BUT
FIRST HE MUST RESIGN
So
people are now discussing a second term for President Benigno C.
Aquino III. But how is that possible? Doesn't the Constitution
itself say:
The President and the
Vice-President shall be elected by direct vote of the people for a
term of six years which shall begin at noon on the thirtieth day of
June next following the day of the election and shall end at noon of
the same date, six years thereafter. The President shall not be
eligible for any re-election. No person who has succeeded as
President and has served as such for more than four years shall be
qualified for election to the same office at any time. (Article VII
Section 4 Par. 1)
Therefore,
if we want our dear President Noynoy Aquino to rule us again, we have
to amend the Constitution right?
Hmmm,
I think not.
I
think that there is a way around this prohibition and I give credit
to Mrs. Raissa Robles and Attorney Mel Sta. Maria for the idea as
this is not entirely my own.
But
first you may ask the question, what does an ordinary tao like
me know? What business do I have interpreting the Constitution? For
that I also drew inspiration from Mrs. Robles. Mrs. Robles after all
is not a lawyer, but through her impeccable research and
down-to-earth and easily accessible writing, she captured the hearts
and minds of the people, single-handedly providing a legal basis for
the Disbursement Acceleration Program—kicking the proverbial
anthill in the process—and pointed out to the world that the
Infallible Supreme Court may not be so infallible after all, it was
she who unearthed the Section 49 of the Administrative Code, ignored
by the top notch legal professionals employed by petitioners, defense
and the Court in Araullo vs. Abad. The
fact that it was a layman who came up with this inspired praises from
her fans, one of whom said:
Attorney
Robles,
...
[I] guess the lawyers are fuming mad and frothing in the mouth and
that’s because you have exposed a long time myth “that only
lawyers understand the law”. My father use to tell me that the
reason why the law is written in a way that is almost impossible to
decipher is because if everybody can understand it they would be
jobless.
x
x x
Carry
on …Attorney (Comments Section)
Later
on, renowned Constitutionalist and law professor, Oscar
Franklin Tan comes to Raissa's aid saying:
Most striking, however,
is the condescension Robles reported over her not being a lawyer,
even as people quietly forwarded her arguments. We must never forget
that a constitution is a layman’s document intended to, in simple
and general language, enshrine a people’s values and aspirations
for future generations. In this sense, the fullness of our democracy
will only be realized when we see high school students feel empowered
to debate a High Court justice. Lawyers cannot style themselves as
high priests of a secular religion, but must make law inclusive and
integrate it with other disciplines.
We
should listen to Prof. Tan, he is a Thought
Leader after all.
Mrs.
Robles later tries her hand at statutory construction in her blog
post, Law
dean wonders whether the Supreme Court defined “savings” the way
Filipinos understood it when they ratified the Constitution.
This post was based on an interview with Atty. Mel Sta. Maria, Dean
of FEU law school and noted professor of civil law. In this case,
Atty. Mel and Robles talked about the constitution as a document that
should be interpreted according to how people understand it, this
allows the constitution to be able to respond to the exigiencies of
modern life by allowing an interpretation according to how the
ratifiers
understand it (as opposed to how the drafters
understood it), taking into consideration their culture and their
values. Applying this theory of constitutional interpretation to the
word “savings” in the Constitution Sec. 25(5) Article VI, Atty.
Mel claims that the ratifiers understood the word savings as
“nilalagay sa baol” or “iniipon”, thus allowing the DAP's
impounding of funds for priority projects.
This
is indeed a very good school of Constitutional interpretation.
Unfortunately, it has not really been tried out or argued before the
Supreme Court, as far as I know. What Mrs. Robles and Atty. Mel
didn't mention in the blog post however is that this school of
constitutional interpretation has already been argued before the
COMELEC for the 2010 Presidential Elections by the renowned
constitutionalist and former dean of UP, Dean Pacifico Agabin.
