The lowdown on Cha-cha advocate Ben Evardone

From Rod Kapunan:

Eastern Samar Gov. Ben Evardone, a political neophyte, has turned out to be more professional in outmaneuvering the old-timers in the league called dirty politics. This newcomer has proved himself to be a consummate politician, and the exceptional thing about him is that while the rest can only jump to where the grass is greener, Evardone has evolved into a political broker for Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Evardone has no qualms about betraying his constituents. When he ran for the governership, he pretended to belong to the opposition. To be sure, Evardone aligned himself with the camp of the late Fernando Poe Jr., using the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) of Sen. Edgardo Angara. It turned out that his alliance with FPJ was only intended to ensure his victory against incumbent Gov. Clotilde Salazar, with some suspecting he was secretly in touch with the rabid pivot man of the administration in Eastern Samar, Rep. Marcelino Libanan.

As the undercover hatchet man of Malacañang, Evardone capitalized on the bogus idea of representing the voice of the younger generation in Eastern Samar. This was probably done because in the entire Eastern Visayas Region, it was only in his province where Gloria Arroyo won, and in that supposedly opposition ticket of Evardone, he was the only one who managed to make it. The camp of FPJ and then incumbent Gov. Salazar were not aware that Malacañang was betting on two horses.

While ordinarily political survivors would have every reason to be faithful to the constituents that catapulted them despite the overwhelming odds, taking as a moral guide the reason upon which they were voted, Evardone did the reverse. Upon his victory, he wasted no time professing himself to be a reliable operator on how to herd the local officials to toe the line in amending the Constitution by hook or by crook just to install Mrs. Arroyo as transitional President/Prime Minister, while promising the hankering local officials the prize in having their term extended without the benefit of an election.

Acting as spokesman of the League of Provinces of the Philippines, Evardone now heads the campaign for Charter change through his so-called Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (Ulap). Through the so-called people’s initiative, Evardone and his cabal would solicit the people’s signature of 12 percent of the registered voters and have this submitted to the Commission on Elections.

What Evardone does not know is that the concept of people’s initiative referred to in the Constitution are the ordinary citizen-voters, not those holding or have been elected to public office because public officials, except members of Congress, cannot initiate a resolution to amend the Constitution. As an elected public official, it is illegal for him to publicly urge the people to sign the so-called people’s initiative because there is a decision of the Supreme Court holding his silly idea unconstitutional in the absence of a law that would serve to implement that constitutional mandate. Unless and until the SC reverses itself, his silly idea would remain on Cloud 9.

Hence, for Evardone to pursue his plan is for him to violate his oath of office for tinkering with the Constitution which he is constitutionally barred from initiating. His brazenness could forthrightly make him liable for technical malversation for using government funds, time and facilities to operationalize an act, which has been declared unconstitutional.

Speaking of Evardone’s Ulap, his is worse than the Pedrosa couple’s Pirma when the group also attempted to revise the vandalized Constitution to give way for Ramos to stay longer in office. If one has to give Pirma consolation, at least the people behind it were ordinary citizens, and “officially” were not using government funds and facilities for them to be branded as the running dogs of Malacañang. In the case of Evardone and his Ulap, everybody knows they are acting as agents of Malacañang, meaning that aside from being assured of their internal revenue allotment (IRA), they would also be getting their extra bonus from the presidential funds. Although Mrs. Arroyo has the discretion to reward them, this is prohibited because the government is not supposed to fund an illegal activity.

We also have it from the grapevine that Evardone is currently negotiating with the Landbank to secure a loan of P200 million using his province’s IRA as collateral. If the Landbank would agree to that illegal transaction, the bank too might just end up answering questions before the Sandiganbayan. To allow Evardone to collateralize his still to be received IRA to secure a loan that will be amortized in 10 years or beyond his term would mean that the next governor would be getting nothing because the annual IRA allocation for the province of P370 million, only 20 percent of that can be used for development projects. His successor would be getting less or maybe nothing as Evardone has already advanced his share to secure a much bigger amount not due him.

Even if Evardone has already left his office, the people of Eastern Samar would still be paying for the loan, and are likely to end up with nothing. Worse, the principal as well as the interest would add burden to our government already mired in debt all because of one pretending bright boy trying to outsmart the rest. The national government would lose control of its finances because all local government units would be following the bad example of Evardone in wanting to borrow using their inchoate IRA as collateral.