Political honeymoon withheld from P-Noy

So where’s the hundred-day honeymoon? Noynoy Aquino had to ask so on his third week in office, as pals and foes alike twitted him about little lapses. Politicians and the press usually accord a new President 14 weeks’ reprieve from reproof as he acquaints himself with the job. Not with P-Noy. From Day 1 gripes about unsavory new appointees and unsolved old anomalies dominated news and blog-casts. Perceptible was the rush to criticize official acts, either to help or to scorn. (I queried fellow-columnists; their e-mails like mine were being flooded with readers’ policy suggestions and tips of scams in the hatching.) From their tenor Filipinos clearly wish to take part in the recovery from nine years of Gloria Arroyo misrule. Eager too are they for the reforms that P-Noy had promised. The leader whom 88 percent of citizens trust took the censuring in stride. “Just because I’m a bachelor, they think I don’t need a honeymoon and won’t give me any,” he shrugged, “So I’ll just say to them, thank you.”

Today, six weeks into P-Noy’s term, critics have backed off a bit. They realized perhaps that defusing booby-traps left behind by the past regime takes time. And so the scrutinizing has refocused on P-Noy’s cabinet appointees.

First to come under fire were four members: two for graft raps in previous bureaucratic posts, one for tax evasion, and one for a bond float. A fifth was assailed for having too many kinsmen in the new admin. And a sixth, for being part of the hated Arroyo team till its end on June 30. Four others were pilloried for conflict of interest of present duties with past big-business ties. One of them was accused incognito of midnight dealing with an Arroyo sub, although the doubted contract had been signed as far back as February 2009. A revenue commissioner drew brickbats for fudging golf scores. The most loved cabinet pick at first was a zealous lawyer, but she too was soon pummeled because of disliked appointees to sub-bureaus. Even the head of the Truth Commission to probe the Arroyo regime’s sleaze has been dared to tell the truth about himself.

P-Noy has stood by his men. The only official he has fired openly is the chief weatherman, although “kicked upstairs” is a better term for one who became undersecretary. Quietly talked out of prolonging their stay were the previous Armed Forces chief and a couple of generals. Now the National Police chief is to follow suit into early retirement. There was no public fanfare for P-Noy for doing what’s expected.

P-Noy’s next hurdle is to eject Arroyo’s midnight appointees. In this fight, political foes are not about to spare him. On it depends their survival. It was an open secret in Malacañang that throughout the election ban from March 10 to June 30 Arroyo had placed cronies in sinecures. A thousand are spread out in practically all line agencies, government financial units and corporations. Papers were antedated March 8 or earlier, but received only during the period of the ban. P-Noy’s chief legal counsel is scouring Palace records to show that the last-minute picks took oaths of office during that prohibited time. Citing a Supreme Court ruling, he insists that the postings were unconsummated because of late oath taking. But he concedes that the public agencies, banks and firms have special charters, and so expects legal defiance. Court battles could protract. More so since P-Noy is also targeting lawyers whom Arroyo promoted via midnight edict to career bureaucrats, exempted from the rigorous rules. P-Noy must proceed with caution. Delay or defeat in evicting Arroyo remnants would be blamed on him, not them.

Impatience for reforms tends to blind the public about P-Noy’s early accomplishments. At least four agencies keenly have uncovered midnight deals. The Department of Public Works has stopped 19 flood control works worth almost a billion pesos, awarded in a rush without public bidding in the Arroyo admin’s last two weeks in power. It also has returned to the state treasury P36 billion in excess allocation. The Department of Science too has halted a flawed P60-million contract intended for the Department of Agriculture. The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority has unearthed more than a billion pesos in unauthorized debts and deals.

Political and press criticism expectedly will resurge when P-Noy’s cabinet men and political allies start announcing their own appointees. This early a governor-pal has become target for hiring an Arroyo subaltern who oversaw the P2-billion swine scam that P-Noy himself had investigated. Complaints are being aired too about the stay of corrupt officials at the highways department, the immigration and Customs bureaus, and the civil aviation and export zone authorities. Even P-Noy’s Liberal Party has been lambasted for naturally trying to get as many congressional committee chairmanships as it can. P-Noy just can’t win them all.

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“To possess less is to be less possessed.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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