Drilon: Aquino to heed people’s wish
Sen. Franklin Drilon and Pres. Benigno S. Aquino III. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino will heed the writing on the wall, Senate President Franklin Drilon said Friday, after surveys showed that six out of 10 Filipinos opposed any plan of his for reelection.
“I’m sure the President is reading the surveys,” Drilon said when asked if the survey results would convince the President to stop entertaining thoughts of reelection. “The President said he’d listen to the people.”
“He always listens to the voice of the people, his boss. On this matter, he will listen,” Drilon added.
Besides, Drilon said, the President has been averse to amending the Constitution specifically to lift the President’s term limits.
“As far as I know, the President is averse to any constitutional amendment which will give him an opportunity to run again. The President said he’d listen to the people,” Drilon told reporters at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.
A Pulse Asia survey, conducted from September 8 to 15, showed that 62 percent of 1,200 respondents were not in favor of Mr. Aquino’s reelection.
Aquino first broached the idea of a second term in a TV interview in August.
Elaborating on his thoughts in an interview with the Inquirer last month, Aquino said he did not want his administration’s achievements to go to waste.
On top of this, he said, he wanted to fend off those who want to destabilize the government, flush out the aspirants for the presidency in 2016, and fight those who want to make him a lame duck.
“If I close the door [to an extension] now, it will embolden these people who want to destabilize [the government],’’ he said.
The President’s spokespersons on Friday were mum on the results of the survey. Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma referred the Inquirer to his statement on the matter the previous day.
Reacting to the survey last Thursday, Coloma said the President continued to listen to the views of the people in a bid “to strengthen reforms’’ in government. He did not say categorically if Mr. Aquino would heed the findings of the survey.
Speaking as vice chairman of the Liberal Party, Drilon said, its focus “right now is to make sure the reforms we have started four years ago will be in place, so whoever will be the president in 2016 can no longer reverse them.’’
Meanwhile, Malacañang shrugged off a call for the President’s resignation made by a multi-sectoral group led by Catholic bishops.
“We obviously differ from their assessment,’’ presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said. “We go about conducting the business of governance. We live in a pluralistic society.’’
The National Transformation Council, in an assembly in Cebu, challenged Mr. Aquino to step down because he had supposedly lost his moral ascendancy to lead the country.
Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, Archbishop Ramon Arguelles of Lipa, Batangas, and Bishop Emeritus Fernando Capalla of Davao City led the meeting.
“He [Aquino] has damaged the moral fabric of the society and has therefore lost the moral right to lead the nation. The Assembly calls upon the incumbent to relinquish his position now,” Vidal said.
Armed Forces Chief Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang said the bishops were expressing their opinion, and this should not be seen as an attempt at destabilization.
“That’s not destabilization, that is freedom of press. That’s what I’m telling you, that we have a vibrant democracy, a vibrant politics. So everybody is free to say what he feels for as long as they will not bear arms,’’ he said after emerging from a Senate hearing on the 2015 budget of the defense department.
