Raising the flag on a new beginning - BY THE WAY by Max V. Soliven

It’s timely and symbolic that the first official ritual in Malacañang at which the new President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, will preside is the flag-raising ceremony this morning. Let’s all pray that the "Sun and Stars" will shine, truly, over a new beginning.

Right now, from being previously "Little Miss Ignored", GMA has soared to the forefront of national (and, in a way, the world’s) attention as the National Flag-Bearer. I’m glad she plunged immediately into work, like tackling the "National Garbage Problem" (which includes not just trash but corruption). Indeed, those scenes of La Gloria taking command were flashed all over the planet, with the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) and the Cable News Network (CNN) placing her takeover only behind the swearing into office of America’s new President George Walker Bush, although the CNN news anchor stumbled over pronouncing "Macapagal" twice in succession.

I notice that President GMA’s schedule yesterday was such a whirlwind of activity that, apparently, she didn’t even find time to make a side-trip to her hairdresser. A lady columnist, in fact, took a lefthanded swipe at the newly-minted Chief Executive having worn such a drab and workaday outfit to her inauguration at the EDSA Shrine, but what the heck: This shows her to be a working President, not one obsessed with being a fashion plate. In quick time she’ll probably acquire the "star complex", perhaps, of trailing a hair-stylist in her wake (as even many leading male politicians do – they even apply make-up), but I couldn’t care less one way or another. There are too many urgent matters to be attended to, too many wrongs to be righted, too many injustices to be redressed to allow a recess for primping and blow-drying.

What should worry all of us, really, is the fact that job-seekers and eager-beavers are now surrounding her, jockeying for position and appointment. She would do well, as a "reform" President, to be careful in vetting her first team and her choice of ranking officials, especially after the long night of cronyism we still haven’t put behind us. But let’s see what she does on her own, without putting pressure on her to do this or that, and name any particular person. I’m through with seeking to offer unsolicited advice, for my previous efforts were futile and even laughable.

I know, too, that GMA will understandably become irritated if we keep on throwing at her what her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal said in the form of counsel, but here’s one last quotation, and then I’ll refrain from going down Memory Lane. In his memoirs, entitled A Stone for the Edifice, which Cong Dadong penned in long-hand, without the benefit of a ghost writer, he had written: "The requirements for the high office of the President lead immediately to a consideration of the qualities desirable in key men of the administration. These men share with the Chief Executive the burden of responsibility to the nation and to posterity."

In citing the qualifications for his Cabinet members, DM had added: "As far as I could see it, the decisive qualifications for our Cabinet members and top subordinates are: Integrity, competence or knowledgeability, and faith in or dedication to our reform programs." Note that Dadong put "integrity" first and foremost in listing the qualifications he deemed essential in Cabinet or high office.

In her own inaugural address last Saturday, President Macapagal-Arroyo underscored that "to insure that our gains are not dissipated through corruption, we must improve moral standards."

This is why we must be alarmed at the names of certain politicians popping up among her prospective, and powerfully-placed, Cabinet officers. One of them, a very prominent Cebuano heavy-hitter, through his sidekicks and subalterns in the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) during the Ramos regime, made much hay when the sun shone on him – some estimates put the "take" at far over P1 billion. Sure, he and his frontmen were never convicted in any court of law, or by the Sandiganbayan, and therefore enjoy the "presumption" of innocence. But can GMA and the public honestly say that he meets the requirements engraved in stone by her own father, the late President Macapagal?

In a nation sickened by the sins of the present, and, yes, afflicted by creeping amnesia and niñgas cogon indignation, we cannot afford to blissfully condone the outrageous transgressions of the sinners of the past. For, if we return such vampires to high office, we make a mockery ab initio of the pledges of reform and justice made so loudly at EDSA II. We cannot be forever summoning "People Power" (Part III?) to overthrow every new batch of grafters and plunderers.

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The first Cabinet appointment of the new President, on the other hand, we can hail with confidence and admiration. This is former Senator Alberto "Bert" Romulo whom she named the other day as her Secretary of Finance.

Those who’ve known Bert for many years, long before he became a Senator (serving from 1987 to 1998) jumped with joy at the announcement of his appointment – I don’t exaggerate. For Bert is not only noted for his courage, even in the teeth of setback and adversity, but known as a man of honor and conviction. The half-forgotten terms, palabra de honor and delicadeza, immediately come to mind, for Bert is a modern man with old-fashioned values.

