Monday, July 30, 2007 Mongaya: The failed Speaker bid By Anol Mongaya Panahom
I LEARNED a lot during my three-day stay in Metro Manila last week about how traditional politics works when it comes to selecting the Speaker of the Lower House. The failed bid of Rep. Pabling Garcia (Cebu, 2nd district) should give future aspirants from the South valuable insights about how to wrest the post from Speaker Joe de Venecia.
One, representatives from Luzon will most likely support a fellow Tagalog than somebody from the South. Thus, a Cebuano like Pabling should position himself as a representative of Visayas and Mindanao against the tyranny of the Tagalogs.
Pabling, however, sidestepped the regionalist approach, preferring instead to bank on his years of experience and closeness to President Arroyo.
Two, the aspirant for Speaker should succeed in splitting Lakas. If one succeeds in getting support from Visayas and Mindanao congressmen, the aspirant will be able to split the vaunted Lakas of JDV. But he can further get support from some Luzon-based congressmen, so much the better.
JDV prevented this from happening by moving fast to meet one-by-one his supporters and in the process promising positions, projects and perks. To demonstrate his success, he asked a Cebuano solon from among the four who supported him to deliver the nomination speech.
Three, most congressmen prefer voting openly during the session to show the winning candidate their support. Under secret balloting, it could be difficult to show proof that one voted for the winning candidate and ask for the promised rewards.
During last Monday’s opening session of the 14th Congress, the congressmen had a peek at the voting trend when they voted on the side issue of allowing the secretary general to preside.
When it was clear that JDV had 120 votes while Garcia only had 40 after a lengthy debate, his camp began railroading the process to beat the deadline, allowing President Arroyo to deliver her Sona without a hitch.
In my view, had the margin been a matter of 10 to 15 votes, Garcia could have won with the opposition and party-list congressmen—some 30 votes—considering themselves as a swing bloc.
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The existence of anomalies at the VSMMC was only whispered among hospital employees for years before a report by the Commission on Audit (COA) opened the proverbial Pandora’s box.
With the alleged misuse of hospital funds now out in the open, the grapevine is now focused on who are included in the investigations along with speculations on who leaked the COA report to the press.
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Over at the DPWH that shared the most corrupt honors with the customs bureau in an SWS survey, the grapevine centered on efforts of the OIC regional director to downplay the impact of a signature campaign.
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At the BOC, importers continue to shy away from importing goods because of the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group. It has come to a point that some analysts attribute this to the current strength of the peso vis-à-vis the dollar. The country’s major importers simply don’t need to exchange their millions with dollars because there are no transactions. This situation is adversely affecting exporters in two ways: the lack of imported raw materials and the strength of the peso that reduces the value of their dollar profits.
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