'WORKING VICE PRESIDENT'

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.


The Office of the Vice President, as Lyndon Johnson said in his memoirs, is one of the most useless invention by men. 

The U.S founding fathers put it in the U.S. Constitution as more of an afterthought than a necessity. 

Somehow, they have to answer the issue of succession in case something untoward happens to the President. 

The uselessness of this public office becomes more real, when the person who occupies it is grossly focused and obsessed to occupy the top post. 

It's fine if he only wishes that the President is dead. This is something natural for anybody who is a heart beat away from the presidency.

But when he works only to get the top post, then he becomes a superfluity. 

It is inconceivable if the Vice President, upon waking up every morning, would just ask his subalterns if everything is right with the President.

When the Vice President gets a "yes" as an answer, he goes back to sleep again.

Unlike the U.S Constitution, which mandates the vice president to preside the plenary session of the U.S Senate and take over when something untoward happens to the president, the Philippine Constitution of 1987 merely mandates the vice president to assume the helm of power when the president dies, gets sick, or becomes incapacitated. 

This succession mechanism prevents any power vacuum when something unexpected happens to the president and ergo could not discharge his functions. 

Lately, the concept of a "working vice president" has been developed to make the vice president busy. But it depends on the president. If he does not want to give executive functions to the vice president, there is not much the vice president could do because it's the president's prerogative.

A working vice president, especially in our country, is no longer confined to waiting in the wings to replaced a dead or incapacitated president.

The vice president, as the second highest political leader with a nationwide mandate, fulfills certain specific tasks.

He could hold office as a Cabinet member or presidential appointee.

Or he could cultivate any job related to public service.

He could use the people's mandate as basis for taking any public service-related job he could conceived.

As the second highest political leader, the vice president is expected to have the same skills - bureaucratic or political - as the president's.

He is expected to be politically adept and adroit in running the government. Governance should never be an alien word for him.

Nevertheless, he should be prepared to take over the reins of government - anytime, anywhere, and anyhow.