Monkey business

The President should take a closer look at her Cabinet “family” and political appointees and realize how dismally she and the nation have been short-changed of good service. Her choices in the past years have been a bunch of lightweights, junketeers who always seem to be on an overseas “mission” to attend “international” confabs, negotiate useless “agreements,” enjoy the hospitality of foreign governments and agencies, or engage in world-class shopping expeditions.

The pernicious practice of rewarding political allies and supporters with appointments to public office has existed in this country since the Commonwealth Era of the great Manuel L. Quezon. Quezon was a supreme politician. He had the good sense to leave private business and enterprise alone. He would reward “friends” by giving them contracts for instance to supply the shoes of the Philippine Army but by and large, MLQ drew a line between governance and free enterprise.

Marcos, as everybody knows, had his court favorites and cronies during his iron-fisted reign. He was indeed a Great Dictator but it can be said in his favor that even when dispensing appointments to both Cabinet and bureaucracy, he designated men who were at least competent, even though corrupt.

It was during Aquino’s administration that we saw some indiscriminate dumping in high positions of a bunch of camp followers with two left feet. Every street parliamentarian who had braved the water cannon of the Marcos martial law centurions, assorted human right lawyers, activists, “cause-oriented” imbeciles, flaterrers and cling-ons were given plum positions.

It can be sadly said that under the Cory dispensation, incompetence in the bureaucracy had elevated to the level of state policy. It was during this time that a new term was coined, Kamag-Anak Incorporated.

Ramos campaigned on the platform that he was not a TRAPO (traditional politician) but a businesslike ex-general who aimed to “empower” the people. He should have paused to take a look at what has become of his crusade. His pangkat became one of the most political of all. It was in his reign where the worst intrusion of government in private business occurred. During Cory’s reign the Presidential Commission on Good Government came into being to secure Marcos’ and his cronies wealth that were in question. However, the original members were at least confined to investigating sequestered properties and corporations with questionable ownership like San Miguel Corporation which was eventually resolved. The PCGG members then knew their limits. They did not meddle in the corporation’s ruling Board of Directors – they did not impose their will on SMC.

During the first year and a half of FVR, in sharp contrast, the PCGG rammed additional “appointees” down the throats of even the subsidiary San Miguel companies. The giant San Miguel Corporation, one of Asia’s most respected conglomerates, had become a giant milking cow for the rejects and discards of FVR’s political party.

We must revisit the need for the PCGG. Have they completed their mission? Are they ready to turn over their work to respective government agencies to better streamline and tighten government services? There is too much overlapping of functions, too many commissions and committees formed. It is about time we do a general housecleaning and let the different departments of government do their job.

After all these public commissions or committees are all a bunch of pensionados (more so, the PCGG). They sit in different boardrooms of private entities where government has a stake. What do they do? It’s bad enough that these nominees get their usual per diems and other corporate perks, and make “routinary decisions.” Worst, they insist on sticking their noses into every aspect of the company, involving themselves in decision making which restructures a big entity that isn’t even of their expertise.

If you go over the curriculum vitae of each PCGG pensionado, you will be horrified to see that they do not possess the necessary experience, background or expertise in finance, economics and management. What therefore, could they be expected to contribute to the improvement and the profits of such corporations? Now GSIS has entered the scene as well. It’s another government entity poking its nose into the private sector.

How can politicians run a huge corporation – except run it into the ground. And to think that the government wants to take over Meralco just like in the past when they tried to take over SMC and PLDT – would be the biggest tragedy of them all!

Why does the government always want to convert private enterprise into virtual government corporations considering the wasteful manner in which government agencies are operated? I think it is a crime for government, by legal ledger domain to seize a great corporation and put it into the hands of political rejects and amateurs. It’s a sure formula for failure. But what bothers me most of all is the injustice of it. Is this an administration that welcomes foreign investors into the level playing field of a free enterprise system, or an “Octupus” Government that greedily gobbles up everything it considers delicious?

That’s the question President GMA must answer. She constantly takes off on selling missions abroad but the overseas customers won’t buy into a country where private interests are not protected from officially sponsored rapine and plunder.

The Meralco issue worries the public that government has cavetous eyes in controlling its board of directors. Meralco may have its faults and shortcomings. It is a company everybody loves to hate. But would imposing a new set of government “rulers” improve the service?

Remember Philippine Airlines? When the government took over PAL it was loaded with pensionados and onerous “sweetheart” deals for favored big shots, which literally ran PAL into the ground. What about PLDT? It’s a good thing Tony Boy Conjuangco and his team made a good deal and sold the company to Manny Pangilinan whose “midas touch” turned it into gold.

It’s about time we stop being too ambitious! If we can’t even run the country decently, how can government make a business grow?