Too much phoney B.S. about ‘new’ Cabinet ‘defections’

When "resigned" Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman – may her tribe decrease – dramatically declared there would be more Cabinet "resignations", some media rushed into the breach to trumpet that, indeed, more defections had occurred.

For example, a big thing was made of the resignation from the Cabinet of Secretary Silvestre "Yoyong" Afable Jr., as the President’s Communications Director. He was described by one lurid banner headline as the "8th Cabinet member to quit in the wake of the now commonly-known "Hyatt 10" defections.

The reports added, of course, that Afable, while quitting the Cabinet, remains in the GMA government as "chief negotiator" with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), etc. But didn’t Afable go "on leave" from his role as Communications Director as early as last January to concentrate kuno on his peace "negotiation" efforts? Sanamagan. What a big deal they made of his phoney-baloney "resignation".

To begin with, didn’t GMA literally fire her entire Cabinet last July 7 (Thursday) by her 8 p.m. broadcast announcing she had told her Cabinet members to submit their "courtesy resignations" so she could revamp her Cabinet? Obviously, as we’ve already written, she had learned of the plot of the "Hyatt 10" and sought to preempt their drama. The seven Cabinet protesters (plus three other government officials) – refusing to be preempted – went public anyway the following day in a Hyatt Hotel press conference in which they declared "the longer the President stays in office under a cloud of doubt and mistrust, and with her style of decision-making the greater damage on the economy and the more vulnerable the fragile political situation becomes to extremists seeking to undermine our democratic life…" et cetera.

The "Hyatt 10" mutineers then went on to demand that GMA make "the supreme sacrifice" of volunteering to "relinquish her office and allow her constitutional successor the Vice President to assume the Presidency." Gadzooks and Godzilla! Isn’t that both cheeky and presumptuous? They were entitled to quit, and tell the world why they quit, even criticize their former Boss, the President. But to virtually say: "We quit and you should quit, too, because you’re bringing the economy and the political situation down!" That’s too much. Let others tell their President to resign if they will – but not them. It’s a matter of breach of trust. Out of honor and delicadeza, having been part of their President’s "official family", they should have left the "call" for GMA to resign to others outside the Cabinet. Yet they tried to pass off what they did as patriotism.

Gee whiz. If I were a Boss, I’d never give a job to any of them. Who could trust them not to stab me in the same way, and call that act a noble gesture, or one dictated by love of country? Et tu, Brutus, Julius Caesar had cried out, as he died in the Roman Senate from many wounds, the final one perhaps delivered by the man he most loved.

I think, in reporting the news, that we ought to remember the sequence of events. The entire Cabinet, as of early July, was supposed to be considered "resigned as announced by GMA in her… well, preemptive telecast. So there. How can there be any more "resignations"? Fair is fair.

Methinks too many of us in the media fancy ourselves kingmakers (capable of dethroning… queens, and proclaiming a new king). Let’s just follow the rule of law. If the President did wrong, then let her undergo "trial" in the manner provided by the organic charter of the land: "impeachment".

As for the "extremists seeking to undermine our democratic life", against which the "Hyatt 10" heroes and heroines warned – thanks to them those radicals are having a field day, organizing rallies and demonstrations against GMA, echoing their cry: "Resign!"

Is there another demonstration scheduled in Makati today? Mayor Jojo Binay has asserted those rallies and mass actions in the heart of his city’s financial district don’t hurt business in Makati. C’mon, Yer Honor.

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Yoyong Afable seems to be enjoying his sudden fame, however, by published reports. One quoted what he said to Associated Press that "I will continue to be chief negotiator but no longer in the Cabinet." Another story said he had told reporters in a text message he had "resigned on July 6", or the day before GMA made her declaration she had asked all her Cabinet members to submit "courtesy resignations." How convenient. "Resigning" one day before the mass firing?

Actually, I never dreamed that Afable was "Communications Director" until I met him once just before the May elections when we were arranging to interview GMA on ANC/ABS-CBN for my television show IMPACT. After that, either as Publisher or columnist, this writer had seen neither hide nor hair of Afable. He was the invisible "communications director", himself finding difficulty in communicating. Was Afable supposed to be "image building" for GMA when he himself, had in the past, been unable to project any "image" for himself?

