Presidential Chief of Staff Mike Defensor: Mike to the defense

MICHAEL TAN DEFENSOR IS A young man in a hurry to make it to the big leagues. Turning 37 in June, he has earned the distinction as the "youngest ever" in every field of endeavor that he has ventured into.

As the new chief of staff of President Arroyo, Defensor chalked up yet another "youngest ever" in this position at Malacañang Palace. There is further the joke that he is the new "little President" because President Arroyo is the "very little President," an irreverent dig at their common diminutive size.

Defensor’s role at the Palace is clearly defined by Memorandum Order (MO) 138 issued on Jan.13 which, among other things, designates Defensor as the "presidential communicator who will have to advocate the strategic policy and program initiatives" of President Arroyo. He is specifically tasked "to create a desirable public image" of his boss, who continues to get negative ratings in public surveys. But the problem is, Defensor chuckles, he is himself not very "desirable" because of his staunch defense of his embattled boss.

"As chief of staff, one of my tasks is to oversee the P35 billion pump-priming (fund) of the President. It’s a small piece of the pie, but if we properly implement this, it will push development of the country," he points out.

Defensor was Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources from September 2004 until he moved over to the Palace last January. Even before his confirmation as DENR secretary in February 2005, Defensor admits he already "felt a political storm approaching", with opposition leaders in Congress up in arms over the alleged "jueteng payola" charges against the First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and eldest son, Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo.

"I told the President I should stay with her at the Palace and she was surprised that I’d leave the department after just being confirmed," says Defensor. "She said, ‘let’s think about it’ because the stakeholders like those in the mining sector feel I should stay at DENR."

It was only in November last year while they were in Cebu that the President discussed this matter again with him. By then the impeachment proceedings against the President had already been successfully "killed" by their allies in Congress, and Defensor had a change of heart and wanted to stay on at DENR. "The President told me it (political storm) is not yet over," he recalls. During that time, he says, there were only four Palace officials who were on the ball with the President, namely Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, Political Adviser Gabriel Claudio, and Government Media Entities Secretary Cerge Remonde. "We need to strengthen this group here at the Palace," Defensor quotes the President.

In Baguio City last Christmas during the First Family’s traditional holiday vacation, Defensor was invited to dinner and told by the President, "I really need you at the Palace to help out."

People may best remember Defensor as the upstart Cabinet official who always runs to the rescue whenever his boss gets into trouble.

A case in point is his role in the infamous "rescue" of whistleblower Udong Mahusay, a former staff in the private office of the First Gentleman. Udong was presented by opposition Sen.Panfilo Lacson as a witness who implicated the President’s husband in alleged money-laundering activities using the alias "Jose Pidal". Defensor snatched Udong from a safe house in Tagaytay City where the latter was taken by Lacson’s men after he testified at the Senate.

"He (Udong) called me up crying and asking for my help because he felt he was going to be killed. We fetched him by car at his safe house in Tagaytay. But we feared that these people after him will follow us and try to forcibly get him," Defensor clarifies, adding that his role in this controversial incident came about because Udong’s brother happens to work as his aide.

Defensor and Udong were picked up at the Philippine National Police Academy in Silang, Cavite where they sought refuge while waiting for the presidential chopper to take them back to Manila. Several months later, Udong’s brother was appointed by Mrs.Arroyo as one of her presidential assistants in the Palace.

And who could forget Defensor’s press conference presenting supposed audio experts who claimed that the "Hello Garci" tapes were tampered with and therefore could not be used as evidence against President Arroyo for allegedly "lying, cheating, and stealing" in the 2004 elections.

"The basic issue is the tapes were not authentic but tampered. Because this has to be made known and fully explained to the public to make them understand these technical things on how voices on the tapes can be manipulated," Defensor points out.

When he came under fire from opposition leaders for this caper, Defensor insisted there was nothing illegal in what he did and claimed he paid for the experts’ authentication of these tapes done in the U.S. out of his pown pocket.

In hindsight, Defensor still regrets not having strongly pushed his stand–shared by several other Cabinet members described as the "hawks"–when they opposed the President’s making a public apology on the "Hello Garci" scandal.

"From the start, I never agreed to the President coming out with her ‘I’m sorry for a lapse in judgment’ statement. I was out-voted by the ‘Hyatt 10’ who were able to convince the President to do this," Defensor admits, alluding to the ten Cabinet and sub-Cabinet officials led by former Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima who subsequently demanded the resignation of President Arroyo in a press conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Roxas Boulevard, thus earning the monicker "Hyatt 10."

Did Mrs.Arroyo cheat in the last elections? "No way," Defensor adamantly insists, claiming full inside knowledge since he was the campaign manager and campaign spokesman of Mrs.Arroyo during that election. "I know we have a duly elected President. That sovereign mandate is (from the) people. So if I defend her, it’s not just personal but a clear, categorical understanding of what went on in the elections. To me, it’s very clear where I stand.

"I will wait for history to judge me if I did right or wrong," he adds.

