All the President’s men must go through the bicameral Commission on Appointments (CA).

“The CA is there for a reason. All the President’s nominees should be scrutinized. It’s in the rules, in the law,’’ rookie Sen. Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. said.

Other senators headed by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile made similar reactions to the “request” of President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III that the CA should go easy on his nominees by not having them pass through the eye of the CA’s needle.

Enrile and Sen. Edgardo J. Angara restated the constitutional role of the CA which is to determine the capabilities and fitness of the President’s appointees.

The CA is expected to be constituted this week. It is headed by the Senate President as chairman. Twelve senators and 12 members of the House of Representatives complete the commission’s membership.

Past commissions had failed to adopt an agreement that nominees who fail to get confirmed after being by-passed several times should be considered rejected.

As son of the former President Ferdinand E. Marcos who was the Senate President in the mid-60s, the young Marcos said that the CA, while it would have to scrutinize the fitness of the President’s nominees, would not object to the nominees being confirmed if their policies are on the right path.

Asked if there had been controversial appointments made so far by President Aquino, Marcos said that he would not make a prejudgment “but we will just wait for the list (of nominees) to come and they undergo the process (and) we have a good idea of who they are.’’

Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter S. Cayetano said the burden in the confirmation process shifts from President Aquino to his secretaries and not to the CA members.

Cayetano is a member of the Nacionalista Party (NP). Marcos ran and won in the May 10 senatorial slate under the NP banner.

Marcos is one of the 17 senators belonging to different political parties who voted for the re-election of Enrile after two candidates – Senators Francis Pangilinan and Manuel Villar Jr. – withdrew from the race. The two failed to get 13 votes required to get elected as chief of the 23-member Senate.

For the Senate to have a minority bloc as a matter of necessity, Sen. Joker Arroyo nominated Cayetano for the Senate presidency at the opening of the 15th Congress. The Senate minority bloc now consists of Cayetano, who garnered three votes, including one from Enrile; Senators Arroyo and Pilar Juliana “Pia” S. Cayetano.

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago was absent during the voting last July 26, the start of the 15th Congress.

There were also two other absentees – Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who is on the lam trying to evade arrest based on a court warrant for two murder cases; and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who is detained on rebellion and coup d’etat charges.

If the President wants an easy confirmation, the burden will be on the secretaries who should not hide behind the popularity of this administration,’’ Cayetano said.

Cayetano said the President’s men should show their worth “but even if you are capable, even if you are trustworthy but if you do not have a plan… why are you here (hired by the Aquino administration)?’’