Here and There
The ‘Tabako’ nearing 80 still dances the Cha-cha
By Gerry Garcia
A majority of Pangasinenses sensing the “imminence” of JDV’s ouster as Speaker of the House do not think the day will soon come considering the number of times he had held on to the post in succession on the strength of united support from his colleagues in Congress. And in spite of protests from the noisy senators.
Yet, with former majority leader Rep. Prospero Nograles, long-time advocate of Joe, jumping ship in his eagerness to catch the speakership, later days, would be bothersome as Nograles is being backed by the entire Mindanao bloc and other groups . . . despite PGMA’s alleged call on her allies in the House not to involve themselves in any move to oust the Speaker.
Joe, the veteran law-maker who knows how he stands, vis-a-vis Gloria who withstood impeachment moves more than twice because of Joe, remains as cool as a cucumber but is not letting his guard down.
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At least former Pres. Fidel Ramos, a tireless retired Pangasinense from Asingan and Lingayen has not stopped opening his mouth every time Joe is in trouble. Fidel “tabako”, who had warned that ousting De Venecia would have negative implications on the country’s image in the international community, is still garrulous (meaning, talkative) about charter change even if this does not sit well with many of our big-time trapos and their backers.
Fidel, the West Point-made military man had been very recently our country’s President and presumably he knows what he’s talking about.
Ramos, a leading advocate of Charter change during his administration, had claimed there is “a very strong and genuine clamor” for Charter amendment, not change, despite strong objections from a “noisy minority”, meaning the Senate which, understandably, is not unexpected because, he says, the change in the Charter provision he was seeking involved abolition of the Senate.
Ramos claimed the present system of having two legislative chambers — the Senate and the House of Representatives — was divisive, compared to a unicameral parliamentary system of government.
Ramos personally found out during his administration that no amount of reform programs or legislation could succeed because the system of government itself engendered delays, inefficiency, corruption and divisiveness.
He pointed out Thailand, which had been the hardest hit at the onset of the 1997 Asian currency crisis, immediately implemented wide-ranging reforms in government and enacted laws focused on combating the effects of the regional financial crisis.
Ramos said the Thai government was able to immediately implement such reforms because its unicameral parliamentary system of legislation could quickly address the problem without slogging through the debate process in two legislative chambers.
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In our country, being Pinoyland not Thailand, even if we had much better economic fundamentals during the financial crisis, Congress had a domineering House of Senate which had served no better than a National Board (or Bored) of Investigation (NBI) . . . which explains why, aside from being a pathetic tail-ender in the Association of East Asian Nations (ASEAN) . . . we remain glued to the Third World category.
(Readers may reach columnist at sundaypunch2@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/here-and-there/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)
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