BINAY’S FREE FALL Vice President Jejomar Binay’s free fall continues as he keeps on making one mistake after another mistake in the handling of the current spate of controversies that hound him and his family. As indicated by the recent SWS survey showing eight of every ten Filipinos calling for his appearance before the Senate, the Vice President’s refusal to give any statement under oath does not in any way help him to transcend his difficulties. On the contrary, the more he talks outside the Senate, the greater the public doubts that he earns, or the faster he sinks to ignominy. What he has shown so far is his erratic judgment, political immaturity, and inability to cope with public criticisms, the qualities that make him unfit for the presidency. He keeps on issuing public statements that tend to trigger some polarizing effects than clear the air and heal the wounds. Where did Binay go wrong? First, the Vice President should have appeared first before the probing Senate Blue Ribbon Subcommittee. It is constitutionally empowered to hold public hearings in aid of legislation. He should have confronted Senators Antonio Trillanes, Allan Peter Cayetano Koko Pimentel, and others in the same public hearing and challenge them to produce pieces of evidence that would show corruption in Makati. He should have given his testimony under oath, particularly when he felt his honor has been tarnished by what he described as “baseless and fabricated accusations of corruption.” His strategy to dodge the Senate is an act of cowardice. It does not in any way help him. The Vice President should have thrown his gauntlet in front of his critics to the point of issuing a challenge for a duel. But since duel is outlawed in the country, a public debate would do. His challenge to Trillanes for a public debate came a little late, but it remains doubtful if a debate with Trillanes could extricate him from his political free fall. Binay’s strategy “to go to the people” is nebulous. It is a useless and wornout argument that seeks to negate the recent SWS survey. Binay is oblivious to the message of that survey; he treats it as if it does not exist at all. Second his decision to seek help from the President showed desperation on his part. Like an aggrieved youngster, he went to his “kuya” to seek revenge, or “resbak.” But he was putting the President in a bind. He was invoking friendship, when Binay had sought the President’s intercession to stop the Senate the Department of Justice, and Office of the Ombudsman from its investigation of his corrupt ways. Binay apparently did not understand that using the presidential powers to stop the wheels of justice from grinding to its full course constitutes obstruction of justice, which is a culpable violation of the Constitution. Hence, the President could face impeachment raps. It was a good thing that the President knew and understood the implications of the Vice President’s request for him to step in and stop the process. What Binay had requested from the President was most stupid. It was opportunism of the crass kind. Only a sick mind could do that kind of request. Binay did not respect the Office of the President. He was mindful of his own personal interest and his family’s. Third, Binay’s biggest mistake is his inability to transform himself into a politician of national significance and consequence. His mental processes show that he still thinks as if he were a local official. He looks at the Philippines as one big Makati, unmindful of the dynamics in the national level. He does not know that he does not interact anymore with the likes of Gerry Limlingan. Ernesto Mercado, and other subalterns. In national politics, it is totally different. It has a multiparty system where every party has its own political stars. It has institutions like Congress, where every member is a separate republic, believing as if he is God’s gift to Philippine democracy. In short, Binay could never be autocratic on the national level. He should behave in a way befitting of a vice president, who is one heart beat away from the presidency. For a politician who is aspiring to become the next president, Binay should fully understand these dynamics in national politics. But he has never metamorphosed. He has not transformed himself. That partly explains his sudden and uncontrollable free fall.
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 06:47:30 +0000
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