President-elect Marcos Jr. reveals glimpse on policy direction

>> Saturday, June 4, 2022

 BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

President-elect Bongbong Marcos revealed a glimpse into his policy direction in a television interview Thursday.  
He bared a no war, no wavering stance on the West Philippine Sea issue conflict with China and committed to use the July 2016 arbitral ruling on the West Philippine Sea (WPS) to assert Philippine territorial rights.
    “We have a very important ruling in our favor and we will use it to continue to assert our territorial rights. It’s not a claim, it is already our territorial right. And that is what the arbitral ruling can help us,” Marcos said in a live interview with select media.
    These remarks will inevitably get compared to past pronouncements made by President Duterte on the topic. But Marcos in the same interview bared a similarity between him and Duterte when it comes to the WPS issue -- they are both opposed to war.
    “We’re talking about China and how do we do that? We talk to China consistently with a firm voice and we say na, ‘Eh hindi naman natin puwedeng gyerahin, gusto ba natin gawin ‘yun manggyera pa tayo ngayon?’ Papasok tayo sa gyera? (We can’t go to war against them, do we want to go to war at this point? We’ll enter in a war?)     That’s the last thing we need right now,” he said.
    But this external threat is just one concern of the incoming Marcos administration. There are more local problems to take care, and PBBM needs the help of his team -- his Cabinet -- for that.
    In the same interview, Marcos said he tapped the services of Ben Diokno and Fred Pascual to take on the position of Dept. of Finance (DOF) and Dept. of Trade and Industry (DTI) secretary, respectively.
    At presstime, blogger Trixie Cruz-Angles has also accepted the position to head the Presidential Communications Operations Office. Lopez has played a significant blogging role which helped propel Marcos to Malacanang. 
(Angles was a supporter of former PCOO assistant secretary Marie Rafael in her bid to fully take over operations of the Benguet Electric Cooperative and this is giving jitters to member-consumers-owners of the electric cooperative).
   ***
So back to the President-elect who is expected to reveal the rest of his economic team in the coming days and issue policy directions particularly among skeptical voters who supported Leni Robredo in the May 9 elections.  
Now, even among top political characters, there is always a chance to gain media mileage by commenting on the matter.
   ***
According to Senator-elect Alan Peter Cayetano,
     “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. “should be given a chance to prove what he could do as president, but people should not follow him blindly.”
    Cayetano, who faced Marcos in the 2016 vice-presidential elections, made the remark shortly after the Commission on Elections proclaimed him a winner, along with 11 other senatorial bets in the so-called Magic 12.
    “He was elected and proclaimed. Give him a chance. Let’s see what he does, and let’s judge it later on. It’s easy to judge him and his family before this — that’s clear,” Cayetano told a press briefing. 
    “But now, Filipinos have spoken: He’s what we want as president. So let’s judge him based on his actions when he’s already there. But as I was saying, let’s not follow blindly,” he added. In the 2016 vice-presidential campaign, Cayetano called out Marcos in a debate over his latter’s family’s ill-gotten wealth. 
    Asked about this now, Cayetano maintained his stand on the matter.
    “When you have certain principles, they don’t change. They don’t really change. Did I retract?” Cayetano said.  
    “Having said that, there are issues regarding the Marcos family that will remain, and it’s up to them to answer them. It’s up to you in media to hound them on that,” said Cayetano who placed seventh in the senatorial race with 19,295,314 votes.
   ***
Anyway, Marcos Jr. said he has no issue about the Philippines joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), but the agriculture sector should first be strong enough to compete with other countries.
During the interview with select media outfits Thursday morning, Marcos said the RCEP deserves a second look because most nations that excelled the past centuries relied on trading with other countries.
    “In my opinion, let’s have another look at it, because the RCEP is a very… you know I am really a great proponent, believer, in trade.  We cannot progress, no country became rich without a good trading standing, as they had manufacturing, many exported goods, and they are very involved.
    “All the great economies in the past, what 200, 300 years? It really came down to trade. So that’s something we want to encourage and that is what RCEP seeks to do,” he added.
    According to Marcos, the problem however is if the country’s agricultural industry is now ready for the opening of markets, which is a goal of the RCEP.
    “Now, the only possible stumbling block there is that it’s all very well to trade if you’re in a competitive position and I do not know if that our agricultural sector is sufficiently robust to take on the competition that the opening of the markets will cause RCEP,” he said.
    “So let’s have a look at it again and make sure na that our agricultural sector would not be at the losing end. If we ratify that, our systems should be ready to compete because if we cannot compete, they will be overtaken.”
    The RCEP is a deal made by Asean member-states with free trade agreement partners like China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. It seeks to lower tariffs on imports — opening gates for more imported goods.
    While the RCEP is seen to boost economies as trading between partners would go quickly and would be less expensive, some sectors like fishing and agriculture are against the proposal as it may pave the way for more imported produce, which might kill the Philippines’ agricultural sector.
    Marcos acknowledged that such is a valid concern and said he wants his administration not to be reliant on imports.
    “Our local products would be lost and we would rely on imports, and we don’t want that.  We want to beef up the agriculture sector, we want to have sufficient food supply for the PH in case of any crisis, we should really learn our lessons from the pandemic that we should not turn a blind eye to that because when crises come, the people would really feel the hunger brought by various reasons.”
    A paramount concern, he said, should be the welfare of farmers.
    “So anyway, with RCEP, let’s take a look at what exactly would be the effect. Let us study what would happen if we ratify it now, what will be the effect on our farming community, our farmers especially?  They need protection, they are already struggling, and how will it impact what our plans are to, as I mentioned earlier, create a value chain for agriculture once again.”
    “Let’s take a look at it properly, if our farmers can really take on that or if we need to support them, and if they can compete, then we ratify that.  But let’s protect our farmers.”
Several experts and economists have been on the lookout for the economic plans of the incoming administration.
    Aside from the RCEP issue, Marcos has said he is not considering suspending fuel excise as there may be other ways to address the rising prices of petroleum products.
    The following days will unravel where the Marcos Jr. administration will be heading.


