Drilon should have been PH President
One of the most inspiring statesmen I have met, former Sen. Franklin M. Drilon, is launching this evening his autobiography, neatly titled “Being Frank, a Memoir.” He has given me the honor of writing his book’s “Foreword,” which I am pleased to reproduce as my tribute to his nobility of character.
“FRANKLIN M. DRILON SHOULD HAVE BEEN PRESIDENT of the Republic of the Philippines. Among all the politicians of his time, he was the most qualified, most experienced, most effective, and most trustworthy. He was, and still is, patriotic, sharp, humble, outspoken, pro-poor, unblemished by any scandal or wrongdoing, and as a national politician, he has never lost an election; in fact, he had topped the senatorial polls more than once; and had been Senate President several times and Senate Minority Leader a few times.
“Competent, prudent and collegial, he knew how to think, act and work when he was the leader of the majority and how to fiscalize the majority, defend the national will and protect the marginalized when he headed the minority.
“I tried my best to inveigle him to aspire for the presidency as I was sure the retiring, popular President Benigno Aquino III would support him. With him as presidential candidate and either Mar Roxas or Grace Poe as his vice-presidential teammate in the 2016 elections, he would—in my humble opinion—have been unbeatable. In fact, Rodrigo Roa Duterte would not have run had he known Drilon would be the top contender. As my arguments, I pleaded motherland, patriotism, common welfare, and assured victory, but I could not budge the distinguished former Senate President.
“When a vacancy for the Office of the Chief Justice opened in 2012 due to the impeachment and removal of Renato C. Corona by the Senate Impeachment Court, I asked him to consider being the replacement. I hounded him daily with personal meetings—and after he ‘escaped’ to San Francisco, California, to avoid me, I still called him daily.
“I pleaded with him to complete his service to the three branches of government, the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial. When he finally returned home, he promised to go—as he did go—direct from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to my home to discuss with finality his refusal to heed my insistent advice.
“BY HIS INCORRIGIBLE REFUSAL, he created a crisis in the Supreme Court because then President Benigno Aquino III did not want to appoint any of the incumbent senior associate justices who were named there by his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“On the other hand, these justices signaled they would not object to Drilon as the first outsider to become Chief. Normally, only one of the two most senior justices were named Chiefs; this was the unbroken tradition since the Court was founded in 1901, the only exception being during World War 2, when then Speaker Jose Yulo became CJ. Given his impeccable legal track record and the fact that he was already nearing 70 years (the compulsory retirement age in the judiciary), he would serve only a few years, thereby giving the senior justices an opportunity to become Chief soon enough.
“Because of his steadfast refusal, President Aquino III appointed Maria Lourdes P. A. Sereno, a very junior member who had served only two years (2010-2012) as an associate justice and was ranked among the last third of the 15 justices. For this and other reasons which I will no longer discuss, Sereno was ousted by her colleagues, voting 8-6, via quo warranto—not by the constitutional process of impeachment—due to her failure to file some of her annual Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) while she was a member of the law faculty of the University of the Philippines.
“I will not preempt Frank and leave it to him to explain to his readers and admirers in this Memoirs why he steadfastly declined to be President and/or Chief Justice.
“FRANK’S FIRST WIFE, VIOLY CALVO, fully and absolutely supported his political career. In fact, I venture to say that she was not merely the wind beneath his sails; she was the driving force, the ‘activist’ who inspired and helped catapult him to his meteoric political career. I personally knew the lovely, kind and candid Violy, who was an upcoming leader of the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), which I founded and headed earlier on.
“And before she died due to an incurable illness, she helped choose Frank’s new wife, Mila Serrano Genuino, a widow whom Violy knew would fit Frank’s career and would take care of him—as indeed she did, and still does—lovingly, tenderly, eternally.
“More than this earthly life, Mila has uncannily and invisibly led him to imitate our Lord Jesus, whom Frank has proclaimed, like many of us, as his Lord and Master and vowed to imitate Him and to join Him in Heaven one day in the far future.
“Anyway, though now retired from active politics, as he writes his Memoirs, Franklin M. Drilon remains a legend for what he has done and continues to do for our country and people. He can rightly claim, as St. Paul did, that ‘I have done my best. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.’ Amen.”
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