The rumor that went around is that Afable had quit the Cabinet because he was upset by the presentation of a "communications plan" by another GMA courtier, Marita Jimenez. Susmariosep. Was this the woman who used to tailgate GMA everywhere (like Dinky did in her heyday), hopping into helicopters with her, striving to be seen with La Gloria on every occasion, even seeking to be known as using the presidential helicopter to fly, at times, from one of her "offices" to another – then wrangling a posh job as an alternative executive director of the Asian Development Bank? Jimenez a balik-image builder for GMA? Sanamagan, Ms. Marita needs someone badly to reconstruct her image.

Why doesn’t the President have just one communications official – not such a number of them that they stumble all over each other, and probably even jab each other in the kidneys? Isn’t her Press Secretary and Spokesman Ignacio "Toting" Bunye enough – although he bungled the "cellphone" tape preemptive strike, which boomeranged disastrously?

As for the need for La Presidenta to get herself a new "image", what nonsense. No amount of "packaging" can disguise the real Gloria. La Presidenta has tried everything from Gloria Labandera, to Ate Glo, to whatever. She’s better off saying, plainly: What you see is what you get.

As for my favorite spinach-booster, Popeye used to say: "I yam what’s I yam!"

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The fact is that these days whenever I hear of somebody "resigning", that’s the only time I found out that the individual named had a government job or some "impressive" title.

GMA’s besetting sin is that she tossed around appointments and titles like someone distributing chocolate candy. She named a "Presidential Advisor" for this and that willy-nilly. She appointed an "Ambassador-at-large" for this and that with carefree abandon. She bestowed high-falutin’ sounding designations on every Tom, Dick and Kulasa with salaries, perks and honorariums with such generosity that everybody now seems to have been on the gravy train.

Why did she try to please everybody? Now, those on whom she lavished such largesse and whom she catered to were among the first to attack her, betray her, or seek her eviction. No wonder we taxpayers are groaning, and a deficit yawns. So many were "taking" from the government’s coffers, and not giving much back.

What we need is a President who has learned, from "shock" and disappointment, a useful lesson: That she must strive to do what’s right, and the heck with the consequences. If she can defend herself from the accusation of vote-rigging, of having cheated to win, and surmount the coming "impeachment" battle, and the scrutiny of a Truth Commission, she can stay the course. She surely is sanguine enough to know her Presidency is in crisis.

But no shouting mobs, or self-righteous defectors or protesters, have the right to oust a President. In fact, where is "people power"? The people just want to keep on working, or get back to work, it’s quite apparent.

As for military mutiny on the part of younger officers, one can never be too complacent. But it’s "on hold" and will probably not happen. As one of the former negotiators at Oakwood, may I venture to say that the danger remains those who surrendered there were, to invoke the trite but irreplaceable expression, "only the tip of the iceberg." Many other – much larger – units were set to move, but they withdrew into the woodwork. Has the government addressed the grievances of the Magdalo mutineers? In effect, as I’ve yelled out before, the Palace betrayed the agreement our negotiating panel, headed by Ambassador (and former AFP Chief) Roy Cimatu, had made with the rebels: that they be tried under the Articles of War exclusively, or by court-martial. Instead, their leaders are being tried in civilian court. I hope we never have to "negotiate" again. Because there’ll be nothing to negotiate. Nobody will believe us.

Whatever the alarums, La Gloria is headed towards delivering her State of the Nation Address to Congress next Monday. She remains firmly in the Presidency, whatever’s being declared – and the persistent calls by some quarters for her resignation. Some ten thousand cops are being deployed to form a cordon and preemptive zones to prevent the SONA from being disrupted. Is this a government under "siege"? Mostly, it seems, by publicity.

Once more, let me say what I believe: A SONA is just a speech. This is a country where there’s too much jawbone and not enough backbone. GMA must prove herself in deeds, not words. Crush jueteng, execute convicts for heinous crimes, fight violence and drugs, punish corruption, even if it is within the walls of her own… Palace. Or her home. Reform the Commission on Elections – so we can finally have credible elections.

Talking about impeachment, why don’t we "impeach" the Comelec commissioners for what they did during the May 2004 elections?