Is President Arroyo the "Bagong Pag-asa Mayor (played by Albert Martinez) in Real Life?"

Last night's episode of "May Bukas Pa" showed that the Bagong Pag-asa Mayor, played by Albert Martinez, is taking advantage of a situation that has been thrown against him.

Is President Arroyo the Bagong Pag-asa Mayor in real life when she asked her allies from the House of Representatives to put CON-ASS on hold?

That question just popped in my mind after reading the news item below.

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Arroyo to House allies: Put con-ass on hold

GMANews.TV - Friday, June 12

MANILA, Philippines — A day after a massive protest rally against renewed efforts by administration lawmakers to rewrite the Philippine Constitution, a Cabinet official on Thursday said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has asked her allies in Congress to put House Resolution 1109 on hold. Without saying that the massive rally affected the President’s decision, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said in a press conference at Malacaňang that HR 1109, or the measure seeking to convene Congress into a constituent assembly, was among the bills that Mrs. Arroyo wanted to set aside to prioritize other measures that would provide more revenues to the country. Among the revenue enhancement measures were: the proposal of Quezon City Rep. Danilo Suarez to impose a five-centavo tax on telecommunication companies through metering, the rationalization of sin taxes on alcohol and cigarettes, and the Simplified Net Income Taxation Scheme (SNITS). On Wednesday, protesters from various political groups marched to Ayala Avenue in Makati to denounce what was perceived to be a ploy of the President’s allies in the House of Representatives to extend her term of office beyond June 2010.

Mrs. Arroyo's tumultuous nine years in office are scheduled to end with May 2010 elections, but her allies in the House of Representatives initiated moves last week to open the Constitution to amendments, leading her opponents to charge that term limits may be scrapped.

Philippine presidents can serve only one six-year term, but Arroyo has been able to serve an extra three years because she took over the term of former President Joseph Estrada in 2001 after he was toppled in a military-backed revolt for alleged corruption. She then won her own term in 2004.

Her spokesmen deny that she plans to stay beyond her mandate.

The opposition-dominated Senate has rejected calls for constitutional change at this time, but Speaker Prospero Nograles says lawmakers can propose amendments without the upper chamber, setting the stage for the case to be decided in the Supreme Court. - Aie Balagtas See, GMANews.TV