The King’s men

With the exception of Secretary of Foreign Affairs Perfecto Yasay and Secretary Regina Lopez of Environment and Natural Resources, the administration personalities that have figured in controversy are of subcabinet. Among others, Peter Lavina of National Irrigation Administration, Al Argosino and Michael Robles of the Bureau of Immigration, Ronald de la Rosa of the Philippine National Police. But the fragrant adventures of these un-elected officials are provoking a refocus of media attention. Suddenly, there is an interest in the backstories of all the President’s men.

As the size of the bureaucracy keeps increasing, it becomes impossible for the President to keep an eye, 24/7, on everyone he has tasked to assist him. The number of Presidential appointees, depending on Presidential Management Staff or Department of Budget and Management statistics, range from 15 to 20,000. With the August 2016 order declaring all appointive positions vacant, he is free to fill in all these vacancies.

Qualified political agency. Appointees may be strangers to the country but are, importantly, of the President’s “bosom confidence.” Of course, the front liners in his administration are the members of his Cabinet. The President has largely succeeded in this initial test, that of selecting the right balance of men and women as alter egos. As indicated before, he hit the jackpot with his selections – specially the veterans of the Estrada and Arroyo administrations as well as the nominees from the left.

Presidents utilize their appointments in different ways. The micro manager  would largely ignore them as we works himself to death trying to literally be the sole Executive. Then there is the Jacksonian spoils model of using the positions as payment for “debts of gratitude,” relying instead on informal advisers to do the grunt work. The ideal scenario is the President who chooses the right person and knows when to get out of the way to let him do his job.

When the person becomes the story, as now, public service suffers. Its best that the President’s advisers do better spade work in vetting prospects for appointment so that the agenda does not derail. The ancient rhyme sees the kings men putting humpty back together. They are not supposed to cause the great fall.

Overflow. We may be forgiven for assuming that the watershed moment in the battle against illegal drugs was the election of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. Its actually not.

The date of reckoning was June 7, 2002, the day the Dangerous Drugs Act became law. This law, specially in the early years of its implementation, made it easier to apprehend and convict drug users and traffickers. 92.5percent of crimes, at least in Metro Manila, are drug related.

In fact, Corrections officialdom credit the Dangerous Drugs Act for the boom in the volume of prisoners. The latest ascertainable record places the prison population total at around 142,000 in a prison system with a 34,000 official capacity. This means our jails are more than 300 percent overcrowded.

The conditions of our jails are truly wretched. And they will get worse as we anticipate an avalanche of new drug prisoners unless the “mysterious” extermination of drug offenders continues (it’s a mystery to the administration only).

So, the begged question – if the Dangerous Drug Act was supposed to be the solution, what went wrong? Ask Presidents Arroyo and Aquino III why they allowed President Duterte to be welcomed by the worst drug problem in our country’s history.

Children in conflict. The President’s peace and order platform continues center stage in the Congressional agenda as the House turns it eyes to the contentious issue of lowering the age of criminal liability. To be sure, there is ample justification to revisit the policy of the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act. The foremost reasons are the pampering argument (coddling them as they know they can get away with it) and the exploitation by syndicates of this loophole.

But, as the law’s principal author Senator Francis Pangilinan reminds us, studies recognize the deep seated reasons for the criminality of minors. Its not always depravity as it is actual instinct for survival that compels the unfortunate conduct.

Rather than pour resources into punishment, would it not be more productive to concentrate on prevention? These kids, largely abandoned by their parents, should now be our wards as the State stands in loco parentis. Or, instead of exerting precious Congressional effort on a review and amendment of the law, why not exercise the power of oversight and just implement the law properly?

We can do better. Take a page from the President’s own success story in Davao where, under his leadership, the proper enforcement of the law saw a high of 3,662 incidents in 2012 diminish to 724 in 2015.

As it stands now, minors who have been incarcerated at the different intervention centers or Bahay Pag-Asa (BPA) around the nation have already become hardened. These BPAs have been shown to be no better than adult jails – their only merit is their utility in the further miseducation of these  misdirected children.

“A society should be judged not by how it treats its outstanding citizens but by how it treats its criminals.” Dostoevsky has a point. Let’s rehabilitate our humanity.

Subpoena: BLUE. The Ateneo Law Alumni Association Inc. invites alumni from all Ateneo Schools of Law (Manila, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga) to fellowship on the sides of next week’s IBP National Convention. On Friday, March 24 at 5 p.m., Ateneo Law alumni from Congress, the Cabinet, the Judiciary, together with our leading members of the profession convene at the Belmont Hotel (across Resorts World) to meet the Ateneo IBP delegates. Fly in and join us!

Tidbits. Happy Birthday to good friends Aloysius So and Dennis Gan, classmates at Xavier high school batch 1981. And to my son, Ernest “Max” V. Maceda, who turned a year older yesterday, my hopes that your life decisions continue to be informed by the values your family has instilled.