Choosing the right people

We seem to be monitoring every move of the Aquino camp. After seeing his victory in the elections, we want to make sure that Noynoy will do a good job as President. We are quite an anxious society (myself included) desperate for a “good” change and so we scrutinize his every move. I hope Noynoy will not mind and just continue to have an open-mind and an open heart but limited to doing not what is wrong but what is right.

In a television newscast last Friday evening, several members of a so-called “Search Committee” to recommend appointees for Senator Noynoy Aquino’s new administration, were named. Among them are the Aquino sisters (Balsy, Pinky and Viel), Karina David, Mely Nicolas and Alberto Lim.

If indeed this is true, then no one would be more determined in protecting the Senator from self-seeking questionable camp followers and instant converts to their brother’s advocacy for good governance than Balsy, Pinky and Viel. Definitely, they will never compromise the legacy of their parents and their brother’s campaign commitments — for kinship, friendship and political expediency.

Karina David on the other hand, is a respected academician who served as Civil Service Commission Chairman in the Arroyo Administration and who knows the requirements for government service. She resigned from the CSC in disgust. Mely Nicolas served the late President Cory Aquino in Malacañang while Alberto Lim is with the Makati Business Club.

I hope they do not confine themselves to a limited sector or group of people. This “search committee” should include honorable men and women (non-political and respected officials) to assess those considered for specific government agencies. For instance, for legal offices like the Department of Justice, Office of the Ombudsman and the Office of Solicitor General, a respected retired magistrate who knows the requirements for these offices should be included in the committee. This is to insure that there will not be square pegs in round holes in the incoming Aquino Administration.

The Senator’s “Search Committee” should not also be limited to an elitist group of members of big business associations and the upper strata of society to which the Aquino family belongs and circulates. Furthermore, his “economic team” should be composed of competent and respected appointees knowledgeable in economics, finance and management. Such appointees must not only be drawn from respected financial and economic groups but must also be imbued with a social conscience to temper their economic prescriptions to mitigate unavoidable burdens on those who belong to the lower strata of society. 

According to Liberal Party General Campaign Manager Florencio Abad, Senator Noynoy is already swamped with many endorsements and recommendees for people who have now suddenly become instant “patriots” and want to “serve” their country. Some of them have already served in the Cory Aquino Administration, like a former senator from Bicol who has been unheard of all these years but has now resurrected in the Noynoy Aquino Camp.

For the so-called “Search Committee” the following unsolicited suggestions are respectfully offered: (1) those aggressively marketing themselves for appointment, using people close to Senator Noynoy and his sisters, should be looked upon with suspicion and ignored; (2) there should be less reliance on bio-datas and self-serving recommendations but more on investigative background checking of applicant’s public and private lives; (3) those being considered for appointment should be required to submit their Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Income Tax Returns for the last five years; (4) if willing, they should be asked to submit a waiver of the Bank Secrecy Law; and (5) there should be transparency to choosing prospective recommendees for the people to know who they recommend.

The so-called “Search Committee” in the Aquino camp must be very thorough and objective in evaluating the credentials of prospective candidates and recommendees for appointment. In doing this, embarrassment of being exposed when they face the Commission on Appointments for confirmation can be avoided.

Reports say that Senator Noynoy plans to retain some GMA officials. Of course this is only true to those who worked well in the last administration. Generally, this is a good sign, not for the people concerned but more so for the country. This is a good gesture that will unite and heal the nation.

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On another matter, I think it is imperative that the people know more about the new “controversially appointed” Chief Justice Renato Corona.

But did he just do a “media blitz” to introduce himself to the people? I am not sure if he was campaigning for himself or what…I felt he may have compromised the dignity of the Office of the Chief Justice and the Supreme Court itself during his “sorties” in the newspapers and tele-radio interviews. 

If CJ Corona wants to prove that he will be a good Chief Justice, he should be able to demonstrate this over time — not in 30 or 60 days. He should be able to disprove the controversies and the negative image marred upon him by his detractors through his work.

So over time, CJ Corona must show that he deserves his appointment by the judicial reforms he will impose, by dismissing corrupt judges to show his determination to rid our courts of unfit judges, by reforming the SC system of supplying the office requirements of trial court judges who are supplied with low quality papers and other items they no longer need like typewriter ribbons. The SC system of supplying the requirements of trial courts is so centralized such that the office of supplies of courts in Mindanao and other parts of the country have to come from Padre Faura. Believe it or not! It is a fact that many judges who cannot wait for office supplies from Manila spend their own money to buy supplies for their courts.

If CJ Corona can institute the long-awaited and much needed administrative reforms to make the administration of justice honest, speedier and less complicated — he will have proven his worth to have been appointed despite the brickbats thrown against him.

Also, as ex-officio chairman of the Judicial and Bar Council which recommends prospective appointees, to the judiciary, he can make the system less accommodating to ensure quality nominees and appointees.

Let’s see how he will win this battle!