EDITORIAL - Cabinet needs problem solvers, not whiners

Energy secretary Jericho Petilla seems to have neither the energy nor the passion for positive and creative thinking. As energy czar, one would have expected of him to outline policies and programs designed to bring the country on the road to energy sufficiency. He is supposed to shepherd this country's energy needs toward an oasis of energy solutions.

But contrary to his countrymen's expectations, Petilla seems more predisposed and comfortable whining about the country's energy problems and how they can be solved not by any policy or program that he, as energy czar, has developed or initiated but by giving the president extraordinary powers to do so. Does Petilla even understand what he is in the Cabinet for?

Unless there is another reason why the president took in Petilla, he is supposed to be solving the president's problems pertaining to energy. That is why there are people appointed to Cabinet positions -- so that the president will not have to deal with particular problems himself. This is called delegation of powers. If the country has energy problems, it is the energy secretary who finds solutions. He does not whine about them, or worse, pass them on to the president.

But that is precisely what Petilla has been doing since his first day in office. He is one of the most active Cabinet secretaries when it comes to meeting the press. But such meetings are almost never about disclosing positive developments. They are almost always about looming problems, problems that he proposes to solve not by himself but by someone else, who happens to be no other than the president himself, who he proposes to give extraordinary powers.

If every Cabinet secretary operates like Petilla, our president will end up becoming the most extraordinarily powerful president in the world. Thankfully, not every Cabinet secretary sees things so negatively or passes the buck so regularly, or behaves in a manner that seems totally out of synch with the portfolio he has been given.

Take the most recent case of the Pandacan depot in Manila whose relocation and transfer the Supreme Court ordered. True to form, Petilla quickly faced the press and announced the possibility of oil companies consequently raising fuel prices to cover additional transportation costs, thereby beating to the draw the oil companies themselves in making the announcement. It is as if the energy secretary has become the new spokesman for the oil companies.

But why did he make the announcement? Why did he not instead meet the oil companies to discuss what would be to the best interest of the public in light of the development? As energy secretary, he certainly holds certain persuasive powers that not even the giant oil companies can ignore or deny. After all, an energy secretary is an energy secretary. Unless, of course, there is really no reason for Petilla to be one other than being a strategically positioned political ally of the president.