The Importance of Vice

(First published on the Philippine Online Chronicles, 27 Apr 2010)

If Jun Chipeco, Jejomar Binay, Bayani Fernando, Loren Legarda, Edu Manzano, Jay Sonza, Mar Roxas and Jun Yasay were running for President, who would you vote for? If the answer is none of the above, then we’re in trouble.

The Vice President is the second highest executive of the Philippine government and the first in the line of succession. Accordingly, the 1987 Constitution requires that the Vice President must have the same qualifications as the President. On their inauguration, the President and the Vice President recite the same oath, the only difference being in the position they will mention. The Constitution requires that the Vice President be elected at the same time as the President, which is probably why no special elections were required when Vice President Guingona was appointed by President Arroyo. Unlike the President who has a single term limit, the Constitution allows the Vice President to be elected for two consecutive terms.

The 1987 Charter also stipulates that the Vice President may be given a cabinet portfolio, without need for confirmation by the Commission on Appointments. Historically, it was the Foreign Affairs portfolio that was given to the Vice President, it being the highest cabinet-level position, and similar to the practice in the United States. This, however, appears no longer practiced in the Philippines, perhaps due to the type of incumbents we have or because the President, beginning with Ramos, wants to take the stage front and center when matters of international diplomatic and political relations are at stake.

During the electoral campaigns, one of the traditional roles of the Vice Presidential candidates would be to draw votes from those provinces where the Presidential candidate may be weak. Thus, most President-Vice President tandems in the past are North-South combinations. The other traditional role of the Vice Presidential candidate is to be the tandem’s attack/defend mechanism. Presidential candidates were typically expected to be above negative campaigning or outright mudslinging, at least not directly, as such would have been inappropriate behavior for a would-be President. No such restrictions exist with the Vice President.

One other unofficial role of the Vice President appears to be that of President-in-training. The Veep has the opportunity to have an up-close and personal participation in the day-to-day running of government as a member of Cabinet. Similarly, the Vice President is occasionally able to act as the President’s alter ego or even caretaker, thus being able to exercise some level of Presidential privilege, if not prerogative, for brief periods of time. A President-in-training has the chance to see where an administration is going wrong and where it is doing right, and be able to adjust his or her vision of the future accordingly, hopefully, learning from his or her principal’s actions. Finally, the Vice President who eventually runs for President can establish an appropriate continuity in government, especially in the pursuit of long-term solutions, such that the government as a whole does not always appear to have to redo everything and start from scratch.

Throughout Philippine history, we have had several Vice Presidents who took over the Presidency – Osmena was Quezon’s veep, Quirino was Roxas’, Garcia was Magsaysay’s, Macapagal was Garcia’s, Estrada was Ramos’, Arroyo was Estrada’s. In the cases of Osmena, Quirino and Garcia, the Vice President was raised due to the death of the President. In Arroyo’s case, she became President after Estrada was impeached through the actions of then Speaker Manuel Villar, which eventually led to EDSA DOS. President Arroyo herself has survived at least three consecutive impeachment attempts. Analysts say that part of the reason why she survived these attempts, apart from her party’s majority in Congress, was because of the lack of a viable alternative in the person of Vice President Noli de Castro.

If none of the current crop of Vice President candidates for 2010 is President material, then we are in trouble. Getting a Vice President is like buying insurance; you may never need it but makes a world of difference if and when you do. As I wrote earlier, we have used that insurance in the past, when a President dies in office. But more importantly, we have also used (or have been unable to use) the option, when we realize that we are stuck with a President who will do more damage than good if he (or she) continues to hold office. In fact, I believe that part of the infinite wisdom of the Charter’s framers was not to give in to the position that subscribes to the idea that the President and the Vice President must be from the same ticket. While it may be good that the Vice President and the President work as a team, it may also be beneficial to the People if the Vice President exercises some independent judgment.

In the 2010 race, much attention has been given to the Presidential candidates and practically all the stories worth noting are about them. This late in the game, many are even undecided about who to choose as Vice President. Those who have decided their Vice President, on the other hand, perhaps should give their choices another look. There are some people have taken the “buy one, take one” position, one whose selection of Vice President was almost a default to their choice of President. Others have taken the argument that a solid team is the only way to move forward. While I see the benefit of a cohesive team, I worry about the possibility of groupthink and the lost opportunity to have some sort of check and balance within the Executive branch itself. Given all of the above, we need to exercise due caution and proper discernment in selecting our country’s second highest official. After all, that person could be President sooner than we think.