Appointments and disappointments - GOTCHA by Jarius Bondoc

Five incidents in the past two weeks partly defined President GMA’s style of selecting officials:

• She declared in a presscon that any position-seeker’s biodata, if sent to her husband Mike, now goes straight to the trash. That’s because, critics sneered, Mike already slipped her long ago a list of recommendees. Prominent among them is a Rotary Club buddy who now heads cash-rich Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. Poor Mike must’ve shrunk in shame. Asked on television why he rides around in Pagcor limousines that GMA had ordered to be auctioned off for austerity, the buddy stammered that he doesn’t, but he does, no he doesn’t, er-ah, he does use them after all.

• When Rear Adm. Guillermo Wong upbraided the Marine brass for ghost purchases, GMA let AFP chief Gen. Angelo Reyes sack him as Navy head. Reyes shrugged that in the military, one has just to accomplish his mission, and in Wong’s case it was to prevent a mutiny. He had to choose between an institution and an individual who had ruffled Marine feathers by berating officers in front of their men. Wong’s aim to clean up the Corps doesn’t matter. What does is that Marine Commandant Maj. Gen. Librado Ladia is a PMA batchmate of Sen. Gringo Honasan and ex-PNP chief Ping Lacson, and was the latter’s deputy for Mindanao in the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force. Yet these same PMA mistahs opined that one doesn’t sack a superior for dressing down a subordinate. Former defense chief Orly Mercado also said the right thing to do was investigate Wong’s charges. Only then did Acting Defense Sec. Ed Ermita whisper belatedly that GMA did order Reyes to look into Wong’s findings.

• As Wong’s story raged, so did jockeying for the post that Reyes will vacate on March 17. One unabashed applicant, long-time GMA friend Lt. Gen. Edgar Espinosa, was linked to the Marine mess as Ladia’s immediate predecessor. Malacañang aides leaked word that Espinosa was no longer in contention since he’d be retiring in August anyway. After which, GMA announced that the chairmanship of multimillion-dollar earner Manila Economic and Cooperation Office in Taipeh was Espinosa’s for the asking. That virtually belittled appointment screening – a job first handled by Pat Sto. Tomas and Chito Sobrepreña, then by Executive Sec. Rene de Villa and Presidential Management Staff chief Vicky Garchitorena, and now by Fem Domingo of the Presidential Commission Against Graft and Corruption.

• Word also spread that Mike Defensor will resign. Appointments had been signed without his knowledge for subordinates in his Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council. When asked, De Villa said he knew nothing about Defensor’s sores. It turned out that Garchitorena, who sits beside Defensor in Cabinet meetings, had nudged the wrong man, Finance Sec. Bert Romulo, thinking that the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp., Pag-IBIG Fund and National Housing Authority were all government financial institutions. Garchitorena apologized in public. But she also twitted Defensor for accusing her, not GMA, of signing the papers. GMA took the cue upon realizing that Defensor was really yakking against her and not her deputy. She told Defensor to "go if you must." That quieted down the second-youngest Cabinet member to stay on.

• In another presscon GMA announced that she’ll soon appoint Nic Alcantara as chairman of Petron Corp. This, without even a stockholders meeting of the publicly-listed oil firm in which government owns minority shares. Too, despite apparent conflict of interest, since Alcantara’s family represents in Manila Malaysia’s Petronas, bitter rival of Saudi-Aramco that owns 40-percent shares in Petron. But then, GMA described old Nic as one of her closest personal and political friends.

Do five cases an appointment pattern make? Malacañang chief of staff Rene Corona says GMA has yet to fill up 4,000 more posts. How? By friendship or membership in the right club? By silencing whistle-blowers or wrong consultations? Or simply for the asking by displaced supporters?

Depending on how one looked at it, GMA’s first few appointees were cause for delight or disappointment. Many cheered her youthful Cabinet members: Defensor, Dinky Soliman in social welfare, Emy Boncodin in the budget, Pantaleon Alvarez in transportation and communications, Nani Braganza in agrarian reform, Mar Roxas in trade and industry. Others jeered the "recycling" of old pols and retired generals, like Ermita and De Villa. The latter, a former AFP and defense chief, took the catcalls in stride, chuckling that "I know I’m recycled, but I’m not sure about being old."

Other appointees were very controversial. Retired general Lisandro Abadia had to beg off from being national security adviser when Mercado, as GMA’s first defense chief, said he couldn’t work with the man he had sued for graft. (Abadia has since been cleared by the Ombudsman of misusing soldiers’ retirement fund.) To this day, anticrime crusaders are questioning the appointment of PNP chief Leandro Mendoza, whom they say is an inveterate gambler and worse. When Interior Sec. Joey Lina cleared him, he too got flak from the crusaders.

