As we all know by now, DAP– the issue that has shaken the otherwise Teflon presidency of Benigno Aquino III–was the brainchild of Abad.
The Supreme Court’s vote was unanimous (13-0) stunning Malacañang who had thought it would be 7-6 in their favor.
At the time his sisters talked to him about Abad, Aquino had not issued any statement on DAP yet. The source said the President appeared convinced by his sisters.
Abad’s comrades in the cabinet were alarmed and they took action.
Social Services Secretary Dinky Soliman; Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima; Teresita Quintos Deles, presidential adviser on the Peace Process, and Mely Nicolas, chairperson of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (the core group of the 2005 Hyatt 10) went to Aquino and appealed for Abad’s retention.
But it was a loaded appeal because they told the President if he let go of Abad, they will all resign.
(ABS=CBN has a report that Deles denies forcing the President to retain Abad. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/08/08/14/hyatt-10-deny-forcing-pnoy-retain-abad)
The President gave in. On July 11, during the cabinet meeting on the 2015 budget, he announced that Abad will stay. “To accept his resignation is to assign to him a wrong. And I can’t accept the notion that doing right by our people is a wrong,” he said to the applause of members of his cabinet except Vice President Jejomar Binay, who is part of the cabinet as chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council.
The next day, July 12, Abad released a statement disclosing that he tendered his resignation July 10. On the President’s rejection of his resignation, Abad said: “Although I was wholly prepared to relinquish my post, I am grateful for the President’s expression of his continuing trust and confidence in my leadership of the Department. I have thus chosen to defer to his better judgment and stay.”
The presidential sisters attempt to influence the President’s decision on Abad brought to fore once again the great divide in Aquino’s political family.
It is known that the Aquino sisters are lukewarm to the Mar Roxas faction, where Abad belongs. In the 2010 elections, the sisters were with the Noy-Bi (Aquino-Binay) faction.
That’s why it’s not surprising that Kris Aquino likes the idea of his brother endorsing Binay in the 2016 presidential election to the horror of Liberal Party stalwarts, who, up to now, pin their hopes on Roxas.
That was another masterstroke that Binay did last Monday: announcing that he has received information that the ruling Liberal Party was considering adopting him to be its standard bearer in the 2016 elections. (The other masterstroke of Binay was infiltrating the Liberal Party campaign in 2010. In the same building where LP had their headquarters, there was a room distributing Noy-Bi campaign materials.)
Senate President Franklin Drilon, LP vice- chairman vehemently denied Binay’s claim. LP issued a statement underscoring that the party is against “corruption, patronage and self-serving ambition.” The unwritten message:Binay is the epitome of what they are fighting against.
But Kris Aquino said she and her sisters are open to Binay succeeding her brother: “Kami ng mga sister ko naman pinag-uusapan namin yan. Sinasabi namin puwede naman talagang magkaroon ng unity at puwedeng kung ano kasi hindi naman kami magkaaway. At kung ipagpapatuloy naman niya lahat ng nasimulan ni Noy, why not?(My sisters and I discussed this. We said it’s possible to have unity and we are not really fighting. If he (Binay) would continue what Noy has started, why not?),” she said in her TV show.
In a separate TV interview, she said:”I don’t make a secret of the fact that one of my closest friends is his (Binay’s) daughter Anne, and we pray together.”
The eldest sister, Ballsy agreed with Kris: “You know, he never said anything bad about my family at pati na rin sa ibang partido, kaya ako ay natutuwa na ganoon ang pakiramdam niya. Kung yun din naman ang kanyang hangarin, na maipagpatuloy ang mga nasimulan ni Noy , e di magaling. (…I’m happy that that’s how he feels. If that his desire, to continue what Noy has started, good.)”
I think if Roxas decides to push through with his presidential bid despite low popularity ratings, Aquino will be compelled to endorse him but he will not prevent his sisters, relatives and members of his cabinet like Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa to support Binay.
Under the Binay presidency, Aquino will be amply protected. He will not suffer the fate of Joseph Estrada and Gloria Arroyo.
Aquino will have his cake and eat it too. Some people are damn lucky.
