Address unwittingly exposes policy failures
That President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's speech took place before both houses of Congress yesterday already indicated a major policy failure.
According to a schedule she mapped out herself, Mrs Arroyo should instead have been opening a new chapter in the nation's political life by presiding over a unicameral parliament.
The change in the form of government was among the four priority legislative measures she spelled out in her 2005 address, when she said: 'The system clearly needs fundamental change, and the sooner the better.'
Early this year, she revealed that by 'soon' she meant mid-2006, so a unicameral assembly could convene by this month.
This did not come to pass.
And neither did the three other measures she urged the two houses of Congress to enact: an anti-terror law, legislation promoting the use of bio-fuel and a code to govern the nearly bankrupt educational pre-needs industry.
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye blamed the failure on an 'obstructionist' upper house.
Mrs Arroyo is engaged in a bitter standoff with the Senate over calls for her to resign, in light of vote-rigging allegations.
The relationship has deteriorated to the point that Mrs Arroyo has barred all her aides from appearing in Senate hearings.
Nevertheless, the Senate recently declared a policy of critical collaboration.
Last week, Francis Pangilinan, the Senate majority floor leader who sets the calendar, announced the Senate would act on the anti-terror law and a bio-fuel law.
'We must show the rest of the nation that notwithstanding the political tensions, we will be able to deliver in the area of legislation and the enactment of priority measures that would impact positively on the economic well-being of our citizens,' he said.
Yesterday's election of Manuel Villar as the new Senate president was expected by the presidential palace to ease tensions.
However, with next year's congressional elections looming, opposition Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jnr expressed doubts yesterday that Mrs Arroyo could still succeed in changing the form of government.
Already, there are reports some cabinet officials are preparing to run for Senate seats next year, an early indication that charter change is no longer an administration priority.
