The changing of the guard looks like the old guard - BY THE WAY by Max V. Soliven

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Alikabok says, is poised to appoint the next Chairman of the Commission on Elections from a "short list" of recommendees. When last I peeked, however, the list contained only one name – that of former Rizal Congressman Egmidio "Ding" Tanjuatco.

Even if Ding is a cousin of former President Corazon C. Aquino (on the Sumulong side), he’s okay. He not only knows his law, but he’s also both agreeable and accessible on the PR side, and you know how Comelec Chairmen tend to tangle with the media on the stiff-necked side.

We regret, of course, the retirement of outgoing Comelec Chairperson Harriet Demetriou. Harriet was both tough and fair and had the people’s trust. But that’s the way the cookie crumbles. A week, as somebody said, is a long time in politics. I trust that the former Justice Demetriou will eventually get another important post in our justice system.

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Senator Teofisto "Tito" Guingona will be sworn in as Vice President at 3:30 p.m. today in Malacañang by Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. He will concurrently serve as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, a major position in the administration. Good for Tito! He’ll be able to utilize all the dramatic and oratorical skills he learned when we were in the Ateneo under the tutelage in those subjects of the late, revered Fr. Henry Lee Irwin, S.J., a crony in his time of the great dramatic actor, "The Great Profile" John Barrymore.

Tito’s problem, of course, is that – even during his famous "I Accuse" diatribe against Estrada (borrowed in title from the renowned Dreyfus case J’Accuse letter in France) – he still sounds like a student orator declaiming in the Jaycee "Voice of Democracy" contest.

By the way, J’Accuse (I Accuse) was coined by the writer Emile Zola to protest the French government’s efforts to stifle the truth when it acquitted the real culprit Major Esterhazy of betraying France by giving military secrets to the Germans, and upheld the erroneous conviction of an innocent officer, Capt. Alfred Dreyfus – because the authorities didn’t want to admit a mistake had been made. Poor Dreyfus had been sentenced on March 15, 1895, to life imprisonment in the hell-hole of Devil’s Island, the cruel maximum security concentration camp off the coast of Guiana, in the Caribbean. Zola published his strongly-worded open letter to the French President in l’Aurore and it has become a classic philippic, quoted in textbooks all over the world. Finally, years of protest by Zola and such prominent men as Georges Clemenceau (later to lead France himself) and Francis H. Pressense, bore fruit. Dreyfus was unchained and brought back from Devil’s Island to vindication in Paris. Re-entering the Army, he was promoted to Lt. Colonel in 1918, and consequently awarded the Legion of Honor. Thanks to fighters like Zola and Clemenceau who stood up for him in his darkest hour and sought justice, he died with honor in retirement in 1935.

If Tito Guingona can bring to his new job the fire and zeal that characterized Emile Zola, he will do well. He’s now on the front line of our own hopefully "New" Republic. As for former Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo "Jun" Siazon Jr., he has gone to the Stanford University Hospital (as far as we know) for treatment of a medical condition. He’s still a career ambassador and may, someday, serve again in another, less controversial capacity.

Like envoy to Japan?

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There’s such bitter infighting for the position of Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) that some detractors have launched a vicious black propaganda campaign against Rep. Heherson "Sonny" Alvarez, who’s on the GMA "short list" for that pivotal slot. Sonny doesn’t deserve that kind of gutter-attack. It’s true he was an outspoken maverick in many ways, not out to please everybody, but this was owing to the "fire in his belly" to espouse the cause of better government and service to his country.

During the Marcos martial-law hegemony, Sonny and his then-fiancee, my cousin Cecile Guidote (an outspoken Marcos critic herself), had to escape from the Philippines through a guerrilla network, and relocated to Brooklyn in New York City, where they conducted an untiring campaign in the US to expose the iniquities of the Great Dictator. They were harassed by Macoy’s agents even as they lived in poverty and fought a propaganda "war" against the posturings of the regime. They were sneered at by the Marcos gang, along with the late Raul S. Manglapus and their group, as "Steak Commandos." I remember Sonny telling me at the time, when I was finally permitted to travel after "country arrest" of seven years, that it was unfair of the Marcos press gauleiters to dub them "Steak Commandos" when, he groaned, "we can hardly afford hamburgers." (Sonny’s brother had been arrested and tortured to death by the martial law military.)