Unsolicited advice to the sisters, inc.––butt out.
He was not fired, so he continues to work his magic.
http://www.philippinestoday.net/archives/15294
There is a 2.7 billion proposed appropriation for the BBL. That proposed law will require Constitutional amendments. So it would certainly not pass in 2015.
Wow. Savings na naman.
If the BBL, by some PCOS magic, gets the Constitutional amendments passed, then the ARMM will be dismantled. So what happens to the ARMM budget?
Wow. Savings from another source.
Sing along na lang kayo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EliPCxEMv-k
Awaiting moderation daw. Tanggalin ang mga w.
He was not fired, so he continues to work his magic.
philippinestoday.net/archives/15294
There is a 2.7 billion proposed appropriation for the BBL. That proposed law will require Constitutional amendments. So it would certainly not pass in 2015.
Wow. Savings na naman.
If the BBL, by some PCOS magic, gets the Constitutional amendments passed, then the ARMM will be dismantled. So what happens to the ARMM budget?
Wow. Savings from another source.
Sing along na lang kayo.
youtube.com/watch?v=EliPCxEMv-k
Very interesting read, thanks. If I were running a country, and my sister and Secretary Purisima both came to me on an issue, I’d tell my sis to get lost and listen to Mr. Purisima’s advice. A job is a job, it is not family goo goo friendly kisses. Get the non-official, unqualified dynastic influences out of the Palace and let the President run his business. I agree with Lurker.
no.1, Natumbok mo. Sama kong Lima.
Funny how family members not in the employ of the Presidential staff can tell the President what to do, where even a President wife of lover will keep the matter within the privacy of their nest…
SnV,re #2, speaking of BBL, here’s something From Manny Mogato’s FB entry:
The biggest obstacle to a proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law is the 1987 Philippine constitution. Muslim rebels want a more liberal interpretation but the lawyers of President Benigno Aquino were too careful after the Supreme Court declared partially illegal the administration’s economic stimulus fund, Disbursement Acceleration Program. The review team wanted the BBL to be more consistent with the constitution.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has eight representatives, led by chief negotiator Mohaqher Iqbal, in the 15-member Bangsamoro Transition Commission that wrote the BBL after the CAB was signed in late March. The rebels expected the president to transmit the proposed law to Congress without delay, holding on to the government’s promise that “it will not sign an agreement that it cannot implement”.
The government, however, reviewed the nearly 100-page proposed law, for about two months and found many provisions in the draft BBL inconsistent with the constitution and sent their comments to the rebel panel in late June 2014.
In fairness to the government, it tried to accommodate some provisions, which are clearly not discussed in the peace negotiations, like the creation of a titular head of Bangsamoro, called WALI. The WALI will be appointed from among the eminent persons in the Muslim community to be a caretaker of the Bangsamoro in an event there is a vote of of confidence in the parliament. (The government agreed with this but wanted the WALI to be elected as well.)
The rebels also wanted military forces in Muslim Mindanao re-deployed and for the president to appoint at least 10 percent of the country’s ambassadorial positions to Muslims. (Aquino, in his dialogue with the BTC before SONA, questioned this because the provision would touch on the president’s power and state’s reserve power on defense and foreign policy)
The rebels also protested that laws to be passed by the Bangsamoro parliament “shall be subject to national laws and the constitution” and the legal team’s proposal to lower the annual funding of the “central” government to Bangsamoro, from 5 percent to 4 percent of collections of both the BIR and BOC.
There are, however, many issues that two sides, now talking in Davao City from August 1 to 10, will be resolved easily, like the removal of “Allah” in the preamble which the MILF has no objection and changing of “central” government to “national” government in all the provisions.
In the end, I hope the two sides will come to an agreement. But, they may not have enough time to get this proposed BBL approve in Congress by the end of the year.
#1, talaga, butt out sisterekas!
“But it was a loaded appeal because they told the President if he let go of Abad, they will all resign.”
Imagine if PNoy will tell them (Hyatt 10) to go ahead and resign and that he will accept their resignation? He could see his popularity shoot up instead of declining (according to recent surveys). Missed opportunity.