Bernas tells Aquino to retire, give Santiago a chance
Sit back, relax and give other people a chance. That’s a message for President Aquino from Jesuit priest Joaquin Bernas (inset), a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS
MANILA, Philippines–Sit back, relax and give other people a chance.
That’s a message for President Aquino from Jesuit priest Joaquin Bernas, a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission.
“I’ll say, ‘Rest, there are other good people,’” Bernas, an Inquirer columnist, said in an interview on ANC on Tuesday.
Bernas was answering questions about moves by administration allies to amend the Constitution to lift the presidential term limit and enable President Aquino to run for a second term.
He made it clear that he disapproved of changing the presidential term limit and advised Aquino to retire after serving his six-year term.
“Give (Sen.) Miriam (Santiago) a chance,” Bernas said in jest.
Cancer-stricken Santiago was titillated.
On Wednesday, she issued a statement declaring that she would run for President in 2016 if she got enough support from the electorate.
Saying the tumor in her lung was shrinking, Santiago vowed to “rise to the occasion” if there were enough “like-minded supporters like Fr. Joaquin Bernas.”
“I’m not going to be coy. Society leaders have urged me to seek the presidency. I can rise to the occasion, although I [am] following the other signposts on the road to recovery,” Santiago said.
If she decides to run, she will go toe-to-toe, as well as peso-for-peso, with Vice President Jejomar Binay, the clear front-runner in early opinion polls on the 2016 presidential election.
‘President Mar’
Besides Binay, there’s also the ruling Liberal Party’s presumptive standard-bearer, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, who is unpopular with the electorate, as shown by the polls, but to whom presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda referred to as “President Mar” on Wednesday.
Lacierda, presiding over a briefing for reporters in Malacañang, corrected his error, his second in less than a week.
“I was there when President Mar—oh, sorry—well, Secretary Mar Roxas, when Secretary Mar Roxas said it,” Lacierda said, referring to Roxas’ consultation with party members on the antidynasty bill.
It appeared that Lacierda, who said at the start of the briefing that he was not feeling well, had his titles mixed up.
Roxas is the president-on-leave of the Liberal Party (LP). President Aquino is the LP chair.
Late last week, Lacierda raised eyebrows when he suggested that there might be no elections in 2016.
Realizing his error later, he issued a statement to clarify that the President had neither decided on term extension nor chosen a candidate to endorse and that there would be elections in 2016, as scheduled.
Bongbong Marcos not running
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte attributed the error to Lacierda’s not being fluent in Filipino, the language preferred by President Aquino and which his officials also use. Lacierda is a Visayan.
If Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is to be believed, Santiago has one rival less for the presidency.
On Wednesday, Marcos laughed off pronouncements by his mother, Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos, that he would run for President in 2016.
“My mother has been saying that since I was 3 years old. Don’t be surprised that she’s continuing to say that. But then again, she’s a mother, and it’s not surprising,” Marcos said.
A group of supporters gathered outside the Senate Wednesday carrying streamers urging Marcos to run for President.
Told about it, Marcos said it was “embarrassing.”
But he thanked the group “for their support and confidence.”
His colleagues in the Nacionalist Party, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV, had said they were going to run for higher office in 2016.
Santiago’s conditions
Marcos said he was keeping his options open.
“When 2016 comes, I will be a candidate. The obvious thing for me to do is run for reelection,” he said.
Santiago, who lost the 1992 presidential election, set several conditions for another run for the presidency.
“We’ll if they don’t clean up this mess (Disbursement Acceleration Program, or DAP)—because as a lawyer I look at the DAP opinion—which goes my way—as a big mess. How are you going to tie up all of these loose ends?” she said.
But then again, she said: “Maybe God will send me another disease, so I don’t know what to do.”
Months earlier, Santiago had said that Senators Grace Poe, Cynthia Villar, Loren Legarda and Pia Cayetano could give the men a run for their money if they contest the presidency in May 2016.
Santiago, who was hobbled by chronic fatigue syndrome that made her miss sessions since March, said in July she would be fully cured of cancer in six weeks, thanks to a “magical tablet.”
She said she had a rare condition: “genetic mutancy” where the cells in her left lung were “impermeable” to cancer. And because of this, she said, she didn’t need to undergo chemotherapy. She just needed to take a chemotherapy tablet every day.
And only when the cancerous mass didn’t shrink would she take medical treatment abroad, she said.
Perpetuation in power
In his television interview, Bernas said there was a reason why the framers limited the President’s term to six years and made the three branches of government coequal.
“To prevent the person from perpetuating himself in power. That’s basically it,” Bernas said.
“Although again you can say a good man should be there as long as he can,” he added, joking.
Bernas pointed out that it was a lesson learned from the Philippines’ experience with the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who stayed in power for 20 years.
“That’s why the move now to reelect is very much against the spirit of the ConCom. It’s very much against (former President) Cory (Aquino) herself,” he said, referring to President Aquino’s mother under whose administration the 1987 Constitution was adopted.
Six years long enough
Although Aquino has yet to confirm that he wants his term extended, he has said that he will continue to listen to his bosses, some of whom are calling for “One More Term.”
“Six years is long enough,” Bernas said. “And they used to say four years is short for a good president, six is long for a bad President.”
He said the President would probably regret his earlier statements about being open to Charter change.
“He can’t do it anyway, he can’t succeed. I don’t think he’ll get the support. But when it moves it will be his undoing,” Bernas said.–With reports from Christian Esguerra and TJ Burgonio
Originally posted at 1:54 pm | Wednesday, August 27, 2014
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