Escudero twits Aquino: How can you tell what your 100M bosses want?

Sen. Francis Escudero: Just curious. INQUIRER file photo

MANILA, Philippines–How exactly will President Aquino determine what his 100 million bosses want with regard to whether he should be seeking another term?

Sen. Francis Escudero, Senate finance committee chair, raised this question with Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa after the latter said Aquino was not being inconsistent with his pronouncements on the possibility of running again.

Escudero, who presided over the hearing on the Office of the President’s budget Wednesday, noted that Aquino once again brought up the possibility of seeking a second term during his European sojourn although his pronouncement before leaving Manila was that he hoped he would not be chosen as his own successor.

But according to Ochoa, there has been no flip-flopping on the President’s part.

“What I understand on a personal basis is that the President will listen to his bosses, and that’s what he has been saying all along, and we don’t see any inconsistency in any of his statements,” Ochoa said.

Escudero said he was not saying there was any inconsistency, only that there was that possibility.

He also asked if Aquino would not run if his bosses say he shouldn’t, and would run if they say he should. Ochoa replied that that was how he understood the President’s statement.

Constitutional amendment

If the people say he should amend the Constitution so that he could run again, then this will be done as well, Ochoa said.

“If that’s what it will take to do it, that will be the route that will be taken.”

But Escudero wondered how exactly the Palace would know what the people actually wanted.

“Out of curiosity, how do we find out what his bosses want? Short of a referendum,” the senator said. Ochoa did not reply to this question.

Asked the question again in an ambush interview, the executive secretary said the President could clarify the matter later.

“We have not discussed that in that detail yet. How that will be, but I’m sure the President has something on his mind. He can clarify when he comes back,” he told reporters.

Aquino security

Turning to another topic, Escudero suggested that Malacañang draw up clear guidelines on whom the Presidential Security Group (PSG) would cover.

This was after he asked Ochoa whether the PSG members could be assigned to secure someone the bachelor President has been dating.

“In a unique situation that we have now, the President is ready, available and willing to mingle. Would it be illegal, to say the least, if someone he is, for example, seeing on a long term would be covered by this one, too.

“In other words, can the President assign PSG agents to someone who is not part of his official family, at least not yet,” he said.

He said he brought up the matter because it was about time that this be tackled, noting that in other countries, there is a clear policy on who the secret service would guard.

The matter could be done through executive or legislative fiat, but Escudero said it would be better if the guidelines would come from the Palace.

The PSG covers the President’s immediate family, which is the spouse and children if the chief executive is married, or parents, if they are still alive, according to Ochoa. Siblings could be covered as well.

The PSG also provides security to the Vice President, former Presidents, visiting heads of state and heads of government, Ochoa said.

But he agreed with Escudero that there must be clear guidelines on whom the PSG should cover.

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