PNoy’s ‘kaibigan’
WITH only a year before his term winds down in 2016, President Noynoy Aquino has already delivered in terms of straightening out the country’s governance after it was damaged by the corruption-ridden administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. His “Daang Matuwid” mantra paid dividends. Imagine if another president was at the helm when the pork barrel scam involving Janet Lim-Napoles was exposed.
Under the Aquino administration, the Office of the Ombudsman now has a respected head. A Supreme Court chief justice, Renato Corona, was impeached and replaced by a young and untainted Ma. Lourdes Sereno. Three senators, including the “powerful” Juan Ponce-Enrile, are in jail after they were linked to the pork barrel scam.
The “Daang Matuwid” push, though, has been considerably weakened because of one of the President’s character glitches. He is protective of his friends, including those he appointed to government posts, and do not easily let go of them even if they are linked to shenanigans. While the issue during the presidency of his mother Cory was the “Kamag-anak Inc.,” under PNoy it is the “Kabarilan, Kaklase at Kaibigan.”
When that issue was raised, I largely let it pass because most of those being shielded by the President were mere functionaries or the irregularities linked to them have not been substantiated enough. But the case of Vice President Je- jomar Binay is different.
When the allegations of corruption was raised against him by a subcommittee of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, I thought firing the VP from the Cabinet, or at least asking him to resign, was warranted under the “Daang Matuwid” principle. But I gave PNoy some slack because he was probably giving Binay, a family friend, the benefit of the doubt.
But as months passed, it seems that even such government units as the Department of Justice (DOJ) had gotten easy on the VP. In the early phase of the Senate probe on Binay, I heard Justice Secretary Leila de Lima say that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) may conduct a parallel investigation. Nothing has been heard about it since.
Because PNoy refused to ease out Bi- nay from the Cabinet, the VP was able to use his position to parry the allegations against him and to promote his candidacy for president in 2016. The VP did the rounds of the country to mitigate the impact of the accusations on his candidacy.
Now comes the order of the Court of Appeals (CA) to freeze the bank accounts of Binay, his family and alleged dummies based on a report by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC). The report hit Binay two ways: first, it tended to provide proof to the allegations against the VP made in the Senate subcommittee probe and, secondly, it provided additional details to the corruption allegations raised against him.
The AMLC report is damaging for Binay because the council is an independent body. But when Malacañang was asked what it would do to him in the midst of the AMLC report and the CA order, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte said the decision on whether to quit or not is with the VP. Which is unfortunate.
In one of our discussions on the Binay case, a colleague opined that had this been another official and not Binay who was linked to these corrupt acts, he would have been fired long ago. Indeed Enrile, for example, may now be ruing that time when he opposed Cory’s rule instead of propping her up like what Binay did. It is possible he would have been “saved” from jail had he been a friend of the Aquinos from the get-go.