My bosses, my muse

IN A body politic still scarred by the two-decade dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, it has long been taboo for a president even to dream of more than one six-year term. Yet President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, son of Corazon Aquino, who toppled Marcos in 1986, has broken that taboo. On August 13th he said he was amenable to a second term. Mr Aquino’s pronouncement has thrown Philippine politics into a welter. Even members of his own coalition are asking what he is playing at.

The constitution forbids a president a second term. Until now Mr Aquino has opposed any change in the constitution established by his late mother. But Mr Aquino told a television interviewer that amendments might be desirable to curb the powers of the Supreme Court, with which he is quarrelling. Asked if he was open to amending the constitution to lift the presidential term limit, he said he would listen to his “bosses”—by which he means the people. He did not say what his bosses were telling him. Neither Mr Aquino nor his various spokesmen subsequently made his meaning any clearer.