EDITORIAL - Backsliding

There are 22 line departments headed by Cabinet secretaries. In addition, there are several other positions with full Cabinet rank. Among all these positions, only one has warranted the attention of a special commission that was set up by Malacañang to draw up reforms.

That special commission, created with fanfare after a mutiny by young officers exposed the rot in the military, expended much time, effort and taxpayers’ money to come up with a long list of recommendations to excise the rot and create a professional military.

Among the recommendations of the commission headed by Justice Florentino Feliciano to end coup attempts and create a professional armed force was to stop appointing retired military and police officers to the post of secretary of national defense. This was to prevent the defense and military establishments from turning into an old boys’ club where everyone protected each other’s back and looked the other way in the face of wrongdoing.

For a while the Arroyo administration, shaken by the Oakwood mutiny in July 2003 and threats of further destabilization, heeded the recommendations. In 2004, retired Armed Forces chief Angelo Reyes was moved from national defense to law enforcement, where he did a good job. His replacement, lawyer Avelino Cruz, was given a free hand in implementing defense reforms. Many of the commission’s recommendations were implemented during Cruz’s watch. But defense reforms still have a long way to go, and there is a strong possibility of backsliding.

Already President Arroyo has reportedly picked retired national police chief Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. to replace Cruz, who resigned last year amid disagreements over the people’s initiative to amend the Constitution. The choice of Cabinet members is a presidential prerogative. Some of the most effective officials in the executive branch in recent years were retired officers of the uniformed services. There are retired officers who can even qualify for the presidency, and are far more competent than many of the clowns at the Senate. The President can appoint retired military and police officers to as many executive agencies as she wants.

But one department merits her special consideration: national defense. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, a retired Armed Forces chief, argues that Ebdane has been "civilianized" enough for the defense portfolio. Ermita should stop thinking that all Filipinos have the IQ of the cretins in Congress. There are 85 million Filipinos; surely there is one who has never been part of the uniformed services who can be named defense chief. The President and commander-in-chief cannot set aside the recommendations of a special commission that she herself set up without raising questions about her commitment to defense reforms.