The Senate presidency ENQUIRY Demaree J. B. Raval 07/12/2010

The Senate presidency

ENQUIRY Demaree J. B. Raval 07/12/2010 Except for the occasional upset stomach, there seems to be nothing wrong with the health of the new President. The new Vice President, too, is obviously hale and hearty, especially now that he’s not going to have rashes because he’s moving to the Coconut Palace. So the talk of a yet to be elected Senate President eventually succeeding to the presidency is a long shot — nay, impossibility — within the next six years of the Aquino administration. What is important here and now is the issue of qualification and acceptability. Can the next Senate President succeed in maneuvering with skill and care the expected internecine dissensions of our present crop of senators as they discharge their role in nation building, pursue an agenda of reform and change, at the same time uphold the independence of the chamber? This ability to keep things on an even keel should be the primary consideration in the determination of who should lead the Senate in the 15th Congress. Closeness to the President of the country is a disqualifier. A senator who himself admits to having asked the permission and blessing of President Aquino to run for Senate President only betrays his dependency on the President. Notice the word: dependency, as in a need for an authority figure so strong that it becomes necessary to have this figure prompting and guiding one in order to function properly.  And I fear what would happen if the relationship turns into a co-dependency. Political analyst Leina de Legazpi says, “Surely, we’ll have a pattern of detrimental executive-legislative interactions within a dysfunctional political relationship.” Or as one senator succinctly points out, “If you have a Senate controlled by Aquino, where is the (expletive muffled) independence?”  Tough talk makes a good campaign pitch. So the chosen candidate of the Liberal Party (LP) for Senate President says he will constitute an “activist” Senate, one that “seeks solutions to the nation’s decades-old ills.” But these words are mere sound and fury, cock-and-bull, when measured against past performance.  For instance, can a senator do well as Senate President and truly lead a Senate of the people, when he had been responsible for foisting on the nation a bogus president when he just smugly noted the massive fraud in a previous electoral exercise? ... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100712com3.html

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