The
Meaning of the Word, “President”
My contention that President Aquino
may indeed run for President again in 2016 hinges on what is meant by
the word “President” in Article VII Section 4. Dean Agabin
claims that the word President as used in the constitution, in all
the sixty-four (64) instances that it has occurred refers to the
“sitting President” or the “office [of the president]” It
did not refer to “former Presidents” or “deposed Presidents”
or “resigned Presidents.” Therefore, if President Noynoy resigns
today, he can run for reelection because he shall no longer be the
“sitting president” referred to in “The President shall not be
eligible for any re-election.” (Art. VII Section 4 Constitution)
Take note that this interpretation
worked before the COMELEC in 2009 when Dean Agabin was argued in
behalf of his client, the Former President, Movie Star and current
Mayor of Manila Erap Estrada, who as we know resigned [albeit
constructively] in 2001 (Estrada vs. Desierto).
“The Constitution is a layman’s
document, and the laws it contains are not intended to befuddle or
confuse those who, having voted for its ratification in 1987, adopted
it as the supreme law of the land,... The words ‘the President’
as used therein refer plainly and simply to the incumbent, and there
is no need to refer to other outside sources in determining who it is
that is referred to in this phrase,” Dean
Agabin said.
This
theory was successfully argued before the COMELEC, so this should
work!
Listen
to Dean Agabin argue this point if you are still not convinced
So
the way I see it is, President Aquino has to resign first and then
run for reelection(?) in 2016. This is my humble contribution to the
debate.
Is
it worth it?
Of
course, there will be the inconvenience that the Vice President will
have to take over fr a while and in effect, act as “trustee” of
the office for a while, but that is a small price to pay for another
six years under Aquino. Maybe that was what Aquino had in ind when
he said in his SONA:
Alam po ni Vice
President na noong 1987 magkasama kami. May kudeta, na-ambush po tayo
doon, at tapos noon eh pangalawang buhay ko na po ito. Hindi natin
maiiwasan mag-isip sa mga binubunggo natin, may araw kayang ‘pag
sasampa ka sa entablado, may trabaho ring araw–may magtatagumpay
bang maglagay ng bomba? Magtatagumpay ba ‘yung mga maiitim na balak
ng atin pong mga katunggaling gusto tayong ibalik sa maling
kalakaran? At kung dumating nga ang panahong pong iyon, at natapos na
po ang ating pangalawang buhay, masasabi ko ho bang, okay na rin? At
sasabihin ko po sa inyo, mata sa mata, sa lahat po ng inabot natin,
ako po’y masasabing kontento na ako.
Kontento na po ako
dahil panatag ang kalooban ko, na kung ako po’y mawala na dito,
marami po ang magpapatuloy ng ating tinahak na. Baka iyon lang po
talaga ang papel ko–umpisahan ito.
Maybe
PNOY was planning to resign all along, for the purpose of running in
2016.
But
he listens to his “bosses” – the people – “as a matter of
principle,” his spokesman
said. The Tito Noynoy must be hearing us now when we say we want
him back.
I
know that the President values the loyalty of his people, and he is
always looking for signs that his people support him. Just last
month did he not ask us to wear yellow ribbons to show support?
Subjecting himself to another election will once and for all debunk
the popularity polls and show that the people are still behind him.
Yes,
we should also give Tito Noynoy his second term because we all kno
what happens when a president steps down from office, his/her
projects being implemented will be put on hold indefinitely or
scrapped. Look what happened to Marcos' nuclear power plant when
Pnoy's mom came into power, look what happened to GMA's laguna lake
dredging project—all scrapped/mothballed. Think of the low opinion
foreign contractors will have of us when their contracts are
cancelled. Therefore, PNOY should have a second term.
So
if you are with me, and you want PNOY to have a second term, let us
speak to him as his “bosses”, join me in chanting:
PNOY
RESIGN! PNOY RESIGN! PNOY RESIGN! PNOY RESIGN! PNOY RESIGN!
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