Aquino still hoping Binay will accept Cabinet post

By Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star) Updated June 28, 2010 12:00 AM http://www.philstar .com/Article. aspx?articleId= 588399&publicationSubCateg oryId=63

 MANILA, Philippines – President-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III said yesterday he would continue to reach out to incoming vice president Jejomar Binay even if they were from different parties.

“I hope he joins the Cabinet,” Aquino said when asked if it was still possible for Binay to join his official family even if the vice president-elect had declined his offer to head the Department of Agrarian Reform, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), and the commission to be created for the prosecution of cases against President Arroyo.

Binay earlier said he turned down the positions to avoid being placed in an awkward situation in a Cabinet packed with members of the Liberal Party (LP). 

The vice president-elect won under the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino and the United Opposition with former President Joseph Estrada as standard-bearer.

However, contrary to reports that LP officials, particularly Aquino’s running mate, Sen. Manuel Roxas II, were against his appointment, the incoming president said that all Binay had to do was say yes.
“No one is blocking the VP’s appointment and all that is necessary is for him to accept,” he said.
Aquino earlier said that the commission to investigate Mrs. Arroyo seemed to fit Binay.

“I am hoping he will change his mind, I thought of something that would really fit him. He’s a lawyer and we are expecting a prosecution that we need to do. He has a long track record in human rights, not CHR (Commission on Human Rights). I want to make that clear. One of our platforms is judicial reform, specifically the commission that we will create to put closure on all issues that are pending. He will lead in that,” Aquino said.

“To me that would be a major achievement in our country. Sorry if I sound like a broken record. Our conviction rate is 18 percent, no big fish, the bigger the fish the harder to even investigate. If he comes in and manages to prove and send to jail those who are guilty, then that would be quite a big achievement, radical departure from the usual mold of operations in this country,” he added.

Comment:

That is the problem with creating a commission for the purpose of going after GMA and her corrupt cohorts.  The present circumstances are not the same as the revolutionary circumstances following EDSA 1.  Back then, a PCGG (Presidential Commission on Good Government) was necessary to untangle the sophisticated system of dummies and shell corporations that provided the conduit for two decades of the proceeds of corruption.  Under the present circumstance, while corruption may have been as pervasive if not more so than during Marcos' time, the transfer of power was not revolutionary.  It was revolutionary only in the sense that her minions were thrown out in a fashion that gave no kinder interpretation than that they were scalawags, and revolutionary also in the sense that GMA herself won election for Congress.

A commission at this time will not bode well for institutional stability.  Shall we always create commissions for each and every instance of untrammelled official corruption?  Look at the PCGG.  24 years after its creation, it is still there and there is no indication that its singular mission has been achieved considering that the Marcoses and their cronies are very much having a heyday and the PCGG is itself guilty of some of the most egeregious corrupt acts, save for some bright spots when our Haydee Yorac was at its helm.

I will agree with you that it should be the DOJ that should be leading the charge.  If the P-Noy regime truly wants to be revolutionary, maybe it can throw out the Ombudsman as well who, while agreeing with the Supreme Court that a crime has been committed in the bidding for Comelec machines under Abalos, disagrees with the former in that there was no criminal to be indicted.

Sometimes we are losing sight of the forest for the trees if the big question of the day is that  Jojo should accept a cabinet post when we should be more concerned with what exactly the governance policy is of the new administration.  All the personalities in whatever post will only be secondary or at least clean enough to deserve their positions.