Yet critics cannot say that GMA has no guideline whatsoever for her appointees. For one, she has said that they’ll get no extra perk, like a board directorship in a state firm, just to augment their salaries. It’s either they join her to serve, or they don’t join her at all.

The most disappointed appointee must be GMA’s own daughter Luli, though. The young, well-bred lady who dutifully shuns perks as mom orders, was one of only three aspirants – out of 3,000 – who passed the latest foreign service exam. GMA was still Vice President when Luli made the grade. By law, the President must sign any appointment to the foreign service, even of the lowest-grade consul. As luck would have it, GMA became President just when Luli’s paper reached Malacanang. GMA saw it and hedged. Vice President Tito Guingona, as concurrent foreign secretary, has offered to sign it in GMA’s stead. But it sure would be nice for Luli to have a President no less certify her credentials.

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Camera rolling? Okay, can I make a plug?

Watch Balitaktakan (Election 2001) on Zoe Broadcasting, Channel 11, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 7:30-8:30 p.m., starting March 7. The new show will feature local and congressional candidates, programs and platforms, views on issues.

Host? Me, of course, that’s why I’m plugging it.

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INTERACTION. Francisco Marcelo, Sampaloc, Mla.: Voters, beware: Dagdag-bawas candidates of elections past are running again (Gotcha, 28 Feb. 2001) Be vigilant.

Norma Camp, aol.com: To change our politics, let’s educate voters to junk traditional pols, whether in the administration or opposition tickets.

Vicente Bersalote Jr., Agusan del Sur: For voter education (Gotcha, 26 Feb. 2001), I say: Be sober, be vigilant, some senatorial candidates are now walking around like roaring lions, seeking whom to devour. Know them and vote them not.

Pepeton J’Anton, aol.com: Taxation without representation is when an OFW automatically is disenfranchised because the government, whom he supports with hard-earned foreign exchange, can’t afford postage to mail him an election ballot. Descartes said, "Cogito, ergo, sum (I think, therefore, I am)." To voters who support Erap’s PHLEGM-MATAE, I say, "I vote, therefore, I must think."

Susan Guledew-Foronda, msn.com: I’m disgusted with Justice Sec. Nani Perez for saying that prosecuting Erap at this time might boomerang on GMA’s administration (Gotcha, 24 Feb. 2001). With his attitude, he doesn’t deserve his post. Does he have GMA’s blessings?

A.C. Joaquin, Malolos: Erap on leave until 2004 – not yet halfway into his term? If that isn’t resignation, what is?

Chito Salalac, Tokyo: I don’t think Loi Ejercito, whom pollsters say could win, will withdraw in favor of her husband. That would jeopardize Erap’s claim to still be President (Gotcha, 21 Feb. 2001). I think she’ll withdraw for son Jinggoy, that’s why he gave way to Ronnie Zamora in San Juan’s congressional race.

John Arlo Diaz, hotmail.com: What do I expect after EDSA-II? Nothing much. Life just goes on for corrupt, greedy, lawless Filipinos.

Jim Paredes, APO Hiking Society: Just got this text (Gotcha, 19 Feb. 2001): Panlaban sa PHLEGM (Puno, Honasan, Lacson, Enrile, Gringo, Miriam). Vote MyRACOF (Monsod y Recto, Arroyo, Chato, Osmena, Flavier...

Andy Locsin Jr., architect: . . . or CAMFOR-brand medicated syrup (same names), manufactured by Pagbabago Laboratories.

Thank you, Amando Mendoza, Eremio Leano, Pedrito M. Lolong, Alvin Casuga, Moriah Isaac, Erlinda Mari, Ramon Mayuga, J. Aguilar, Cesar Francisco, Ricci Spite, Rick Valdes, Ed Joaquin, Policarpio Ty Co, Ricky Abarca, Joey Legarda, Rocelie A-O, Rita Gonzalez, Julie David, Juris Soliman, Mon Sagullo, Francisco Rodino, Hanzel Leano, Gil Ramos, Lito Matias, Eduardo Olaguer, Vicente Lava Jr., Joel Bernasor, Edgar Uy, E.C. Ibazeta, Ched Arzadon, George Tsui, J.G. Nera, Jay Entruda, Aureo Endaya, Edelina Macaspac, Toti Bayudan, J.R. Evidente, George Canada, Rolando J. Gomez, Ariel Rabe, Coney Trampe, Tomas T. Ruiz.

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