It’s a sad scene everywhere for the Liberal Party and its titular head, President Benigno Aquino III. Sources reveal that in Malacañan Palace, Aquino has been busy packing his personal belongings in crates in anticipation of his exodus from the palace to his home in Quezon City. Many of Aquino’s sycophants in the LP who used to frequent the palace when the yellow party was in power are no longer around.
If Mar Roxas, the LP bet for president, won the presidential election, the daily scenario at the palace these days be different. A banquet would be held every day, and the LP sycophants would still be rubbing elbows with LP leaders preparing the political blueprint for another LP administration. The face of Aquino’s spokesman will be a regular feature of the daily television news.
In the House of Representatives, many LP congressmen have moved over to Duterte’s political party, the PDP Laban. While PDP Laban only had one senator in the Senate prior to the May 2016 polls, the party expects to take in enough defectors from the LP in time for the start of the Duterte administration.
Local government officials once professing complete loyalty and devotion to Aquino and the LP are desperately seeking a connection to the new administration.
The same may be said of many Aquino appointees who are entitled to stay in office beyond June 2016. They used to be very vocal against Duterte. Now, they are conveniently silent, filled with the hope that by shutting up, the new administration will not remember their anti-Duterte tirades, and allow them to keep their jobs.
Many judges and prosecutors are now identifying themselves as Duterte supporters or, at least, as natives of Davao City.
Quite a number of Aquino appointees who used to proudly exhibit in their offices their photographs with Aquino no longer display them. “Selfies” taken with Mar Roxas which used to be stored in the laptops of many government officials and employees have long been deleted.
Aquino no longer attends press conferences. The attendance in whatever assemblies he still calls has dwindled immensely.
With the exception, perhaps, of Leni Robredo, the LP vice presidential bet who was proclaimed winner by Congress under questionable circumstances, and outgoing House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., many LP bigwigs have conveniently shed their ties with the party. To them, the LP has become a bad word or name. Invoking it these days is bad for their politics.
In particular, Belmonte has no choice but to remain with the LP. He will look like an obvious opportunist if he metamorphosized from a die-hard Aquino minion to a Duterte supporter. Since Pantaleon Alvarez of PDP Laban is sure to be the next house speaker, Belmonte has no place in the new administration.
By 2013, the LP had become synonymous with unmitigated abuse of power, large-scale corruption, anomalies, incompetence, misplaced priorities, and even scandals.
The LP’s unmitigated abuse of power was demonstrated in its clandestine attempt to dismember the Republic of the Philippines through the controversial Bangsamoro Basic Law drafted by Aquino stooges and a Mindanao secessionist leader who refused to reveal his real name. Fortunately, Senator Bongbong Marcos exposed that pseudo signatory and almost single-handedly stopped the BBL.
An example of large-scale corruption identified with the LP is the shameless misuse of billions of pesos of public funds by a Congress dominated by LP members. The infamous Napoles incident exposed the extent of the involvement of LP legislators to illegal expenditures of public funds. It will also be recalled that in 2013, P136 billion of royalties from the Malampaya natural gas fund was unaccounted for by Aquino’s national treasurer, finance secretary, and budget secretary.
Anomalies identified with the LP are illustrated in the irregular purchase of government supplies and equipment. Some time ago, a whistleblower incriminated the defense secretary in the anomalous purchase of defective helicopters which were meant for the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Aquino’s police chief is now facing graft charges for the anomalous designation of a particular courier service to deliver firearm licenses. This police chief once renovated his residence inside Camp Crame using supplies purportedly donated to him.
The incompetence of LP officials is seen in the notoriously unsafe and dilapidated MRT trains that ply the main thoroughfare of the metropolis. Traffic jams abound in the metropolis even up to the midnight hour. It was under an LP presidency when 44 elite policemen were massacred in Mamasapano in Mindanao by rouge bandits who have absolutely no tolerance for non-Muslims.
As for the scandals, attention is invited to last year’s LP meeting south of Manila where scantily-dressed girls provided the main entertainment.
Indeed, the sudden collapse of the LP, its overnight ouster from the corridors of power, and the anticipated departure of Aquino from Malacañang, are welcome news for many people.
Rodrigo Duterte’s big win as president has finally put an end to the seemingly interminable LP hold on power. In fact, many LP names have joined PDP Laban to curry favors from Duterte. That’s turncoatism plain and simple. It’s synonymous with political opportunism, and it’s disgusting.
Turncoatism was prohibited under Section 10, Article XII-C of the 1973 Constitution. The cited provision states that “no candidate for elective public office may change his political party affiliation within six months immediately preceding or following the elections.” That was an effective way of stopping turncoatism.
Sadly, that provision is not found in the 1987 Constitution. Its absence means that political turncoats are to be expected before and after every national and local election.
President Duterte can end turncoatism. He just has to prod his allies in Congress into enacting something like Section 10 above. Since Congress is empowered by the Constitution to enact such a law, there will be no need to amend the Constitution in order to end turncoatism.
