Speaker Gloria

FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
11/02/2009


If Gloria Arroyo is indeed seeking a seat in the House of Representatives and end up as its Speaker, the one sure thing is that she may believe that this move is a guarantee to her continued protection against lawsuits after she leaves Malacañang.

Yet she, as well as all the others, knows that once she steps out of Malacañang, and even as a member of Congress with the exalted position of Speaker, she is not immune from suit.

Her position in Congress, therefore, is no guarantee against her being charged in court.

Others have argued that as Speaker and in control of her party, Gloria can use the tool of impeachment against whoever becomes the president of the land, should that official bring charges against her and have her prosecuted.

Again, this doesn’t seem possible, given that it is easy enough for a sitting president to inoculate himself from the impeachment virus, something which Gloria herself proved, by getting someone to file a bogus impeachment complaint.

Still, even a bogus impeachment complaint can thrive, depending on the numbers of a Gloria House in 2010 and her continued control over her congressmen.

As it has been shown over and over again, a valid impeachment complaint gets dismissed by the House. In similar fashion, a bogus complaint can even hit the Senate for trial, in which case, a president who has control of the required number of senators can easily have an acquittal.

Given this scenario, it is clear that impeachment, as a Gloria tool against a sitting president who is not sympathetic to her, or refuses to play ball with her, can’t be that potent a guarantee of her continued protection.

In any case, if she does succeed in impeaching a president, she doesn’t get to sit in Malacañang either, since it will be the vice president who will succeed, and she can’t possibly use the impeachment tool again.

Besides, she does know that even if she controls the House, which may be in doubt under a new administration, she certainly can’t control the Senate, which definitely will not be dominated by the Gloria candidates.

What her pitch for a congressional seat with the Speakership in mind, and if impeachment is to be used as a tool, is for Gloria and her allies to use this on say, an unfriendly Ombudsman, say, if Merceditas Gutierrez resigns or is replaced by a new president.

Or, if charges are filed, she can again use the impeachment tool against justices who may go against her. After all, all that is needed to get an impeachment going would be the numbers in Congress.

The question then is: Will she still have her loyal allies in Congress, once she is no longer in Malacañang?

Congressmen who don’t toe the Malacañang line know only too well that their priority development fund, known as the pork barrel funds don’t get released at all. This is something Gloria started and has perfected. It is only the politically naïve who think that a new president is not going to take this same path in getting his numbers in Congress, and getting too, his laws or whatever else projects and plans he wants done.

The way Gloria operates, it is almost certain that, even as she seeks a congressional seat, she will be focusing more on the congressional race than she will the senatorial and the presidential race.

The national attention will be focused on the presidential race, rather than the local race.

But if she does not have the numbers in Congress, on account of some of the Lakas-Kampi congressmen losing their seats, while more so-called opposition congressmen take the seats, then she is likely to do a Joe de Venecia, that is, come up with some kind of a rainbow coalition, under her control.

But she still has to contend with the usual practice of congressmen all swearing allegiance to whoever sits in Malacañang. And where then do her power and control come into play?


Source: http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20091102com2.html