Appointment of relatives is not nepotism per se - ROSES AND THORNS by Alejandro R. Roces

Nepotism occurs when a person is hired not because of his qualification but because of his family connections. Now, even if a person is qualified but there are other more qualified candidates and they are bypassed because the less qualified is related to the appointing powers, that would still be nepotism. Neither of the two is applicable in the case of Lourdes Evangeline Arroyo, who was one of only three who passed the foreign affairs officer examination. It is noteworthy that 3,000 candidates took the exam. Only three passed and Luli Arroyo was one of them. We really cannot understand President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s hesitancy to sign her appointment. She is supposed to hire the best and the brightest. Why should that rule not be applied if one of the best and the brightest happens to be one’s daughter?

Nepotism is not a local problem. The word itself is from the French nepotisme, which in turn came from the Latin nepot, meaning nephew. Way back in 1807, Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Dr. Horatio Turpin said, "The field of public office will not be perverted by me into a family property." President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was criticized when he appointed his brother Robert to the position of attorney-general. His excuse was not at all convincing. He said, "I can’t see that it’s wrong to give him a little legal experience before he goes out to practice law."

In the case of Luli Arroyo, she will be filling a hardship post. Instead of fussing about her well-deserved appointment (she is a graduate of Georgetown), we should be wondering what is happening to our foreign service colleges. There is an urgent need for 50 new good foreign affairs officers. But the graduates from our schools cannot pass the government exams.

There are reports that President Arroyo is going to make Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr., who is concurrently Foreign Affairs Secretar, sign her daughter’s appointment. We believe that will just complicate matters. What cannot be done directly should not be done indirectly. In this case, there is no anomaly whatsoever. Not only is she qualified, there is an urgent need for people with her qualifications in our foreign service.

Nepotism does not mean discrimination against qualified relatives. Since when are relatives not entitled to justice?