Constitutional crisis over canvassing?

Alfred P. Dizon

The mounting number of petitions being filed before the Supreme Court to halt Congress from carrying out its mandate to canvass the May 9 votes for the top two positions in the land could lead to a constitutional crisis.
    This, according to Senate President Vicente Sotto III even as the two chambers of Congress gear up for the scheduled official tabulation of votes on May 24.
    Sotto said the hypothetical directive from the High Tribunal for lawmakers to stop the canvass could lead to a constitutional crisis “from the fact that Congress can no longer meet after June 3,” which is the end of the current 18th Congress.
    “Who will then conduct the canvass as mandated by the Constitution?” he asked.
            ***
Estelito Mendoza, lawyer of presumptive president Bongbong Marcos, on Friday said the SC has no jurisdiction to prevent Congress from canvassing votes and proclaiming the May 9 election winners.
    Mendoza argued “terms of the Constitution are explicit and clear” that the incumbent president shall end his term of office after six years, and that a new president shall start his term on 30 June at 12:00 p.m.
    “They are to be followed as provided in the Constitution in text and in language,” Mendoza said in a television interview.
    “The Congress has no jurisdiction to determine the questions raised in the petition for review, on the decision of Commission on Elections (Comelec), as to the validity of a certificate of candidacy (CoC). That is a matter vested in the Comelec, there is no provision stating the SC can intervene on that issue,” he claimed.
He said that petitioners, who are claiming that Marcos had committed material misrepresentation in his CoC, can file an election protest after the canvassing of votes and proclamation of winners.
            ***
This, after petitioners led by former SC spokesperson Theodore Te asked the high court to prevent both chambers of Congress from canvassing the votes pending the resolution of their petition to cancel Marcos’ CoC.
SC gave Marcos, the Comelec, Senate, and House of Representatives 15 days from their receipt of notice to file their comments on both the petition and the plea for TRO.
    In Mendoza’s manifestation submitted to SC, he invoked that Section 4 Article VII of the Constitution provides that the candidate who garnered the highest number of votes in the elections “shall be proclaimed elected”.
In their original petition before Comelec, Te’s camp alleged Marcos committed material false representation when he claimed under oath in his CoC that he is eligible to run for president despite his previous tax conviction.
The Comelec First Division and later the en banc had junked Te’s petition to cancel Marcos’ CoC.
            ***
Marcos’ camp, through its spokesperson lawyer Vic Rodriguez, earlier noted that the Comelec has already junked the disqualification cases in both the division and en banc level, expressing the SC will rule in their favor.
Based on partial, unofficial results of the 9 May polls, Marcos is the leading presidential candidate with 31.1 million votes. He was followed by Vice President Leni Robredo with 14.8 million votes.
    Marcos’ running mate, Sara Duterte-Carpio, is also leading the vice-presidential race with 31.6 million votes and was followed by Robredo’s running mate, Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan with 9.2 million votes.
Congressional leaders eye to proclaim the new Philippine president and vice president by 27 May at the earliest.
            ***
Meanwhile, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar prodded the Commission on Elections to address allegations regarding the integrity of the May 9 polls.
“To dispel doubts of some quarters, we leave the matter to the Comelec,” said the Palace official, who urged Filipinos to respect results of elections.
            ***
To date, complaints are still being aired on social media about alleged election anomalies like a powerful machine which allegedly was rigged to make Marcos win the presidency.
    The International Observer Mission also aired its results in a report on alleged election anomalies which the Comelec on Thursday, May 19 answered.