He set about yesterday mobilizing his economic team in non-stop meetings in his home in Valla Verde. His workstyle is unrelenting diligence to the extent of being dubbed a plodder, though he’s brilliant to boot –hiding his light, alas, under the Biblical bushel, for he’s long on effort and short of bombast. He’s no stranger to his present assignment, having run the economic team of former President Corazon C. Aquino, first as Secretary of Budget and Management, Chairman of the Development Budget Coordinating Committee (DBCC) and as a member of the Central Bank’s Monetary Board.

In the Senate, Romulo – who hails from Camiling, Tarlac – was Majority Leader for five years. He was Chairman there, too, of the Senate committee on banks, currency and financial institutions. During his two terms in the Upper House, he sponsored major banking, business and economic statutes, 55 of these laws co-authored by then Senator (now President) GMA herself. That’s how far back they go when it comes to working together.

Among his sponsored or co-authored laws are Republic Act 7653 (The New Central Bank Act which created the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas); R.A. 7640, the Joint Legislative-Executive Development Council or LEDAC law; R.A. 7353 (Rural Bank Act); R.A. 7169 (Philippine Veterans Act); R.A. 8282 (The Social Security System Act, revised); R.A. 6758 (Salary Standardization Law); R.A. 7642 (Increasing Penalties for Tax Evasion); R.A. 7661 (Asset Privatization Trust and the Committee Privatization Act); R.A. 6810 (The KALAKALAN ng 20 Law); R.A. 7368 (Countrywide Industrialization Act); R.A. 6952 (Oil Price Standby Fund); and many other significant pieces of legislation.

He received his Bachelor of Science in Commerce from De La Salle University (DLSU), a Bachelor of Laws from the Manuel L. Quezon University (MLQU), and his Doctorate of Laws from the Universidad de Madrid in Spain.

With our peso in crisis, our investment picture bleak and close to zero, and our international image in tatters owing to our much-publicized climate of corruption, graft, and crony-capitalism, Romulo’s task is tantamount – to risk a cliché – to that of cleaning out the Augean Stables. He’s been described as quixotic, like Miguel de Cervantes’s Man of La Mancha. At this critical moment in our history, Bert – without hyperbole – may yet emerge as our Man of the Hour.

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A vital agency which falls under the new Finance Secretary is the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), almost "traditionally" graft-ridden. He won’t keep his job, surely, but among the public officials who tendered their resignations last Friday was, sad to say, BIR Commissioner Dakila Fonacier.

"Daky" Fonacier served as BIR Commissioner in the Estrada administration for only one year, assuming that post after the late Commissioner Bethoven Rualo was "retired." During his short stint at the BIR, Fonacier’s name remained unsullied and he was never tainted by even the faintest breath of scandal or even impropriety. No subordinate, whether Regional Director, Revenue District Officer, or lesser official who got promoted or received reassignment, ever had to "come across" for the perk or had been given a boost owing to some powerful padrino or backer. Daky stood firm. Alas, even as he manfully attempted to ream out the BIR from top to bottom – a monumental task – a number of the racketeers continued to insolently ply their trade. Daky, unfortunately, didn’t have enough time – nor was given enough clout – to curb the syndicates. It’s too bad that the government is losing a dedicated professional who served the government with integrity and competence for over 20 years in various capacities. But that’s life – and that’s politics.

When Romulo, as newly-installed Secretary of Finance, selects someone of his confidence as the next BIR chief, he has to bear in mind that this agency is one of the most sensitive as well as the biggest income-generating in the national government. Perhaps Bert can recruit somebody successful in the private sector as his BIR Commissioner, instead of elevating a so-called career man in the bureau. Lamentably, too many bureaucrats have, over the years, developed "bad habits" and become charter members of the "Old Boys Club", to boot. The pernicious culture of pakikisama (a perversion of the Three Musketeers’ "one for all and all for one" and "I’ll-scratch-your-back-if-you’ll-scratch-mine") has infected many in the career service. The vicious cycle has to be broken by resolute crackdown. It’s just like the way in which Alexander the Great "solved" the age-old riddle of the Gordian Knot, which had frustrated so many generations of invaders and even conquerors who tried fruitlessly to untie it. Alexander simply drew his sharp sword and cut it. End of problem.

Who’s got a sword sharp enough for this in the incoming GMA administration?