Mindanao should not monopolize political leadership

The incoming president, Mayor Rody Duterte, is from Davao City. The next Speaker of the House Representative Pantaleon Alvarez is from the province of Davao. The incoming Senate president, Aquilino L. Pimentel III, is from Cagayan de Oro. Majority of the Cabinet members are from Mindanao. Only the vice president, among the top four political leaders of the country and the government, is from Luzon. And she seems to be being marginalized. No one and no one is from the Visayas. This is now a reverse discrepancy. We have always been and are still for Mayor Digong. But this trend is neither good for him nor for the nation.

Cebu gave Mayor Duterte much more than one million votes. The Cebuanos love him that much with or without Winston Garcia's belated endorsement. And yet, Cebu is not even represented in the Senate. The party of Duterte did not carry our beloved Serge Osmeña who, much more than Manny Pacquiao, much more than Joel Villanueva, much more than Win Gatchalian, deserved to win a seat in that august body. And now, Cebu is not even represented in the Duterte Cabinet. Mindanao can very well spare one symbolic representation of Cebu. Many Cebuanos hated PNoy but at least the outgoing president put an Almendras in Malacañan and later in the DFA.

The well-deserving Secretary Dominguez is from Mindanao. We have no problem with that. Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea is from Davao, we have no problem with him either. He is a great son of the great Supreme Court Justice, Leo Medialdea. And he is very good by himself. Manny Pinol is a very good announcer, a fine governor. But would he make a good Agriculture Secretary as well? We do not know. The sister of Ramon Tulfo might have been a successful tourist company operator, but is she prepared to become Tourism Secretary? The same is true with the DOH Secretary, Dr Paulyn Jean Rossel Ubial. Mindanao, with all due respect, does not have the monopoly of talents and character.

We fully understand the incoming president when he told the press candidly that Davao is his only world, and naturally, he does not know a lot of people, much less the more qualified people, outside Mindanao. But when it comes to executive search, his trusted people like Bong Go and incoming Cabinet Secretary Ibasco should have availed of a more diverse and wider range of choices, coming from other parts of the nation. Mindanaoans have been complaining before that they were always forgotten when it comes to distributing budgets and career opportunities.  This time, it is Mindanao itself that seems to forget.

A good team is a balanced team, with diverse origins and with multiple perspectives. This is not Republic of Mindanao but Republic of the Philippines. I hope that the men and women in the inner circle of the president can look towards wider sources of talents. In fact, there are many insiders in government who can be tapped as career service men and women who shall provide as the link to assure continuity. In fact, the decision to promote Undersecretary Fortunato de la Pena as Secretary of the DOST was a good one. Suffice it to say, that what matters most in putting together a new team is the multi-lateral talent pool that can help the president lead with great expertise and passion. I hope the team still has time to rectify the discrepancies. That is if they want to.