Unmasking the myth of what she calls “Arrovonomics,” Pascual said that Arroyo’s economic successes remain anchored on short-term solutions, only this time with the central objective of ensuring her political survival.
“‘Arrovonomics’ sees credit upgrade as the key to survival,” Pascual said. “Its main strategies are to finance the machinery for survival, and maintain the confidence of the creditor community by continuously stressing that the problem is political and not economic.”
Read the whole thing.
- Arroyo pollster commissioned SWS to test political messages
- PDI Editorial: The Administration's war against the Senate
In the end it doesn't matter if President Arroyo really held a meeting in Malacañang in which she scolded Charter change advocates for not getting enough done and taking too long to accomplish what they have. It is irrelevant, too, if the President thundered that the Senate is the enemy and must be vigorously, and continuously, portrayed as such. What does matter is that never since the pre-martial law Marcos administration, or the American era before that, has a chief executive been so hell-bent and dead-set on a political showdown with the Senate.
To accomplish the defeat--and abolition--of the Senate, nothing is beyond the pale, neither the selective use of information in ads or in press statements. In the case of the recent, highly expensive, Philippine Information Agency campaign, survey firms have complained that their findings have been misused, a complaint shared by the Makati Business Club, whose members are struggling to recall statements it allegedly made, as quoted in the ads. In the case of press statements, the Senate is blamed for the non-passage of a budget that was submitted late by Malacañang, and deliberated upon for eight months in the House of Representatives (with a total lack of speed until all pork allocations were ascertained). Now both the House and the President are expecting the Senate to complete its budget deliberations within one month! The Senate can be faulted for many things--among them, extravagance in insisting on renting Pasay City premises when it could have constructed a home for itself in Quezon City, delays in deliberating on the ethanol bill--but it cannot be faulted for delaying the budget.
The executive branch is engaging in a mentally dishonest blame game. One, for example, is putting forward "appeals" to the Senate not to investigate allegations of executive abuse of authority or corruption, so as to help cope with a looming oil crisis. Passage of an ethanol bill now will only see results in several months or even a few years. Short-term savings on air-conditioning or gasoline by the Senate would also pale in comparison to the expenses incurred for the same things by either the executive branch or the House of Representatives. Indeed, it should be asked: After the fuss and bother during the last spike in oil prices, where did the executive devote its energies? The answer, of course, is the so-called people's initiative for Charter change.
- Ex-Erap lawyer says 464 ruling a swindle
SUSPENDED law professor Alan Paguia yesterday described the Supreme Court decision on Executive Order 464 as a "judicial swindle of the highest order," saying it provided a road map for Malacañang on how to go around congressional inquiries and exempted President Arroyo from answering questions about the "Hello Garci" wiretapped conversations on alleged cheating in the May 2004 elections.
Paguia, a former counsel of President Joseph Estrada, has been suspended from legal practice owing to statements made in public that the Supreme Court said undermined its integrity....
"Tinuruan lamang ang mga abogado ni GMA ng tamang palusot. Ang ipinapa-justify ng petition, yung (congressional) power of inquiry pero ang na-justify, yung executive privilege. No wonder Malacañang was very happy with the ruling," he said.
Read the whole thing.
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Sen. Biazon: Coup Plots a Palace concoction
SEN. Rodolfo Biazon yesterday asked Malacañang to be careful about raising coup threats which he said are "non-existent."
Biazon said threats of power grab have been used by Malacañang to justify suppressive measures in addressing anti-government rallies and demonstrations.
He said even at the height of "Hello Garci" controversy when calls for the President’s resignation were snowballing, there really was no coup threat.
"There never was a significant credible threat of a coup. The threat was of the possibility of a withdrawal of support from the commander in chief by the armed services. That was the threat, not a coup. These are two different things," said Biazon, a former AFP chief.
He said a withdrawal of support by the military rank and file can be triggered only by a critical mass going to the streets to demand the resignation of President Arroyo.
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Malaya Editorial: Macapagal II
Mike Defensor, presidential chief of staff, was reminded that President Ferdinand Marcos was met with raised clenched fists and placards when he addressed the graduating class at the UP some time back. Mike’s retort? That was different because the heckling took place during martial law.
Mike missed the point by a mile, and only succeeded in making his principal suffer in comparison to Marcos.
