EDITORIAL - Horse-trading

Former Maritime Industry Authority administrator Maria Elena Bautista is expected to take her oath today as new director general of the Presidential Management Staff, a position so much more powerful than the post she just vacated.

The promotion came just days after President Arroyo ordered the recall of some recent memorandums she issued as Marina administrator. The memorandums did not sit well with shipowners who threatened to go on a "maritime holiday" unless something was done.

Realizing the validity of the shipowners' gripes, as well as the seriousness of the consequences if the shipowners made good their threat, the president promptly recalled the controversial memorandums.

But Arroyo is a very good player in these games. She is a very astute horse-trader. A leader who is simply mediocre would not have lasted as long as she did in such a snake pit called politics.

Thus, having "publicly humiliated" someone who is being talked about as one of her very closest friend by recalling her memorandums, Arroyo lost no time in appeasing Bautista by giving her the PMS post.

Now, the PMS is no ordinary posting. And it is not just because it is higher in the rankings within the executive department than the Marina, which is just an attached agency of the Department of Transportation and Communication.

The PMS, as the name clearly spells out, manages the affairs of the president. Even among supposed equals in the Cabinet, the PMS is still head and shoulders above the rest, with the possible exception only of the Office of the Executive Secretary, or the "Little President."

As manager of presidential affairs, there is no getting to the president than by the PMS. That was why the late Cerge Remonde, who headed the PMS before he became press secretary, was widely regarded as a most powerful man.

But while wielding such power as head of PMS, Remonde was also both amiable and fair, the reason why he was so loved, and mourned so deeply when he died. The big question now is how would Bautista be as PMS head. And what lies ahead for the shipowners who dared tangle with her?