Strike three, three-strike

In a baseball game, a batter is allowed a maximum number of three strikes. Missing to hit the ball is called a “strike.” And in a baseball game, three strikes disqualify the batter to play the inning. Likewise, the baseball team loses turn to bat if they cumulatively get three batters either getting struck out or being tagged out.

So once the batter commits a third strike, the umpire shouts: “You’re out!”

Thus, “strike three, you’re out” has since become a popular catch phrase. The phrase is used to denote being removed out of one’s office or post after commission or omission of the same act for the third time.

In fact, the Philippine National Police (PNP) adopted “Strike 3” as a policy in the past and is being continued by the present leadership in their anti-gambling campaign. Before they engaged into the deadly war on illegal drugs, the “Strike 3” policy has automatically removed or relieved from posts many commanders and chiefs of police all over the country where jueteng and other illegal gambling operations thrived under their very noses.

“Strike 3” is applied when operatives of the PNP headquarters fail to conduct a drive and arrest jueteng and other illegal gambling activities, counted up to three times against the chief of police or commander in that area. And if there would be a third incident, it would result to the immediate relief of the chief of police or commander.

On July 31, PNP Director General Ronald dela Rosa ordered all police commanders nationwide to stop illegal gambling operations in the country within 15 days, or be relieved. Dela Rosa, however, hastily clarified this directive had nothing to do with the threat of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to cut the agency’s financial assistance to the PNP due to poor performance against illegal gambling.

It’s been over a week that the ultimatum of the PNP chief lapsed. We have yet to hear the report from the PNP if Dela Rosa’s directives have been carried out down the line.

Based from latest reports, the PNP arrested a total of 14,248 in its intensified anti-gambling drive from February this year. The confiscated bets reached almost P6 million.

However, this apparently pales in comparison to the huge amounts of jueteng revenues that cut into the PCSO’s market.

PCSO general manager and retired Army general Alexander Balutan is apparently unimpressed by the PNP report. He scored the lackadaisical efforts of the current PNP leadership in its anti-gambling job. Balutan cited the PNP has been receiving an allocation of 2.5 percent from PCSO’s monthly revenues.

Balutan earlier announced the PCSO Board already discussed the possibility of amending the existing Memorandum of Agreement with the PNP by October this year to make the agency’s financial assistance to be henceforth tied to the output of police operations against jueteng and other illegal gambling activities.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet team of President Rodrigo Duterte suffered also its third strike, so to speak, with the rejection last week of the appointment of Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Judy Taguiwalo. The majority of the 25-man Commission on Appointments (CA) voted to reject Taguiwalo after having by-passed her nomination several times in the past.

The latest rejection of Taguiwalo was the consequence of the “three-strike” rule adopted in March this year by the CA. This CA rule specifically limits to three the number of times any presidential appointee maybe bypassed or fail to hurdle the confirmation process.

Under the existing CA rules, an appointee is deemed bypassed if the commission has not acted on an appointment before Congress goes on recess or adjourns session. When this happens, the President would have to reappoint the official to continue serving the government post on ad interim basis and resubmits the nomination to the CA despite being bypassed for the nth time in the past.

That was the practice before the CA adopted the “three-strike” rule.

But under the new “three-strike” rule, the CA would have to vote on whether to confirm or reject the concerned presidential appointee. If rejected by the CA, the President should no longer reappoint the official. Also in the same amended CA rules, the bicameral body abandoned the counting of hands method of voting at the floor and instead adopted “secret” voting and the results announced at the plenary sessions.

Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, overall CA chairman, cited the “three-strike” rule effectively forces the hand of the commission to decide on the fate of the appointees. However, he conceded, it also forces the President – as the appointing authority – not to reappoint his nominees if bypassed by the CA for three times already.

Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, one of the longest serving CA members, noted the past practice of repeatedly re-appointing bypassed Cabinet appointees made a mockery of the confirmation process. Sotto rued this allowed the Chief Executive in the past to effectively ignore the CA as the body created by the country’s 1987 Constitution to pass upon presidential appointees from Cabinet to ambassadors and heads of constitutional bodies.

The first to fall from the CA “three-strike” rule was former Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. The CA members voted unanimously to reject the appointment of Yasay after he was found lying under oath about his US citizenship. President Duterte eventually named his erstwhile vice presidential runningmateinlastyear’selectionSen.AlanPeterCayetano to replace Yasay.

Next to succumb to the “strike-three” rule was erstwhile Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Gina Lopez. The CA rejected her nomination in May this year before the 17th Congress adjourned sine die their first regular sessions.

The President named former Armed Forces chief of staff Roy Cimatu as his new DENR chief whose appointment has yet to be tabled by the CA. The fate of another known left-leaning Duterte Cabinet, Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano and the appointment of Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial remain pending at the CA.

Notwithstanding the “three-strike” CA rule, all that President Duterte has to do is name new members who will beef up his Cabinet team to stay and win the goals of his administration until the end of his term in June 2022. Or else, be out of office before his term ends.

That was the practice before the CA adopted the “threestrike” rule.