Gas in their tanks

"I hope that PBBM (President Bongbong Marcos) will not appoint and recycle losers in the May 2022 elections. High government positions should not become the refuge of political has-beens." These were the very hurtful words of Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez after the lapse of the one-year ban on appointments of election losers.

I do not know where Rodriguez got the idea that losing in an election necessarily makes one a has-been. There are winners and there are losers in every election, each one answering to an outcome not necessarily reflective of individual skill or value but of a combination of factors many of which are beyond their control.

Rodriguez is an incumbent, having won in the last election. Does that automatically make him better than an election loser? Maybe in his mind it does. Which is just as well, as small minds are only worth the measure of small things. Rodriguez is too local to amount to larger things. Maybe a run for the Senate can help clear the air in this regard.

There is an actual election loser in the person of Gibo Teodoro whose measure I am sure Rodriguez can never fill. Teodoro is not just an election loser, he is twice the recipient of such an ignominious fate. He has run and lost for the presidency, and again for a seat in the Senate. But has he ever lost the inherent capability of his person? I think not.

I am not batting for Teodoro to be appointed to anything. We are not personally known to each other. I am just citing him as an example of someone who can still contribute immensely to the task of nation building even if in a capacity other than what he aspired for but failed.

If President Marcos has withheld up to this day the appointment of secretaries to several very important Cabinet portfolios, I would like to believe that it is precisely because he is waiting for a few names to be freed from the election loser ban before he makes the appointments. Except for Health, Teodoro should be a contender for the rest.

There are other names as well among the ranks of the losers who still have the juice for any job, the gas in the tank to serve the country well, and not just to go to pasture as Rodriguez so haughtily implies. Panfilo Lacson is another election loser that I believe will make a very good appointee to the Marcos Cabinet.

Marcos can of course choose not to limit himself to losing candidates but pick from among the winners to finally complete the makeup of his official family. It has been done before by many other presidents. There is no reason why this president cannot or should not. What I am pretty certain, though, is he is unlikely to pick Rodriguez for anything.

Marcos could have filled his shopping cart much earlier if he had wanted to. There is no dearth of talent outside the circle of politicians in this country. So if he has not tapped this vast resource fully, it can only be that he already has an eye on who he wants, only that he has been constrained by the election loser ban.

But with that hindrance out of the way, expect the announcements to come soon. To be sure, some will hew to popular or logical expectations. But a few surprises cannot be ruled out. Marcos has done creditably well with his early appointments. Hopefully he does not disappoint. Having personally sat on Agriculture, this bears extra watching.