EDITORIAL - Indecision

The Department of Foreign Affairs was deluged with phone calls Thursday from embassies, asking about the status of Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr., who serves concurrently as DFA secretary. A statement issued by Guingona simply added to the confusion.

Was he quitting or staying put in his DFA post? The question was raised by the diplomatic community because Malacañang had announced that President Arroyo had accepted Guingona’s decision to relinquish his post as foreign secretary. For good measure, acting Press Secretary Silvestre Afable released to the press the President’s signed acceptance letter.

Asked for comment, Guingona called a press conference and said he was not resigning, period. What did Malacañang have to say to that? For a few uncertain hours, nothing. So if Guingona had not resigned but the President had accepted his "relinquishment" of his post, then he had just been fired. Right?

Wrong again. In the evening Guingona met with the President at Malacañang. After 40 minutes he emerged, saying he was still DFA secretary. A red-faced Afable mumbled that he had picked up the President’s acceptance letter from the desk of the executive secretary and mistakenly released it to the media. The letter, Afable said, was not meant to be sent to Guingona. As of yesterday, Afable said he had no plans of quitting.

All’s well that ends well? Certainly not. Confusion and speculation continued yesterday amid reports that Guingona would eventually move out of the DFA. This fiasco is a prime example of how not to run a government. And even if poor Afable has taken the flak, the buck still stops at the President, who has been projected as indecisive.

Cabinet members are the alter egos of the President; they are supposed to serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority. A President who wants to replace or reshuffle members of her official family should simply tell them outright so the public won’t have to endure the sorry spectacle of non-existent resignation offers being accepted. If the President wants to inspire international confidence in the stability of her administration, she’s going about it in the worst way.