Love him or hate him, feelings about Mike Defensor are not benign.

"When I do something, I’m passionate in doing it. When I fight for something, it shows, even when I speak," he says by way of explanation.

While some leaders are into consensus-building, Defensor likens himself to the late British statesman Sir Winston Churchill who held office during World War II, as well as to local basketball star turned Senator Robert Jaworski.

"My basic characteristic is I’m a good war leader like Churchill. But after the war, he just quietly disappeared from the scene," Defensor cites. "And like Jaworski, the basketball player, when he plays rough, his fans loved him but others hated him."

Defensor was one of the first batch of Cabinet recruits after EDSA-2 in January, 2001, when then Vice President Arroyo took office. He was then on his second term as Liberal Party (LP) Congressman from the third district of Quezon City, one of the so-called "Spice Boys" in the 11th Congress. As assistant minority floor leader, he helped engineer the signature drive that secured the automatic transmittal to the Senate of the impeachment complaint against then President Joseph Estrada.

When Mrs. Arroyo assumed power in 2001, she asked Defensor to serve as presidential adviser on housing and concurrent chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC).

Living up to his "housing czar" role, Defensor supported the "house arrest" petition of Estrada, who was then placed under hospital detention at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center while undergoing trial for plunder at the Sandigan-bayan. While his stand in favor of Estrada’s "house arrest" estranged Defensor for a while from the "civil society" leaders of EDSA-2, it endeared him to the deposed President and his supporters, earning him the trust and confidence of Estrada so that he could talk to him as official emissary for Mrs.Arroyo’s reconciliation efforts.

"Mabait na bata yan si Mike," Estrada says of the Arroyo Cabinet official who visits him once in a while.

Defensor recalls that during their first Cabinet meeting, the President accepted his suggestion to push for reconciliation, especially with the pro-Estrada groups.

"During those times after EDSA-2, I said there has to be parallel efforts on the part of our political leaders to unify everyone, (especially) the urban poor which is the base of former President Estrada... and also, it is where President Arroyo was weak. So we immediately embarked on a campaign to go and reach out to the poorest of the poor," Defensor says. "Our President is not known to everyone. She is really compassionate, especially to people loyal to her. She does not only look at your competence, but also if you can give her sound advice."

Defensor’s ties to the President’s family began long before Malacañang. He distinctly remembers a Cabinet workshop held in Clark Field sometime in 2003 when President Arroyo gave each of them a small gift of a picture frame.

"And when she turned to give her token to me, she said, ‘Ito, anak ko ito" (This is my son)," Defensor fondly recalls.

He is indeed considered one of the family, since they were neighbors in La Vista and he used to go to the Arroyo house.

"We know the family. We grew up together with Tita Gloria’s kids, especially Mikey," he says, recalling the days when they were "experimenting" with drinking liquor, smoking cigarettes, and courting girls. "We even played basketball with Tito Mike."

How is President Arroyo as a boss? She’s a "dedicated and very hard working" leader who finds time to go to mass everyday, he says.

Notorious for her public displays of temper, Defensor notes that the President has learned to control her sudden bursts of anger and laughs more often now, even when faced with situations that in the past irritated her .

"Before she was so high strung and tense. But now, she can easily switch off from her bursts of anger. I have not seen her notorious fits of anger. She thumps her hands on the table and stomps her feet when she wants things done right away. She gets mad but she never gets personal," Defensor reveals. "I make her laugh or smile when the things we discuss make her angry. It turns the atmosphere a bit lighter."

To ease the situation, Defensor starts telling jokes or puts in a funny but relevant comment.

"I’ve learned that timing is critical. It’s like knowing when is the right time to ask for money from your parents, you make lambing sometimes. Some of my collegues get on her bad side when they argue with her," he adds.

The 24/7 nature of his job at the Palace does not stop Defensor from being a family man and providing a comfortable life for his family.

In the annual statement of assets and liabilities (SAL) he filed as required by law for all government workers, Defensor reported a net worth of P7.2 million as of December 2004, with his total assets of P16.33 million against total liabilities of P9.05 million.

Is Mike Defensor wealthy? "My wife is," he retorts.

Defensor’s wife Julie, 27, is engaged in the successful family business JCSpice, a multi-level marketing company. She is also a crack shot and shooting champion. They got married when he was 26 years old and she was only 18. They have four children, from nine years old to two, who are all obviously–and perhaps unfairly–named after him: Michaela Francesca, Miguel Gabriel, Michael Angelo and Michelle Angela.

A normal working day for Defensor starts around 5 or 6 in the morning, with breakfast with his wife and kids before going off to work. He holds working lunches and dinners and tries to get home by 10 o’clock. He goes to sleep by midnight, reading books to get himself drowsy.

"I am now trying to regulate my time. I make sure to give time to my children. I excuse myself if I need to attend parents-teachers meetings of my kids," he chuckles.

And he did find time to do a photo shoot with one of his sons that became part of an ad spread for a wristwatch line that appeared in their JC Spice Catalogue.