Unbrilliant

Let me apologize to the linguists and grammarians in our midst if, for the purpose of this article today, I dare to coin a word which I propose to be "unbrilliant." My old dictionary does not have the word "unbrilliant." Differently said it may really mean there is no such word as unbrilliant. The dictionary though defines un- as a prefix meaning not. So. I thought that by prefixing un to the adjective brilliant, I might approximate the meaning of an act which is not brilliant. Thus, this daring coinage.

Having registered my apology, I will proceed to use this word. It was "unbrilliant" for His Excellency, President Benigno Simeon Cojuanco Aquino III to deviate from regular processes in the Malacañang Palace. The office of the president is a tangle of thoughts and ideas espoused by different personalities mostly of uncommon, at times, conflicting, interests. Before the president comes to a decision on which thought is best for the country or which idea is for the common weal, a number of faceless sub-alterns take the task of scrutinizing their philosophy and of anticipating their impact.

It is true that, by the doctrine of qualified political agency, all heads of line agencies are adjuncts to the president. The secretaries forming the cabinet are the alter egos of the president. In so far as their departments are concerned, their directives carry the weight and impact of the president's approval. In our system, unless the chief executive reprobates or disapproves or modifies any of the decisions of the secretaries, whatever the secretary does is presumed to have the approval of the president.

The administrative line in Malacañang, qualified political agency notwithstanding, is such that no legal document comes out of the office of the president without it having been studied and therefore recommended by the executive secretary. A complete staff work always accompanies every paper that is brought to the table of the president, for his action. At the bottom of such CSW is the signature of the Executive Secretary, is always accompanied by a Complete Staff Work. 

In applying the doctrine of qualified political agency on the administrative flow of all legal documents requiring the president's signature, let us consider that all the cabinet secretaries regularly forward their papers to the executive secretary for the president's imprimatur.

If it is true that the ES is supposed to enjoy the utmost trust and confidence of the president, President Aquino should have sought his counsel on the DAP issue. The president was unbrilliant in omitting a possible source of sound judgment. For all we know, the Executive Secretary, as a result of the work of his underlings, might have warned the president on the impending illegality of the DAP. You see, the men and women occupying tables in that office and thru whom all documents are carefully evaluated, are also patriotic citizens such that they dedicate themselves to their work more with national interest in mind that political subservience. I would have wanted to believe that Secretary Ochoa with patriotic men in his fold, could have seen the illegality of cross-border allocations of funds under which the DAP was generally characterized.

From hindsight, it can be concluded that it was unbrilliant for President Aquino to have the DAP papers signed by Secretary of Finance Roberto Abad and approved by him without the same being coursed thru Secretary Ochoa. Had not the president acquiesced to the bypass of Secretary Ochoa, the executive secretary could have offered a second opinion on the way the DAP funds were allocated.

With the Supreme Court voiding many parts of the DAP allocations, the president should have taken cue. The perceived author of the DAP being Secretary Abad, it was not necessarily brilliant but it would have been wise, for the president to let Secretary Abad go. Many days after the pronouncement of the illegality of some DAP programs, Secretary Abad tendered a lame resignation. But it was unbrilliant for the president not to accept it outright. What President Aquino stated in justifying the rejection of the resignation of Secretary Abad despite the overwhelming call to remove the secretary from any power, was unbrilliant. Alas, if in this very important subject the president committed a disturbingly unbrilliant act, how many unbrilliancies had he done in the past three years.

***

Email: [email protected]