Extreme displeasure - Sketches

You know you have severely displeased President Erap when the press is asking you for a comment on your ouster and you don't even know that you have been fired.

So what did ousted Justice Secretary Serafin Cuevas do that gave President Erap extreme displeasure?

Before we try to answer this, we should remember that all Cabinet members and other political appointees serve at the pleasure of the President. They can be fired anytime, in the interest of public service, or whatever general line the administration has for such occasions. If a Cabinet member is told that his resignation has been accepted even if he doesn't recall offering to quit, that's presidential prerogative. If the Chief Executive wants to make a Cabinet member a scapegoat, someone who will take the fall for the nation's highest official, that's also presidential prerogative.

It could have meant less problems for the President, however, if the scapegoat had been given at least a few hours' notice. Then the scapegoat could have been reminded that he serves at the pleasure of the President, that he owes his position to the President, and will he please just go quietly into the night.

As it is, Cuevas was left wondering aloud -- within hearing distance of the press -- what had hit him.

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If the public senses extreme presidential displeasure here, it's because other Cabinet members have been given the boot with much more finesse, with all the kindness and gentleness reserved for the wounded. Ronaldo Puno lost the interior and local government portfolio but was nominated as the country's representative to the United Nations -- a post so prestigious diplomats and diplomatic wannabes lobby for it. It's not the President's fault that the Ombudsman indicted Puno anyway for the Mahogany deal, forcing Puno to give up the UN nomination.

Former Customs Commissioner Nelson Tan at least got a phone call from Malacañang.

And "Dragon Lady" Leonora de Jesus has been eased out so gently from Malacañang (and the latest presidential trip) you can barely hear the sobbing. She even has a new Cabinet portfolio to look forward to. Other Cabinet members who know they're on the way out are expecting new government postings.

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Because the manner of Cuevas' ouster indicates extreme presidential displeasure, it's easy to believe that there's more to this case than the conditional pardon of Norberto Manero Jr. And it's easy to believe reports that, like Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Perfecto Yasay Jr., Cuevas had turned down requests from the President himself.

It may be impossible to prove that the President asked Cuevas to go easy on businessman Mark Jimenez's extradition case, drop the tax evasion case against taipan Lucio Tan, or push for a ruling favorable to Hubert Webb in the Vizconde massacre. But the seeds of suspicion were easily planted because of Cuevas' unceremonious ouster. And it's the same unceremonious ouster that made a surprised Cuevas open his mouth to say what he thought were the true reasons for his fall from grace.

By the time Cuevas got a phone call at the Department of Justice yesterday -- from Malacañang? the Iglesia ni Cristo? -- presumably to shut up already, it was too late, the damage had been done. By then there was a public perception that the President had interceded for his friends, and had tried to intervene in judicial processes.

The kindest thing you can say is that the President received rotten advice on how to get rid of Cuevas. The advice must have come from the same people who have failed to go over the President's speeches, who endorsed Manero's name to him for pardon.

You don't question presidential prerogative in firing his appointee. You only wonder when he'll get around to firing those who keep getting him in deep trouble.

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BUZZ: Thanks to wire services, President Erap's "nation in crisis" speech immediately sent shock waves all the way to Singapore, where Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. was trying to entice businessmen to invest in the Philippines. Questions about the speech prompted Siazon to grab a phone and call Malacañang, advising them to do something about the President's speech writers.