It's payback time!

The people have spoken. The machines worked! Well, I think they did. And now it’s time to acknowledge all the groups (teachers, poll watchers, COMELEC volunteers, etc.) who worked hard to ensure the success of the first automated election in the country. Wow! That was quick. But what is happening now with the other ballots? Why is it taking the COMELEC such a long time to finalize the counting? Why did it slow down all of a sudden?

Anyway, the winners are back - in business. And now it’s payback time!

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The fearless forecasts of many have become a reality. We now have a president coming from the opposition and we saw the rejection of a significant number of administration candidates. Will GMA still be able to maintain her power in Congress? Everyone in both houses is busy playing the game of checkers… Abangan!

A few months ago I had urged the “would be” president to: appoint men and women known for their integrity, competence and good track records; and ask him to be ruthless in dealing with those who betray public trust.

This is because no administration has appointed as many unfit people in the government and has shown indifference to misconduct in public service as the existing administration has shown. No administration has been so self-indulgent and has so abused its appointing power as blatantly as the one the incoming administration is replacing by a stunning mandate of the electorate.

Perhaps, Senator Noynoy Aquino can now show his seriousness of purpose and sincerity in giving the people good governance by appointing in his administration, especially to his cabinet – honest, competent and dedicated men and women with good reputations, untainted by misconduct in public or private life. All administrations coming to power have not been able to resist the inimical policy of “to the victors belong the spoils”. Twenty-four years after President Ferdinand Marcos was removed by People Power, many still recall the highly competent people he appointed to his cabinet like his Secretaries of Justice – Jose Yulo, Claudio Teehankee, Felix Makasiar, Vicente Abad Santos, Ricardo Puno and Estelito Mendoza.

I find interesting the composition of the magic twelve in the senatorial line-up. Bongbong Marcos’ victory to the Senate scares me. He comes from a family who has been despised by the Filipinos a few years ago – causing them to live in exile. He has sneaked back in, “quietly” from his bailiwick. Is he going to work in the Senate for the people or to preserve his family’s fortune and wealth? Let us not forget what they have done to this country and the efforts we have made in the past to end the dictatorship. This is not the time to have amnesia. Apparently he still finds no fault in what his father has done and still sees his father and their family as the “victims”. Sanamagan!

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Unlike his mother, President Cory Aquino, Senator Noynoy has the luxury of time to vet and evaluate the qualifications of those he intends to appoint and those recommended for appointment in his administration. Moreover, he has 12 years of public service as congressman and senator to know the dynamics of public administration.

Many of those initially appointed by President Cory at the behest of people around her, were not evaluated for fitness due to the pressing need to fill up many vacant positions in the government she was taking over. Many of them were square pegs on round holes – displaced members of the Batasang Pambansa that she abolished, left leaning street parliamentarians and activists without previous experience in public administration, jobless members and camp followers of the opposition political parties (LABAN & UNIDO) and self-exiled politicians in America called “ Steak Commandos” by columnist Teodoro Valencia.

In his memoirs, President Cory’s Vice-President and Foreign Affairs Secretary Salvador Laurel, described the first Aquino cabinet as a cabinet of three groups: the left-leaning group, the rightist group and the elite group known as the “Council of Trent.” The hasty selection of Cory officials exacted a toll on public service and initially on the economy. For instance, Cory’s first Secretary of Labor was left-leaning and appeared too pro-labor. He alarmed capital and management by his radical pronouncements. Her first Public Works Secretary was not an engineer or one who knew management. He was a lawyer-politician from Bulacan who messed up the DPWH.

To be very effective in his promised anti-graft drive, Senator Noynoy has to appoint competent, experienced, honest and strong-willed people to the offices in the forefront of investigating and prosecuting the venal in government and the private sector who violated the Anti-graft and Corrupt Practices Act. These offices are the Office of the Ombudsman, the Department of Justice, the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission and the Office of the Solicitor General.

Senator Noynoy’s problem in these offices, especially in the office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice, is how to remove from these agencies those with fixed terms of office. Unless these officials are removed, an anti-graft investigation and the prosecution of crooks in government and the private sector can be stymied.

One important post requiring integrity, management skills, the ability to see the bigger picture in vital issues, the keen foresight to anticipate potential problems and political savvy in dealing with politically-tainted ones, is the position of Executive Secretary – adverted to as “Little President.”

As the cabinet’s “primus enter pares” (first among equals) the Executive Secretary is the administrative manager of the executive department. It is the Executive Secretary who signs “By Authority of the President” presidential issuances and communications. Thus, Senator Noynoy and the nation cannot afford to have a “lightweight” no matter how close to and trusted by him, as Executive Secretary. Hmm! I wonder who this person will be?

Senator Noynoy owes it to the people to whom he promised good governance “the best and the brightest” – the phrase descriptive of the appointees to the cabinet of President John F. Kennedy. 

By the way, in view of Senator Noynoy’s recent pronouncements may I respectfully offer this unsolicited advice: Don’t rock the boat yet until you have already taken over as captain!