Unseen and unfelt reforms

A person holding public office and rendering public service are subject to different sets of standards than other ordinary working people, professionals or employees. Foremost among these differences is the principle that “public office is a public trust”. This is the principle enshrined in our Constitution (Article XI Section 1) calling for public officials and employees to hold their positions in trust for the people they represent. It is from this principle where the sense of delicadeza is derived.

Government officials or employees with a sense of delicadeza are those who will not hesitate to immediately and irrevocably quit and step down from their positions once doubts arise on their integrity and competence to perform the duties of their office. Thus when said public officials or employees are implicated in some anomalies that erode public trust and confidence in them, their immediate reaction is to unconditionally and irreversibly give up their posts. 

However, under our present system of government since we became a democratic and independent Republic, this sense of delicadeza seems to have been completely lost or abandoned. The usual reaction of government officials and employees now is to deny any involvement in anomalies and other irregularities attributed to them and challenge those blaming and incriminating them to “prove it.” They cling to their positions like leeches and smugly tell the people that they “serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority” who is usually the President. Rarely do we have public officials still having a sense of delicadeza, more noticeably and obviously under the present P-Noy administration.

Thus, it is like a whiff of fresh air when news reports recently came out that a newly appointed official of this administration irrevocably quit his position. Rare indeed is the example shown by Mr. Arthur Juan, a retired executive of San Miguel Corp., when he immediately gave up his post as Administrator of the National Food Authority (NFA) based on a mere accusation of a rice trader whose warehouse was closed because it was found to be distributing commercial rice adulterated with animal feeds during a raid conducted by the NFA and the DILG.

Mr. Juan’s move is more exceptional because it seems he has more reasons not to immediately resign. Apparently the accusation against him of trying to extort huge amount of money (P15 million) looks dubious and questionable as it came from a disgruntled individual whose warehouse was padlocked because he was found to be doing something wrong. More so is the evidence linking him to the alleged extortion which is a mere text message from a cell phone. It is true that text messages are now admissible under our Rules of Court as electronic evidence. But its probative value is not as high as that of an authenticated document because it is difficult to authenticate as it can easily be tampered with.

Mr. Juan indeed could have held on to his post until those charges have been tried and proven in court as all the other officials are wont to do. And based on the dubious evidence gathered by the NBI which has been prematurely publicized, the chances are he may be acquitted. So his irrevocable resignation at this stage is admirable indeed. He has shown us that he has not yet lost the sense of delicadeza now missing in most of our government officials.

Unfortunately instead of receiving some compliments and kind words from Malacanang, he was even placed in a bad light. Malacanang’s reaction was to announce that his replacement will be someone with integrity and honesty. From such kind of reaction, the only conclusion to be derived is that P-Noy and his people already believe in the NBI findings.

Mr. Juan’s case is exactly opposite that of PNP Chief Alan Purisima. While both are the head of their respective offices, General Purisima is admittedly closer to P-Noy as he was formerly P-Noy’s security escort during one of the coups staged against Cory.

 Based on the evidence so far gathered, it turns out that Purisima has a four hectare real estate property in San Leonardo, Nueva Ecija Nueva together with several improvements erected thereon consisting of a luxurious and sprawling rest-house with swimming pool as well as modern and well equipped poultry houses apparently worth more than what is declared in his Statement of Assets and Liabilities (SALN).

It has also been established that he has several luxury vehicles most notably a Toyota Land Cruiser (Prado) supposedly with a market price of P4 million which he bought at a big discount in the sum of P1.5 million only from a San Fernando Pampanga dealer.

It has also been shown that an P11 million Official Residence of the PNP Chief has been built inside Camp Crame known as the “White House” through his initiative. Said luxurious residence was built not out of government funds but from the donations made by his brother Masons”   engaged in the construction business.

Apparently there are some irregularities and questionable aspects in the foregoing exposes. During the Senate hearing Purisima has not denied any of them. He merely tried to explain them. Apparently however, his explanation has not been satisfactory and credible as far as the Senators and the public is concerned. The clamor for his resignation continues to rise even after his Senate appearance because people believe that there is something irregular and illegal in all these exposes. But Purisima remains deaf to their demands He clings to his post like a leech which shows lack of delicadeza.

The most unfortunate part of this episode is that Purisima still enjoys Malacanang’s confidence. P-Noy in fact has even defended him. He believes that Purisima is still within the daang matuwid Obviously P-Noy also lacks delicadeza. If this is his kind of daang matuwid, then he has not really introduced any government reforms worth finishing. There is no need to extend his term. In fact people will be happier if he resigns now.  

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