‘Manong’ Joe’s Cha-cha
and BF’s ‘mambo jumbo’

 

Let me first join BSP Governor Say Tetangco and his colleagues at the Bangko Sentral in mourning the passing of their former boss and friend, Rafael “Paeng” Buenaventura, who died on Thursday.

“Gov Paeng” as he was affectionately called by BSP and banking colleagues, here and abroad, could not have gotten a warmer and certainly well deserved accolade than the outpouring of grief shown by those he loved and served in the profession he did best—banking. As his friend and successor Governor Tetangco stated just hours after news of his death, he and his colleagues did not just lose a friend and mentor, the country lost an institution.

Coming from someone who has himself been regarded, in just a year in office, as a shining star in central banking circles in the region and the world, that was certainly heartwarming.

Indeed, Buenaventura not only managed to steer the BSP through some of its most difficult economic crises, he did so in the face of very serious efforts to ease him prematurely being the appointee of deposed President Estrada who happened to be his high-school classmate.

Well, as they say, the rest is now history. Gov Paeng survived the pressures and the challenges with flying colors and elevated the BSP back to its role as the guardian of our monetary and economic stability. Sadly, outside pressures even after his retirement took a heavy toll on his failing health. But, as his friends tell us, he fought the good fight and stood tall. He will be missed.

Now, to the indefatigable Speaker Jose Manong Joe de Venecia Jr. whose life-long advocacy for the parliamentary system is legendary. Despite all the odds Manong Joe has stood his ground and has moved the almost two-decade battle for the shift in our form of government near the finish line. This move is the nearest we have gone so far in living memory.

However, his Operation “Final Push,” which calls for the convening of Congress to propose Charter changes, is working on a tight schedule: first, the resolution to convene must reach Comelec by December 22; then, the poll body must schedule a plebiscite on or before the 22nd of February, and finally, the Interim Parliament which consolidates the House and the Senate into the unicameral body must vote on the transition arrangements, including a rescheduling of the May 2007 elections to November, and thus the automatic extension of the terms of office of all officials whose terms expire on June 30, 2007 to December 30 at the latest.

Manong Joe and his closest advocates are optimistic they can pull things off. Ever the optimist, I am told that he has authorized some of his boys to take on any doubters or naysayers still standing around and call their bets, two-to-one at the minimum. I am not sure whether the challenge has been taken.

But there remains a lot of doubters even among those who really believe that it is time to revisit the 1987 Constitution. For one, former President Fidel Ramos has been coming out with mixed signals about his own take on the matter. Like a man on the prowl, he has slyly acknowledged that indeed a shift is necessary but that may not be enough. He repeated what many others had been mouthing long before him, i.e., that there remains a number of serious overhauling left not only of the Charter but of the relations of forces and sectors within society.

What is puzzling is Ramos’ statement that there may not be “enough time for such a change.” Worse, that it may be “immoral” to insist on such a move in the face of the survey results showing overwhelming public disapproval for such.

Well, is it any surprise that Ramos should weigh in right at the middle ground of this historic debate with such gobbledygook and immediately after the survey results came out? It would have been even more puzzling if he stood his ground despite the seemingly public disdain for such an initiative like Manong Joe.

Indeed, whether one likes him or not Manong Joe’s effervescent optimism and hard push bears the courage of his convictions. Unlike many others, Ramos included, who are so preoccupied with poll results and sway with the wind he has stood his ground at least as far as this parliamentary battle is concerned. He may have his faults and even exaggerations but you have to give the guy credit for leading the way.

If it is any consolation at all, even my cohost in our daily radio show Karambola Makati Rep. Teddyboy Locsin took his hat off to Manong Joe for this. More importantly, he managed to convince the Speaker not to hold elections in November but two or three months after the plebiscite if the only problem, as Manong Joe himself acknowledged, was “technical”—to ensure that Comelec will be ready after the first exercise to hold the elections thereafter. If approved, that may take the wind out of the “conspiracy” objectors who see ghosts in this exercise.

BF’S ‘mambo jumbo’

Speaking of standing one’s ground, we are happy that MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando has battled the lousy billboard owners all the way despite the cases they have filed against him. But must he or his boys be less humane or even defy logic and common sense as they go about “doing their job?”

This thought comes to mind after hearing what happened to a property owner, the Galvez-Rufino family, whose perimeter fence was allegedly “infringing” on a sidewalk the MMDA was working on in Pasay City. Despite pleas and showing of the title indicating otherwise, BF’s boys went on their merry ways and even castigated the owners for not voluntarily doing the work. Well, sir, that means surrendering their rights which even you or your boys would definitely mind.

But that’s not all. The owners wrote MMDA through my friend, GM Robert Nacianceno, to advise that they were ready to sit down with their boys and work out a possible “win-win” solution.

I am told that the MMDA boys agreed especially since we also brought this to their attention on our radio program. They all thought that would have moderated MMDA’s exuberance.

Well, it did not. It proceeded to do its worst on a private property on Saturday. That was certainly a downer of a move and Nacianceno knows it. I am advised that such kind of “mambo jumbo” moves did not only happen to the Galvez-Rufino family in Pasay. It has actually happened to a lot more people, property owners and all, who in the mind of these officials stood in the way of their “doing the job.”

Whew! That was what Mussolini and his boys said in fascist Italy before the Second World War when they insisted that nobody should stand in the way of their ensuring that “trains run on time.”

Certainly, that dance step is not in keeping with our democratic pretensions.