About PNoy's recent appointments!

Tomorrow is the expected and much heralded Royal Wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton. How could we miss this Wedding of the Decade when all the international TV satellite networks are giving this wedding top billing, putting away stories like the disaster in Fukushima or the unrest in Syria and Libya on lesser air or TV time. Even our local TV networks sent reporters all the way to London for their own special coverage of the Royal Wedding.

 I say that this Royal Wedding is only the Wedding of the Decade because the supposedly Wedding of the Century had already come to pass when Prince Charles married Princess Diana. Alas, that supposed fairly tale wedding didn’t last or had a happy ending and even ended in the tragic death of Princess Diana with her Egyptian lover in a Paris tunnel. At this point, we can only wish both Prince William and Kate all the best and pray that their marriage would last and above all, that we would see in the near future a King William with his Queen Kate and more heirs to the throne.

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 Two recent appointments under the Aquino administration apparently got mixed reviews by certain elements in the Cebu media. First, that former Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cebu Chapter President and former Vice Governor Democrito “Mocring” Barcenas was finally appointed as a Director of the Shipping and Transport Corp. (STC), a subsidiary company belonging to the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC). Of course, the pro-PNoy media here, notably radio commentators hailed this appointment, after all, Mocring deserves this appointment because he was a major campaigner of Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III.

 When PNoy sat in Malacañang 10 months ago, I heard grumblings from the camp of Mocring because they were literally “bypassed” when the goodies were being distributed to PNoy’s supporters. Well, Mocring can now bask in his well-deserved appointment. I just hope that he has some idea on how to run a transport company. We know that he is a lawyer by profession, but running a legal firm is totally different from running a publicly owned transport company. We shall look into this company when we can.

 Meanwhile, it was a surprise especially to the pro-PNoy media when they heard that former Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) General Manager Danilo Francia was recently appointed as Assistant Secretary of the Department of National Defense (DND). One radio commentator the other day had a fit spewing outright lies that Gen. Francia did not deserve his appointment as he actively campaigned “kuno” for former Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro.

 In attacking Gen. Francia, this radio commentator did not realize that he was at the same time attacking the search committee of the PNoy administration for failing to spot the shortcomings of Gen. Francia. This radio commentator angrily spewed out vile venom saying that Gen. Francia had many corruption cases filed against him as if this was the truth.

 Incidentally, this is the same fellow who, months back, said that Gen. Francia was the husband of Bess Francia, the Secretary of Gov. Gwen Garcia. He did not know that the two are not even related, much less married. Hahaha! Worse, he did not even rectify his glaring error, which only proves that this fellow does not do any research.

 Honestly, I don’t listen to the radio, but this is what my wife Jessica does early in the morning hence, I still get what is being spewed in the air lanes. We can only hope that this person should be more circumspect and change his ways before his listeners get tired of his lies and switch to the many other competing radio stations.        

 Let me say it here that I have the utmost respect for Gen. Francia and consider him a true officer and gentleman. I had the honor to work with him up close when I was a director in MCIAA. The man is very close and loyal to his wife and even closer to God. Hence, tagging him as a corrupt person is a total baseless lie! In my book, the appointment of Gen. Francia to the DND will enhance the DND because of his vast experience in running not only MCIAA but also the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport where he was GM, before he moved to Mactan. 

 If you didn’t know, Gen. Francia is also a Fellow in the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD), which was created by our fellow Cebuano, former Cabinet Secretary Jesus “Jess” Estanislao. Gen. Francia took that course a year ahead of me. His appointment is a hundred times better than those that the President appointed into government positions who had to go through an “on-the-job training,” which is why 10-months into the PNoy administration, the Philippines has not moved forward.

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