot be trusted and its good intentions are nothing but empty promises.
House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman said the political ambitions and machinations of President Aquino and his allies “would make Niccolo Machiavelli proud of them.”
At the same time, Lagman reminded the public of the “emerging style of this administration,” one year into power, referring to Palace’s controlling its allies at the House of Representatives in railroading Palace-backed or initiated measures.
Lagman cited, among others, the impeachment of former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, the approval with inordinate haste of the 2011 national budget that Mr. Aquino did not spend after all, enactment of defective laws like the postponement of the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and installation of presidential officers in charge and the Government-Owned and -Controlled Corporations Governance Act.
“We find it hard to believe that a Chief Executive who keeps his congressional subalterns on such a tight leash would give them such leeway on a matter as fundamental as amending the basic law of the land,” said Lagman in a statement he read during the weekly minority news conference at the House of Representatives.
“The Palace and its congressional majority are putting on a great show: One that will rely on the sheer numbers of the majority to railroad their agenda for Cha-cha [Charter change], while keeping the President above the fray so that he can continue to enjoy his personal popularity into the 2013 elections—for the benefit of administration candidates—and beyond,” added Lagman.
He said that the less the people see of the President on the controversial matter, the better his handlers think it will be.
“Perhaps he [Mr. Aquino] was simply practicing for such invisibility when he refused to show his face at the holocaust aftermath of the recent typhoons,” Lagman said.
Lagman feared that because Malacañang controls the House, it could insert a number of possible revisions in amending the Constitution that would benefit the administration, but not necessarily the national interest.
For example, Lagman said if the P39 billion being sought for next year’s conditional cash-transfer (CCT) program is combined with the P12.4 billion unspent for public-private partnership (PPP) together with other largesse in the budget, the result is a huge election pork barrel that the administration can disburse at will in the run-up to the 2013 elections.
