#atthemoment photo: View outside the southwest window at 7:24pm, now
The Constitutional Basis of the hashtag #NasaanAngPangulo
Last night, lawyer Mara, worried about how our countrymen would cope with the expected supertyphoon, said: “The President is missing…!”
Me ( aspiring fashion designer) replied: “He’s not missing – he’s just sleeping.”
This morning, the hashtag #NasaanAngPangulo trended . The English translation of the words in the hashtag (for the worldwide audience) is:
#WhereisthePresident
or
#MrPresidentWRU?
or
#MrPresidentIfYouThereShowusaSign
or
#PlanetEarthtoPresidentover?”
If you can put together a mathematician and a doctor, we would be able to analyze data on the pattern of the appearances and long periods of non-appearances to be able to map out the presidential circadian rhythm. For example, PDu30 Chart:
Sleeps for _ days,
Wakes up once 12 midnight to appear in press briefing,
Sleeps for ___ days,
appears for 30 minutes, etc.
To be fair, it is true that the President does not need to literally show his face everytime there is an emergency, where lives are at stake. Perhaps the secret of his steady ratings is in not making us see his face, mostly.
And to be fair, the only time he needs to be awake is as Commander-in-Chief, when military forces have to be deployed out-of-barracks, or out-of-district, or out-of-province, for rescue missions and other emergency operations.
Or when, before the supertyphoon makes landfall, he reviews the data and based on this, prepositions reserved forces and deploys them in areas that would require rescue and relief. Executive Secretary Medialdea, who runs the Palace day-to-day, is not in the chain of command. The local government officials are not in the chain of command. The Speaker of the House is not in the chain of command. The Senate President is not in the chain of command. Not even the Vice President is in the chain of command. Only the President can deploy them out-of-district or out-of-barracks – these forces will not take deployment orders from any civilian, except the Commander-in-Chief.
So, in an expected emergency like a supertyphoon, when resources and assets have to be prepositioned, and when the proper and sudden deployment of forces are required for rescue missions to mitigate casualties, when does the President need to be awake?
In an emergency: Always.
