Bungled Opportunity to be Great; JDV an Idiot

Read the Inquirer headline today. It says that JDV went to Malacanan to have an audience with Arroyo. After that 45 minute meeting, which JDV described as a "constructive" one, he says that their relationship remains stable and strong despite the ZTE deal.

This action by the Speaker is precisely why JDV will never become president nor a prime minister. He does not deserve it. He's the type of guy who will compromise when push comes to shove. Great leaders are not compromisers. Great leaders know when to stand their ground and when to relent. In this case, JDV will always remain a second-rate politician, and some say, even of the worst kind.

If JDV feels that he's strong and has the numbers, he should not have gone to the palace for that meeting. This meeting shows the true nature of JDV. He is ambition-driven. He does not have the "balls" so to speak, to stand up against his enemies. He will even sell his family if needs be. What he wants is just power, not the welfare of the majority of our people.

As I previously wrote here, this ZTE controversy is an opportunity for him to be great. And this chance only comes once in a lifetime. However, that meeting with GMA shows that JDV will tolerate any form of corruption for as long as he's not involved in it, or his friends did it, or that it does not impact on his political standing. Such a stand says much about the character of the Speaker. He's the nation's worst example of being a leader. He does not lead; he simply cannot be a true leader because he's a compromiser. He compromises only for himself.

By meeting the president, the Speaker is condoning whatever actions the First Gentleman and his gang did against the nation. That ZTE deal is an illegal one. It is quite obvious that it will burden 80 million Filipinos with a 25 billion peso debt. For the Speaker, the issue is just a misunderstanding between him and GMA. The Speaker thinks along the lines of politics, but does not think about the welfare of the Filipino People who stands to lose their shirts if this deal pushes through.

Call me pragmatic or what-have-you, but the Speaker bungled the opportunity to be great. He should have stood behind his son. He should have praised him for standing up against the "bakal boys" of the palace and condemned it. But no. The fourth highest official of the land decided to side with the bakal boys.

Great men are risk-takers. They don't consider grey areas. For the Speaker, he always see a rainbow.

Speaker: If there's oust threat, will crush it
'I am torn between my love for my son and GMA'

By Norman Bordadora, Christian V. Esguerra
Inquirer
Last updated 00:21am (Mla time) 09/22/2007
Most Read
Full coverage: The NBN Deal

View liveblog of Senate hearing at Inquirer Current

View the NBN contract and related documents

MANILA, Philippines -- His post may be at risk because of his son's testimony at the Senate implicating President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's husband, but Speaker Jose de Venecia says he is confident of weathering the political storm.

In fact, the man said, he did not need Malacañang's guarantee to complete his unprecedented fifth term until 2010. "I feel strong in my own right," he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an interview at his Makati residence Friday.

Asked in a separate interview to assess his hold on the House leadership, De Venecia declared: "There is no threat. And if there is a threat, we'll crush it."

The Speaker said he was "bewitched and bewildered" in the wake of his son Jose "Joey" de Venecia's testimony implicating Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo in the $329-million National Broadband Network deal.

"I am torn between my love for my son and my love for the President," he said. But he added that he would not reach the point of having to make the ultimate choice, and neither would administration allies in the House.

"That will not arise because the relationship is stable; the coalition is impregnable," the Speaker said, referring to the administration coalition composed largely of Arroyo's Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) and his Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats.

"I don't need to make a choice because I am for my son and I am for the President," he said.

'A little delicate'
Joey de Venecia told the Senate on Tuesday that Mike Arroyo had thrust a finger at his face and told him to "back off" from the NBN deal.

The Speaker admitted Friday that his son's testimony had had some effect on his relationship with Arroyo, his running mate in his failed bid for the presidency in 1998.

"There's a little effect, but she knows in her heart that I had nothing to do with it," he said, acknowledging that the current political scene was "a little delicate."

"To clear the air" between the two of them, he said, they had a 45-minute meeting in Malacañang at around 11 p.m. on Wednesday.

The meeting, which was arranged by Deputy Speaker Amelita Villarosa, took place shortly after administration congressmen had dinner at the Palace, purportedly to express support for Arroyo in the wake of the NBN scandal.

At the meeting, De Venecia told Arroyo that his son had not accused her husband of any wrongdoing in connection with the NBN deal.