If Marcos, the dictator, could be gracious at the height of his powers, why should Gloria take offense when the Bill of Rights is in full operation? Or rather supposed to be in full operation. For people are clubbed for marching in the streets. They are arrested without warrants. The press is muzzled.
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In other news:
- MLQ3 fisks Bel Cunanan over her claim na the Sigaw ng Bayan website got "9 million visits". DJB has more.
- House Cha-cha by itself fails to secure 195 signatures
- Here's more from Malacanang's efforts to control the media coverage from Herman Tiu Laurel.
- More on the EO 464 from Malaya:
Even before EO 464, there was a pretty much settled principle that all department heads require presidential permission before appearing in congressional proceedings. It was EO 464 which extended this privilege to other senior officials, generals in the AFP, chief superintendents and up in the PNP, senior national security officials and those falling in the residual category "all other officers that the national security adviser and department heads and AFP and PNP officials are deemed covered by the order."
Let’s take a look at the inquiries of the Senate where EO 464 was invoked. On the investigation into the "Hello Garci" tapes related to the involvement of generals in election cheating, the only Cabinet member the Senate wanted to invite was Press Secretary Ignacio "I have two tapes" Bunye, who incidentally does not head a department. All other invited AFP officials, from AFP chief Gen. Generoso Senga and below, sought refuge under EO 464. Brig. Gen. Francisco Gudani, who is now retired, and a lieutenant colonel under him made an appearance. For their efforts, they are now facing court martial investigation.
In the fertilizer fund scam, an undersecretary who handled the money for the disappeared former DA Undersecretary Jocelyn "Joc Joc" Bolante refused to appear, also citing EO 464. A former assistant secretary did the same even as he is no longer connected with the agriculture department and is now working for the Government Service Insurance System.
Bunye is now twitting the Senate for the never-ending "Hello Garci" and fertilizer fund probes. He ought be reminded that had the Palace been more respectful of the separation of powers and less "creative" with its interpretation of the Constitution – that is, if it had not come out with EO 464 – the Senate inquiries would have likely ferreted out the truth by now.
- So this is how a job interview with Google is like...
- MLQ3: Arroyo admin launches new political information campaign
No coincidence that yesterday, too, began a tremendous (and quite obviously, hugely expensive) “information” campaign on all media: television, radio, the broadsheets and in the tabloids, to push forward the administration arguments. The President is said to be quite adamant that the Senate be painted as the enemy. And destroyed. Billy Esposo explains why the Philippine Information Agency seems the wrong agency to mount such a drive.
- Roilo Golez: ‘Gloria the Hun is on constitutional change rampage’
A FORMER administration ally yesterday likened President Arroyo to Attila the Hun for what he described as the administration’s "creeping" charter-change campaign.
Rep. Roilo Golez (Ind., Parañaque), former national security adviser who severed ties with the administration over the "Hello Garci" scandal, said the "genesis" of the current people’s initiative being pushed by Malacañang shows that "it has mutated from constituent assembly to a one-chamber process to the present people’s initiative."
"Like Attila’s horde, this multi-headed charter change offensive blatantly and arrogantly assaults all institutions, like Congress, particularly the Senate, and even the Supreme Court and the people to get what Malacañang wants," he said.
"Cha-cha is like a slimy worm slithering, looking for holes along the way," he said.
He said it is clear from the Cha-cha chronology that Malacañang and its allies "are attacking like Attila’s horde to get the political ends that they want, overrunning institutions that block their way."
Golez said Malacañang initially wanted charter change by constitutional convention as shown by the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino’s previous pronouncements, expressed by then Kampi president Ronnie Puno who is now interior secretary.
The House majority, in parallel, was pushing the constituent assembly route. When the "Hello Garci" tapes scandal exploded, the forces were joined with the President’s July 25, 2005 SONA statement favoring constituent assembly, he said.
Golez said the House committee on constitutional amendments then started its "frenzy of hearings which mysteriously came to a screeching halt on Jan. 31, 2006 when it became obvious that the Senate did not want to have any part of the constituent assembly."
The effort then shifted to a single-chamber effort with pronouncements that the House can do it alone, against the opinion of nearly every constitutional expert of note, he said.
When it became obvious that the approach suffers from fatal constitutional infirmity, the people’s initiative "sprung into action," Golez said.
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