Malacañang officials have been highlighting that the President recently signed two pieces of legislation but have conveniently forgotten or lost sight of the different individuals who initiated or wrote the original versions of the signed legislation. For instance, the law that regulates the construction and maintenance of billboards along highways and urban areas got some mileage last week after PRRD signed it, but a Miriam Defensor Santiago fan called my attention to the fact that it was the late senator who first pushed for the bill regulating billboards because of the risks that such structures presented, especially during storms.
According to the Miriam die-hard, the law should have been passed a long time ago but did not because members of Congress back then had been approached by certain billboard companies opposed to regulation, which resulted in the congressional version never seeing the light of day. As our teachers have tried their very best to teach us: Give credit where credit is due. It’s nice that presidents sign good bills into law but it would be better if we recognize the people who spent years or decades suggesting, writing, lobbying or proposing such laws. After all, they did all the hard work that should never be forgotten with a simple “signature.”
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After listening in online to the Senate investigation on agricultural smuggling, I felt vindicated for the many times I have said and written that the President of the Philippines should only be allowed to appoint department secretaries as his alter egos or representatives but should not have anything to do with the appointment of undersecretaries and assistant secretaries. Undersecretaries and assistant secretaries should largely be career executives instead of political appointees who enter government as payback or as Trojan horses designed to influence if not undermine populist policies of government, contrary to interests of certain business groups. Last but not the least, many career executives and appointed retirees from previous posts such as retired PNP or AFP generals etc. find it demeaning to be told what to do or be ordered around by a younger, less experienced person whose only claim for being a government official is that they are close to the Cabinet secretary or the Office of the President.
During the Senate hearing, the United Broiler Raisers Association president, Elias Inciong, shared his view that the propensity or pro-importation stance of the Department of Agriculture could be related to the fact that the current Undersecretary for Policy and Planning was previously a consultant for a fish and aquatic products group of importers and that his former senior associate in the private sector represents the interest of meat importers.
This information and revelation tell us that the vetting or screening process of government appointees obviously does not go deep enough to filter Usecs and Asecs, not just for knowledge or expertise but also regarding potential conflict of interest or outright vested interest. While potential Cabinet members are often screened by the Committee on Appointments, how does government screen and validate lower ranked appointees, especially in sensitive departments and agencies of governments where corruption or mismanagement abounds?
The fact of the matter is that most Cabinet secretaries have been screened by the CA, are too visible and often under scrutiny by the media and the public that they are the least of our worries. The bag man, the operators or corrupt deal makers have historically been those in the Usec and Asec or consultant category. In the case of the Department of Agriculture, we see that there is no need to be corrupt but simply be in a position to influence the outcome or direction of business or policies to make a difference, whether good or bad.
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US President Joe Biden has warned Russian President Vladimir Putin not to touch even one inch of NATO territory or he would feel the full force of the alliance against him. That warning brings back memories from Star Wars movies where the Evil Empire battles with the Alliance. But life is far more complicated than the movies and from the looks of it, North Korea and China are beginning to stir things up in their neighborhood by doing missile tests or declaring that they own all the waters up to their imaginary line on the sea. While Biden was voicing his warning and China’s Coast Guard played chicken with the Philippine Coast Guard, I could not help but wonder just how committed and reliable is the US and President Biden if China decided to touch “one inch” of our territory or broadsided a Philippine Coast Guard or Navy ship?
Will President Biden et al expect us to spill blood, lose lives and the few boats that the Philippine Navy has as our show of resolve before they “send in the Marines,” or will it be an acoustic war of threats and condemnation? Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is currently too preoccupied with fighting Russia but if he manages to survive the Russian invasion, I wonder what he will have to say about the mess they got into because of their alignment with NATO? Zelensky clearly hoped that the US and NATO would do more than just send weapons and munitions. He had hoped for Ukraine to get emergency membership to NATO, he had hoped that NATO and the US would have boots on the ground and planes in the sky. Instead, Ukrainians had to do everything themselves at the cost of lives, towns, cities and properties.
Some pundits have said that President Zelensky was naïve or too trusting. But for us in the Philippines, best to ask the US ambassador for clarity on our Mutual Defense Treaty on who, what, how, both parties will react if either side is attacked by a hostile country or terrorist group. As my dear Mother Marita always declared: “Cuentas Claras” or let’s be very clear about it.