Asked if Arroyo had assured him of Malacañang's continued support, the Speaker said: "I don't need to ask that from her ... The same way that when I support her, she doesn't have to beg or ask me.

"I just do it because we're allies. We know what to do. The mere fact that she invited me [to Malacañang] was enough. We discussed things objectively."

Earlier in the week, De Venecia acknowledged that a crisis was brewing as a result of his son's testimony at the Senate.

But he pointed out that his son had "continuously defended" the President, referring to Joey de Venecia's statement that she was never involved in the brokering of the NBN deal.

Asked then how he was doing, the Speaker said: "As usual, managing even in crisis.

"I am torn between my loyalty to the President and my love for my son. But actually, there really is no problem.

"It is only the media that is making all these allegations [of a rift]."

Threat from a few
The Speaker dismissed the threat to unseat him as coming from a few House members loyal to Arroyo but who had dissociated themselves from him.

"As early as the battle for the speakership [against Cebu Rep. Pablo Garcia in July], it has always been the President's allies, like [Sorsogon Rep. Jose] Solis, the likes of [Camarines Sur Rep. Luis] Villafuerte. That's all, period. There's no more," he said.

Garcia told the Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) Friday that there was "no move" to oust De Venecia, at least for now.

He said his group was leaving the matter to other members of the bloc and the President herself. "We will meet in the coming days and get a consensus," he said.

The so-called Garcia group was formed initially as a "conscience" bloc soon after the Cebu congressman lost in the speakership race.

Even Kampi chairman and Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said Kampi had no plan to work for De Venecia's ouster.

Anyway, Puno told reporters, there was "not enough of a vote in the House" that could unseat De Venecia now.

"For the record, there is no attempt to unseat the Speaker. For the record, I think Congress will remain in its present form and continue to work under its present organization," Puno said.

He also said it was not a good time for the House to change leadership because its members had been assigned their committees and were buckling down to work.

He added that it was too late now for Congress "to start from scratch."

Asked whether Arroyo still supported De Venecia, Puno said: "I don't think there has been any change in the attitude of the President toward Lakas as a party, the coalition in general, and the congressional leadership."

'We will overcome'
De Venecia expressed confidence that he still enjoyed the "overwhelming" support of members of the House. He apparently arrived at this conclusion after a series of meetings with coalition members that began on Wednesday and went on until Thursday night.

"We're going through a period of political turbulence," he said. "[But] I think that by and large, we will overcome it. We have no major differences within the majority coalition."

De Venecia pointed out that his meeting with Arroyo was arranged by Deputy Speaker Villarosa, a member of Kampi.

"I can't just go meet the President without any invitation. We don't want to impose on her hospitality even if we're very close friends," he said.

De Venecia said Arroyo continued to back him as Speaker and as her top ally in the House because he continued to support her as President.

Proof of Arroyo's support, he said, was his retaining his post despite the serious challenge posed by Garcia in July.

Counting the ways
De Venecia ticked off the occasions when, he said, he showed Arroyo that he would support her "come hell or high water."

"I have supported her in the impeachment battle, in the Cabinet revolt against her," he said.

The first referred to the two failed efforts to impeach Arroyo as a result of the "Hello Garci" wiretapping scandal, and the second, to the mass resignation of members of her Cabinet--collectively known as the "Hyatt 10"--who called on her to step down amid allegations that she had manipulated the 2004 presidential election.

De Venecia also cited the time when he and former president Fidel Ramos went to Malacañang to throw their support behind Arroyo at the height of calls for her ouster.

"Many [people] were saying that [we came to her rescue," he said. "But I don't even give importance to that. I just do things for her in the same way that she does things for me."

He also said he staked whatever little popularity he had in supporting the unpopular Expanded Value-Added Tax Law that the Arroyo administration pushed in the 13th Congress.

Exercise in futility
House Majority Leader Arthur Defensor said lawmakers numbering not more than 10 had been "agitating [other lawmakers] for the ouster of the Speaker."

"It's an exercise in futility," Defensor told the Inquirer. "Even Pablo (Garcia) is not up to it. It's just the people around him."

Agusan del Norte Rep. Rodolfo Plaza, a senior member of the House opposition, told reporters that he would support De Venecia if push came to shove.

"He could have asked his son not to testify against the First Gentleman, but he did not," Plaza said of the Speaker. "Somebody like that deserves support."

With a report from Christine O. Avendaño