Now the canard is being circulated that Alvarez is a "logger" (false) and a coddler of illegal loggers. Further, it’s being said by his enemies that he had already been a DENR Secretary and failed to "arrest" illicit loggers. This is nonsense. He has been fighting illegal loggers all his political life and even pushed for a total log ban. During his two terms in the Senate and in the House of Representatives, Sonny authored almost all the existing laws on the environment.

He has been battling to motivate action to curb and dispose of nuclear and toxic waste as well as warning of the threat of global warming. He was in the forefront of opposition to Estrada’s original plan (later withdrawn) to give burial honors to the late Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Burial Ground of Heroes). He was among the leaders of the Impeachment crusade from the very beginning. He is Vice President for Asia of the Advisory Committee on Protection of the Seas (ACOPS), chairman of Global Legislators Organizations for Balanced Environment (GLOBE) Philippine Committee and is a member of the Executive Board of Asia-Pacific Parliamentarians as well as Philippine Chairman of UNEP Clean Up the World.

Alvarez, perhaps, won’t get that plum DENR posting. (Why are so many eager to get it? That’s a rhetorical question, folks.) But let’s cut out that smear campaign. He’s clean – and courageous.

Among the heavy-hitters gunning for the job, I’m told by my insiders, are Nereus Acosta, Nicky Perlas, and even Dr. Angelina P. Galang of Miriam P.E.A.C.E. (whose connection is that she’s a sister of Vicky P. Garchitorena). Even former DENR Secretary Victor Ramos, who did nothing when he was there, wants to be re-appointed to that juicy department. Is he being backed by his former boss, ex-President Fidel V. Ramos who seems to be getting his way in most things?

Why, even those architects of Urban Bank’s collapse, FVR’s pets, Archit Bartolome and Ted Borlongan, may be "washed clean" and re-emerge as saints and "victims." (FVR was Urban’s Chairman Emeritus). What about my friends who lost scores of millions in Urban Bank? Will they, by some magic, get their "lost" money back? This is a time of miracles. The trouble is that the New Guard looks too much like the Old Guard.

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The Jacksonian doctrine of "to the victor belong the spoils," it can be said, is a political reality which our country may have to accept, since every effort to reform that has, in years past, come to naught. Every administration which comes to power seems obligated to install its "camp followers", with the result that even good incumbents are swiftly displaced or ousted.

Oh, well. That may be the way of the world, but it still is the new President’s duty to pick up the best and the brightest (not the slick pa-baliks) for each position.

One very important position that, up to now, has been unfilled is that of Solicitor General. A Solicitor General, as all members of Bench and Bar know only too well, is the government’s "legal gladiator" who must handle the cases of the government in tribunals all the way down from the Supreme Court to the trial courts.

It is the SolGen, as the late Senator Ambrosio Padilla (who was Solicitor General from 1954 to 1957) describes it, who fights the legal battles of the government. In the past, that position was held by brilliant and outstanding lawyers like Lorenzo Tañada, Pompeyo Diaz, Juan Liwag, Antonio Barredo, Estelito Mendoza and Sedfrey Ordoñez.

President GMA must understand the importance of having a brilliant Solicitor General who is experienced in appellate advocacy and highly respected by Bench and Bar, especially by the Justices of the Supreme Court. Every administration is always challenged before the High Court. In fact, next week the Macapagal-Arroyo administration will face its first case before the High Court – with its own legitimacy challenged.

Former President Ramos, a soldier, did not fully realize the importance of having a good Solicitor General, which is why, perhaps, he lost several cases before the High Court. When he was set to appoint his second Solicitor General, a cabinet member expressed the opinion that FVR’s choice may not be equal to the task. Ramos replied: "Well, he will learn on the job." The performance of FVR’s second SolGen, Silvestre "Bebot" Bello, shows that he did not learn his job.

In the United States, whenever the White House is poised to appoint a Solicitor General, the members of the Supreme Court are informally consulted by the White House legal staff and even by the President himself. In the U.S. the SolGen is considered an important administration official. In fact, unofficially the United States Solicitor General is considered the "10th member" of the nine-member High Court.

This time around, who will it be for GMA?

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THE ROVING EYE . . . DILG Secretary Joey Lina told me last night that he had thoroughly investigated the accusations against Acting Police Chief Deputy Director- General Leandro "Larry" Mendoza and found them "groundless in fact." He said he had submitted the report to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and she was studying it prior to making an announcement on that score. . .Ilocos Sur Governor Luis "Chavit" Singson who blew the whistle on President Estrada is now the obvious idol of everybody he meets at dinners and parties. Even the maids are taking pictures of him. Everybody is happy to pose with the "hero" of the anti-Erap struggle.