Alan Peter Cayetano flouts the Constitution
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Wed, 03 Apr 2019 21:02:19 +0000
To flout means to show contempt (for), scoff or jeer (at).
— Collins English Dictionary
First word
IT has come to this.
First, because of the failure of the Congress to enact a law to enable the expressed constitutional policy “to prohibit political dynasties (Art. II, Sec. 26), a Filipino-American in our midst dares to lecture us that the 1987 Constitution is misguided when it aspires to establish democratic government and prohibit political dynasties at the same time.
Second, because the Supreme Court failed to hear a petition questioning the citizenship of Alan Peter Cayetano, this person of questioned citizenship could succeed in creating a boundless political dynasty in Taguig City through the midterm elections.
With the first issue, Cayetano turns the Constitution into a pretzel and makes untenable generalizations about the nature of democratic government.
With the second issue, Cayetano glosses over the fact that he chose American citizenship in 1985, and has not up to this time legally reacquired Philippine citizenship.
These questions have become fundamental because of the shamelessness with which Cayetano and his relatives (wife and siblings included) are seeking to control all major political posts in Taguig to the prejudice of other Filipinos and the people of Taguig.
I put it to the nation that if a person can be held in contempt for disrespecting a court or a house of Congress, even more so must a person be cited for contempt or worse for making a mockery of the Constitution.
Family monopoly
Let’s start with the launch last Sunday of the candidacies of Cayetano family members for various national and local positions in the May elections.
The family’s candidates are:
1. Alan Peter Cayetano, candidate for representative in the first district of Taguig-City;
2. Lani Cayetano, Alan’s wife, candidate for representative of the second district of Taguig city;
3. Lino Cayetano, Alan’s brother, candidate for Mayor of Taguig City, to succeed the outgoing mayor Lani Cayetano.
4. Pilar ”Pia” Cayetano, Alan’s sister, candidate for senator.
Right off, if their candidacies are successful, the Cayetanos will control all congressional representation and city administration in Taguig. In addition, they will have a band member inside the Senate.
The four Cayetanos exemplify Filipino public officials who find unthinkable the idea of living outside the public payroll. They have not missed a day without a government paycheck ever since they tasted elective office. Most of the time they are moving from one government post to another via elections, succeeding one another as they exhaust their terms.
Amazingly, the Cayetanos’ domination of Taguig is built on a misrepresentation of the origins of their patriarch, the late senator Renato Cayetano.
Cayetano was not a native of Taguig-Pateros, as is falsely claimed on the Internet. In fact, Renato was born in San Carlos, Pangasinan. He died in Ayala Alabang.
By any stretch of the term, the Cayetanos have created in Taguig a political dynasty, and threaten to expand it further by gunning for even higher elective positions in the country.
In a cruel irony, Alan Pater and Lani are childless, which in a way is providential because this limits the train of future Cayetano officials. To compensate for his childlessness, Alan Peter has symbolically adopted as his children hundreds of young people in Taguig. The city will go crazy when Alan Peter dares in future to place some of his so-called adopted children in the line of succession to the Cayetano dynasty.
Brazen and defiant defense
In answer to those who charge that his family is creating a boundless dynasty in Taguig, Alan Peter is brazen and defiant. He has his own theory of democracy.
He says: “There are no political dynasties in the country because the Philippines is not under authoritarian rule. We’re not an aristocracy…or a dictatorship. We are a democracy. There are no dynasties in the Philippines because we have free and open elections.”
Really? The reasoning is bizarre and maddening. I can cite scores of books and political scientists to contradict him. There are numerous democratic countries that suffer from some form of dynasticism.
The United States, for one, is a democracy, and there are several known political dynasties in America. The Bush family is considered by some political scientists and historians as the foremost American political dynasty.
Neighboring Indonesia is clearly another democracy with dynasties. So is India.
And the Philippines has a political culture that tolerates dynasticism. The Cayetanos are counting on this tolerance in wreaking their sordid scheme on Taguig.
Intent and meaning of dynasty provision
The Cayetanos have probably sworn an oath to keep the anti-dynasty provision of the Constitution permanently dormant.
The provision will find life only over the carcass of their politics.
Nevertheless, the meaning and intent of the Constitution is clear. And someday, a Filipino leader or party will dare to bring the provision to life.
The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines states in Article II Section 26: “The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service, and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law.”
To guarantee is to ensure or take responsibility (for).
To prohibit is to forbid, hinder or prevent.
Originally, there were only five principles and state policies in the 1935 constitution. They were raised to 10 principles and state policies in the 1973 Constitution.
Now, in the1987 Constitution, there are 28 provisions in the Charter’s “declaration of principles and state policies” (Article II).
According to Charter framer and author Jose N. Nolledo, “The 28 provisions are mandates to the State to enact and implement to make the Constitution a truly living and active document, to transform provisions into realities or actual institutions.”
Who is Alan Peter Cayetano?
In 2017, Rodel Rodis, a Filipino-American lawyer and columnist of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, raised in his column the question, “Is Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano a Philippine citizen?” (Inquirer, March16, 2017).
Rodis disclosed multiple details about Cayetano’s history, and raised unresolved questions about his citizenship status.
1. In the US Federal Register of former US citizens, Alan Peter Cayetano is said to have relinquished his citizenship only in 1999.
2. As a child of a Philippine citizen father and a US citizen mother, Alan Peter was born as a citizen of both countries but, by the age of 21, he had to choose one or the other, and he chose US citizenship.
3. According to a complaint filed by former Pateros Mayor Jose Capco, Jr., Cayetano’s parents obtained an Alien Certificate of Registration (ACR) for him on March 18, 1976, indicating that he was an American citizen.
Capco obtained a further record, which revealed that on Jan. 23, 1985, Cayetano personally applied for and was granted a new ACR, where Cayetano affirmed his intention to be a citizen of the United States of America.
Capco’s complaint never made it to the Philippine Supreme Court, and it is unclear as to what became of his accusation. But Cayetano has also never challenged his inclusion in the US Federal Register as having only formally relinquished his US citizenship in 1999.
What this means is that Cayetano was apparently still a US citizen when he first ran and won as Taguig councilor in 1992, as vice mayor in 1995, and as congressman in 1998 before he formally relinquished his US citizenship in 1999.
Infuriated by the Rodis column, Cayetano blasted the Inquirer and branded the charge as fake news. He recited his alleged noble efforts to serve the country.
The citizenship case of Alan Peter should be heard by the Supreme Court. There’s no telling how far this man’s catatonia will mislead us.
yenmakabenta@yahoo.com
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