Two terms for the president?

MANILA - The second day of the ongoing 10th National Press Forum being held here featured very stimulating speakers who actually kept the motley group of journalists from all over the country wide awake and challenged enough to participate in a very lively open forum. This is the annual gathering of print journalists who are members of the Philippine Press Institute that is, at the same time, holding its annual membership meeting and election of its board of trustees for the coming year.

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The interest and attention was unusual, considering that two of the resource persons were politicians - Congressman Roilo Golez of Parañaque and Rodante Marcoleta of Party List Alagad. Marcoleta, who was introduced as the "poor man's lawyer", spoke on cases of abuse of power against the poor by government officials and violations of the law committed against them. Golez gave a very apt description of the way people in power "beat the red light" and thus give bad examples to their constituents who, like red light beaters violate rules and regulations at every opportunity, knowing they will not, or cannot be caught. And so the vicious cycle goes.

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Golez elicited laughter from the group when he said, quoting somebody, that the president should have two terms. When everybody were roused over that, he added, "One term in office, and one term in jail." By the way the topic Marcoleta and Golez discussed was titled "Public Accountability." I guess these two are among the few among their colleagues who truly understand what that means and who abide by it.

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Naturally, both of them went into the burning issues of the day, particularly the move towards the cha-cha, especially with the employment of the strategy called "People's Initiative". Golez, commenting on this, challenged the group. Find out who is behind this, adding that knowing who wants to have it will tell them what the motives are. Is it Mother Teresa or Atilla the Hun? Is the one proposing the changes doing it for the good of the country or for that person's own survival?

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Larry Henares, for his part, advocated a very revolutionary form of federal government that would, as he said, cut loose the regions and provinces from the control of "Imperial Manila." He pointed out that the changes being proposed by the administration now would even give the President almost limitless power, and leadership that may go beyond the present limit of six years. The former Inquirer columnist who earned the paper some of its most worrisome libel arrests, apparently still has very poor regard for the members of Congress, but always qualified his statements with "Present company exempted", with a glance at Reps. Golez and Marcoleta, who seemed unperturbed, even when he said that it's the fault of the electorate for electing gun-runners, murderers, child abuses, rapists, kidnappers, electoral cheats, and plunderers who should be in the penitentiary instead of in office, present company, of course, exempted.

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I noticed one thing in Golez and Henares, though. Both seemed proud to underscore their Ilonggo roots. Larry of course, is a close relative of the Henareses in Bacolod and still speaks fluent Ilonggo. While Roi Golez's parents are from Romblon and Iloilo, whence the name Roilo. But, both agree that their kababayans Frank Drilon, Miriam Defensor and Raul Gonzalez make a combination that they call "atomic."*

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