Month: February 2010

1. This is NOT my fight and this should not be the people’s fight as well. Our fight should be with Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and we should not be distracted from this. She’s about to appoint a new AFP Chief of Staff and a new Chief Justice in March. These appointments and how they will be done (particularly for the CJ) would be indicators of whether she has plans of stepping down or not. Aside from these, the prospect of the failure of elections scenario is still up in the air. In short, anything that deflects attention from her is playing according to her script. We must always remain vigilant and must never underestimate her.

2. It is a graft case and not an ethics case. Bulk of the evidence presented dealt with acts committed as early 1999 when Sen. Villar was still a congressman and during his first term as Senator. I believe that ethics cases should only cover acts committed after the mandate was given which, in this case, is 2007. With that, the only evidence left would be the double insertion in the General Appropriations Act (GAA). The problem is, the draft of the GAA was approved and presented to the plenary by the Finance Committee which was then headed by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile. Said GAA was later on approved by the majority in the Senate. Therefore, assuming there were double insertions, it was the responsibility of Sen. Enrile’s staff to scrutinize the GAA and correct all anomalies and typo errors before being approved by Sen. Enrile. When it was approved by Sen. Enrile and presented to the plenary, it now became the responsibility of each Senator to scrutinize it again before approving it. Therefore, all those who voted for the approval of the GAA became equally liable for that double insertion.

An ethics case is similar to an honor violation being tried by the Honor Committee in PMA. Regardless, whether you have been caught shoplifting or was expelled for cheating before you became a cadet, only acts or honor violations committed as a cadet are covered or considered by the Honor Committee.
My recommendation, therefore, is to have this case filed before the Ombudsman so that all the evidence can be considered and the appropriate penalties be meted out. If the ulterior motive is to destroy the credibility of Sen. Villar in relation to his candidacy then it should have the same impact since the media can always cover it there. Otherwise, if it’s done in the Senate, it would not only undermine the said institution (which, ironically, everybody claims to protect) but also create a very dangerous precedent.

3. Sen. Noynoy Aquino should have taken the moral high ground by abstaining from the proceedings. Sen. Aquino has been painted as the “moral choice” and one way to affirm this is by publicly stating that in order not to be perceived as being involved in the political harassment of a fellow candidate for president, he would just abstain from the entire proceedings. Sen. Aquino is in a position to take the election campaigning to a higher plane and must do so at every turn.

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Former Defense Secretary Avelino “Nonong” Cruz was not one of the speakers in last Friday’s forum of the “The Powers of the Presidency: Preventing Misuse and Abuse” but he was asked to say something when the issue of the Ampatuans’ private armies came up inthe question and answer portion.

Cruz gave a two- word advice for the coming May elections: “Choose well”. He said it will go a long way in instituting reforms in governance if we have a president that will lead by example.

He, of course, didn’t ask to vote for the presidential candidate he is advising: the Liberal Party’s Benigno Aquino III.

Karina Constantino-David, former chair of the Civil Service Commission, also stressed the importance of choosing a president with integrity because she said, “in the final analysis it is the character of the President, his/her honest dedication to public service and not just to power that will speall the difference between decency and judiciousness on the one hand and mis-use and abuse on the other.”

David said the President’s power to appoint is awesome. The President appoints approximately 10,000 officials including justices of the Supreme Court; judges; officials of the Constiutional Commission; cabinet members; ambassadors; heads and members of the board of Government Corporations and Financial Institutions; military officers – colonels to generals; officers of the Philippine National Police from the rank of senior superintendents and up, and about 3,500 career officials from director to undersecretary.

David said Gloria Arroyo did not use the power to appoint to strengthen the bureaucracy. Instead, she used it to protect herself and in so doing she weakened the government.

Describing it as “warped perspectives”, David said Arroyo wields the power of appointment to solidify her control and not for public service. “ Appointments are made based on personal loyalty and not on qualifications. Positions are given as rewards and part of the political spoils and not based on competence. “

David bewailed the proliferation of “calling card secretaries” whom they also call “monobloc secretaries” (because they are so many some offices don’t have desk for them they are just given monobloc chairs).

She said the job specifications are vague and some even duplicate existing positions. Some have comical titles. She said Arroyo has appointed six special ambassadors to China, the embassy in Beijing are at a loss how to deal with them.

David said there are positions in the government where members of the board are empowered to decide to choose the head like the presidency of the University of the Philippines. She said during the time of President Aquino, the housewife-turned chief executive would just “bulong” (whisper). During the time of President Fidel Ramos, there was the “marginal note.” The “desire letter” started during the abbreviated term of President Joseph Estrada but it was not used as indiscriminately as Arroyo is doing. Nothing escapes her, not even offices like the “ Palawan Council for Sustainable Development, “ David said.

David also said Arroyo’s penchant for ad-interim appointments is a control mechanism. “They have perfected the art of “acting capacity”, she said.

Not surprising at all because Arroyo herself when she grabbed the presidency from the elected president, Joseph Estrada, in January 2001, she said “She will act as president.”

The bureuacracy is “too politicized.” She said for officials to go up the ladder of bureaucracy, one “has to learn to kowtow, learn tob e timid and learn to stop thinking.”

David asked the public and media to watch out Arroyo making “midnight” appointments for tenured positions . Some of those are in the office of the Ombudsman and in the Commission on Audit, offices that would be involved in anti-graft cases.

The forum was organized by the International Center for Innovation, Transformation and Excellence in Governance (INCITEgov) composed mostly of former senior government officials in partnership with Asian Institute of Management with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy.]

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