OP-ED COLUMN By Tita C. Valderama: OPINION- Cayetano has no shame

DRIVEN by his overweening ambition to be the country’s next president, Alan Peter Cayetano has not only become annoying but has also turned out to be a disgrace to public service.

Cayetano is the current Speaker of the 302-member House of Representatives. At the same time, he is chairman of the official Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) for the country’s hosting of the the recently concluded 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. But he also heads the so-called private Phisgoc Foundation that he set up for the same purpose.

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Cayetano is embroiled in recent controversial issues involving allegations of corruption and conflict of interest in the SEA Games as well as in the effort of the House to rush the approval of a resolution with self-serving provisions like extending the legislators’ terms of office, and drawing up a budget bill with billions of pesos in funding for pet projects of lawmakers, defying a Supreme Court decision declaring pork barrel allocations as unconstitutional.

The impressive grand opening and closing rites of the 30th SEA Games, and the Filipino athletes’ championship achievement should not be used to cover up for fund misappropriations and other irregularities and the mishandling of the foreign athletes’ accommodations upon arrival in Manila for the competition.

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Under Cayetano’s arrogant leadership, the House has engaged in questionable dealings that also defy transparency and integrity issues.

Like thieves striking at midnight, the committee on constitutional amendments approved during a closed-door meeting on Wednesday last week a resolution that would lift restrictions on foreign investments and extend the term of congressmen by two years while reducing the term of senators by one year.

Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro, who chairs the committee, said in a digital television broadcast last Friday that the approval did not have the go-signal of Duterte but was upon the instructions of Cayetano.

A couple of days prior, Sen. Panfilo Lacson disputed claims from the House leadership that the proposed P4.1 trillion budget for 2020 was “pork-free,” citing some P16 billion lump sum appropriations that may be subject to abuse of discretion, hence, pork barrel.

Lacson claimed that the allocations were distributed across projects, programs and activities without details on how the money will be used. Part of the questioned allocations was P2.5 billion, billed as assistance to local government units (LGUs). The amount can be accessed for pet projects of lawmakers in the recipient LGUs that they can then tout as part of their accomplishments in succeeding election campaigns.

Cayetano is using the term-extension proposal to get the support of his colleagues for his presidential bid in 2022. And that’s why he shamelessly asserts himself to defy a prior gentleman’s agreement to split the three-year speakership term with Rep. Lord Allan Velasco of Marinduque.

 

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Under a 15-21 term-sharing scheme, Cayetano was supposed to serve as Speaker for the first 15 months of the current 18th Congress, with Velasco then taking over the remaining 21 months. This agreement was reportedly brokered by Duterte himself as a last-ditch effort to prevent his House allies from quarreling over the position.

Cayetano’s allies have come out with statements that the term-sharing agreement should be ditched following his 64-percent approval rating and 62-percent trust rating in a Pulse Asia survey. They belittled Velasco as inexperienced.

Cayetano and his cohorts at the House must be reminded that congressmen are called lawmakers or legislators because their job is crafting meaningful laws for the people that they serve, and not for themselves.

Lawmakers are not supposed to be involved in project implementation, which is the work of government agencies and LGUs.

If Cayetano values decency and integrity in public service, he should have stayed away from chairing the official Phisgoc and desisted from setting up the private Phisgoc foundation that collected money from the private sector for the hosting of the games, because doing so smacks of conflict of interest.

 

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When he was secretary of foreign affairs, his heading Phisgoc violated Section 13, Article VII of the Constitution that prohibited Cabinet members from holding “any other office or employment during their tenure.”

Specifically, the provision clearly said: “They shall not, during said tenure, directly or indirectly, practice any other profession, participate in any business, or be financially interested in any contract with, or in any franchise, or special privilege granted by the government or any subdivision, agency, or instrumentality thereof, including government-owned or controlled corporations or their subsidiaries.”

Cayetano elbowed his way into the circle of then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and became his vice-presidential candidate. He lost to Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo, the congresswoman from Naga City.

On the day the one-year ban on appointments of defeated candidates in the May 2016 elections ended, Cayetano managed to get the Department of Foreign Affairs portfolio and become part of Duterte’s Cabinet.

He took over from Acting Secretary Enrique Manalo, who was appointed after Perfecto Yasay Jr., Duterte’s first pick as the country’s chief diplomat, was rejected by the congressional Commission on Appointments for lying about his American citizenship.

 

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Cayetano quit his Cabinet post and ran for the first congressional district seat in Taguig. His wife Lani sought re-election for the second district. If delicadeza exists in the couple’s vocabulary, they would have allowed somebody else to run in either of the two congressional seats in Taguig. Their running at the same time showed their selfish motive in creating two legislative districts for the city. Taguig and Pateros used to have only one congressional district.

Cayetano continued to head Phisgoc even after being elected to the House of Representatives and eventually becoming Speaker.

By doing so, he violated Section 13, Article VI of the Constitution that says “no senator or member of the House of Representatives may hold any other office or employment in the government, or any subdivision, agency, or instrumentality thereof, including government-owned or controlled corporations or their subsidiaries, during his term without forfeiting his seat.”

With the allegations of corruption and conflict of interest against him, Cayetano should just stop using the term “public service” to refer to what he has been doing because he has shown many times that his actions were all for himself and his overweening ambition to become president. Cayetano has no shame!

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