    The IOM was sponsored by the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP).
“These Philippine National Elections 2022 were not free and fair. They were marred by a higher level of failure of the electronic voting system than ever before, along with rampant vote-buying, disturbing levels of state and military orchestrated red-tagging of candidates and parties including numerous incidents of deadly violence,” the report stated.
            ***
During a press briefing on May 19, Comelec Acting Spokesperson John Rex C. Laudiangco answered some issues raised by the IOM, but declined to comment on red-tagging issue as he deemed it “another issue.”
    He noted there were only 915 vote-counting machines (VCMs) that malfunctioned on Election Day, May 9, noting they were “readily replaced with contingency or were pulled out for repair and it accounts only for 0.8 percent of the total.”
        ***
As rampant vote-buying activities in the country were also noted by IOM, Laudiangco said the Comelec created Task Force Kontra Bigay to address vote-buying and vote-selling activities.
    “Our information drive on this is massive that’s why we brought it closer to the people to solve this problem that the VCM cannot solve,” the Comelec acting spokesperson said.
    “Iyong makina po kasi (The VCM is only) up to the voting and counting but the other human factor that is the one we are working on multi-agency,” he added.
    He said the poll body had been “more aggressive” to address vote-buying activities, urging the public to cooperate with the poll body to help prosecute people who engaged in vote-buying activities.
            ***
For Caloocan Bishop Pablo David, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), the 31 million voters were "seduced by darkness." Many in losing camps echoed the prelate's view.
    The New York Times: "Political lies have flourished on social media during the campaign."
    The Japan Times agreed: "He (Marcos) used social media to target young voters with little knowledge of the brutal dictator."
    So, were these elections won with social media propaganda?
    According to Marcos supporters, Filipino voters were not a mindless mass hoodwinked online. “We voted as we did since 1986 at least, choosing the leader whose personality is seen as best suited to address our big problems, said a comment.
            ***
What weakens the online deception claim, they said, is the fact that television remains the leading source of news.
    In a Pulse Asia survey last September, TV was purportedly listed by 91 percent of respondents as a news source, nearly double the 48 percent citing the internet and the 49 percent listing radio. Family and friends garnered 36 percent.
    Pulse Asia said while nearly two-thirds of respondents accessed the internet, only 41 percent of those going online used it for news and other materials on government matters. And of the 63 percent going online, just a quarter reportedly got election content that way.
            ***
Hence, they justified, only 16 percent of Filipinos (one-fourth of the 63 percent with internet access) got information on election topics online.
    What about family and friends? Maybe they shared and discussed political topics on social media? They said only one in five respondents discuss politics with family, friends or co-workers via messaging apps, they claimed.
    So, while trolls and disinformation abounded online, Filipino voters might not have been massively exposed to them, based on the Pulse Asia poll which had been criticized also and tagged as False Asia.”
    As for TV and radio, they claimed, one cannot recall any high-rating piece of propaganda favoring the election frontrunner or his family, at least not on national TV, which is the favored medium for news.
    Media, they said, constantly featured negative news about him, from corruption and abuses during his father's rule to his own controversies over his Oxford studies, his tax offense conviction, his family's estate tax bill and his skipping debates.
    For sure, the controversy among other alleged election irregularities, will hound us for another six years – maybe even more. 

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