Akbayan warns against 'Hello Garci 2'
MANILA - Administration candidate Gilbert Teodoro has vowed to quit his post as defense secretary after he was chosen by the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD on Wednesday as its presidential candidate in the 2010 elections.
In an interview over ANC's The Big Picture hosted by Ricky Carandang, Teodoro said he will be resigning in "due time" after consulting with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Teodoro said he would like to ensure an "orderly transition" at the Department of National Defense (DND) before leaving his post.
Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros urged Teodoro to resign from his post "in order to insulate the military from partisanship."
In a statement on Wednesday, Hontiveros said Teodoro's decision to run for president under the Lakas-Kampi-CMD would "add political color to his policies and actions as defense secretary."
She raised the possibility that another "Hello, Garci" scandal, wherein elements in the military and an elections commissioner allegedly conspired to help President Arroyo win in 2004, might happen again in 2010.
“His work as defense secretary and the credibility of the electoral process would suffer if he doesn’t resign. Either way, it’s bad for him,” Hontiveros said.
“His work as DND Secretary would be compromised because his candidacy would cast doubts on the motivation behind his policies and decisions in the Cabinet. It would also raise suspicions that he would use his clout in the military to mobilize the AFP for his campaign or to cheat for him," she said.
"For his own good and for the benefit of the country, he should resign.”
“People have not forgotten about ‘Hello Garci’ yet, so it is natural for the public to suspect that he or the people who support him might resort to the same strategy to win in the 2010 elections,” she added.
Cha-cha, parliamentary system
Meantime, in his interview over The Big Picture, Teodoro said Charter change (Cha-cha) would be one of his priorities if he becomes president.
Ever since he became a district representative of Tarlac, he said he has already been advocating for "structural reform," and that he has seen the "weakness of the [1987] Constitution."
Just like a dysfunctional corporation, Teodoro said that "if the structure doesn't work, we have to reorganize."
He said Congress would have to pass a law for a Constitutional convention so that the delegates that will amend the Charter would be "non-partisan."
Teodoro said he prefers a shift to a unicameral parliamentary system of government. He said it should be the legislature which should determine which regions should be given more power rather than "giving autonomy to areas which are not ready."
Since he will be campaigning for Charter change, Teodoro said people will not suspect that he has a hidden agenda in his advocacy for constitutional reform.
Asked about the prospect of him running against his cousin, Sen. Benigno 'Noynoy' Aquino III, Teodoro said they became friends when they were both district representatives in Congress.
He added that he will not "allow politics to destroy our friendship...and our being cousins."
Despite his getting the nod of an overwhelming majority of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD national executive committee, Teodoro said his running is "not yet 100 percent sure."
"I think at this point, it's 99 percent," he said.
Teodoro said he has no one else in mind as his running mate other than Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno.
Another defense chief as president?
The former lawyer and three-term congressman aims to duplicate the political careers of two former presidents -- Ramon Magsaysay and Fidel Ramos -- who rose to the top after successes in the defense department.
Magsaysay, the first defense chief to be elected Philippine president, succeeded in breaking the back of the agrarian-based Huk rebellion in the early 1950s.
Ramos, a bemedalled retired general, was hailed as a hero of a popular revolt that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos from power in 1986. Six years later, he became the second defense chief to win the country's highest political post.
An Air Force colonel in the reserve force who flies light planes and keeps himself fit with daily shadow boxing, Teodoro is hoping his crackdown on Muslim and communist rebels will boost his image. He has been a vocal champion of more investment in defense.
For the election, he is also counting on the backing of his uncle Eduardo Cojuangco, who heads cash-rich San Miguel and is one of the wealthiest men in the country.
His wife, who used to be a commercial model, took over his Congress seat when Arroyo appointed him as defense secretary in 2007.
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