Lost assets

After Gregory Domingo of trade, Albert del Rosario is leaving the post of secretary of foreign affairs. Why are the assets the ones who are leaving, while the liabilities are clinging on for dear life to their posts?

The liabilities are tainting the six years of President Aquino and are additional burdens on the campaign of his anointed, who is hoping to be borne to power not on his merits but on the negative campaign tack that he is also said to have employed against Loren Legarda in the vice presidential race in 2010.

If the complaints of the presidential candidates are valid, it seems the daang sarado camp is making sure all bases are covered this time and is maligning everyone. The opponents are retaliating by hitting not only Mar Roxas but mostly P-Noy and his administration, with some crude comments from Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

Now that the mayor is certain of his candidacy (unless the other Commission on Elections, the Supreme Court, rules otherwise, which at this point looks unlikely), he should take lessons in finesse and start sounding presidential.

Duterte may want to get a tutorial from the nation’s top diplomat, before Del Rosario leaves next month for follow-up surgery on his spine in the United States. Ever the diplomat, Del Rosario would not name the hospital where he had his first “unsuccessful operation,” except to say it was in “a well known hospital” in New York City.

“I am saddened at having to leave the President’s Cabinet prematurely,” Del Rosario told me the other night. “I have tried and continued pursuing alternative (medical) solutions here and abroad. As of a few months ago, I am also now the proud bearer of a newly installed pacemaker. Looks like a case of machinery breakdown, but that’s life, right?”

What were the ups and downs of being foreign affairs chief? “No downs, all up. Truly,” he replied. “Influenced by the President’s positive management style. He’s cool.”

Del Rosario will be with P-Noy in California this month for a special ASEAN-US summit.

After that, there will be no more major foreign engagements for P-Noy and he can focus on trying to make his popularity rub off on his anointed.

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This mission has uncertain results. Pinoys don’t pick presidents on the basis of the incumbent’s afterglow, although it seems the afterglow of a recently deceased person is OK. The nation’s top official usually has his or her own personality that invites a near cult-like following.

Corazon Aquino did not have to work too hard for her anointed, Fidel Ramos, because he had earned his cred as an EDSA hero and was pitted against a candidate seen as the quintessential traditional politician, then speaker Ramon Mitra Jr. The post of House speaker requires the art of compromise and expertise in horse-trading, but it earns the person the trapo tag, which is a negative for Philippine presidential aspirants.

Mitra, also the candidate of the Catholic Church, was buried by political newcomer Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who believes to this day that she was cheated of the presidency. Businessman Eduardo Cojuangco also got more votes than Mitra.

In 1998, even the generally favorable reviews of the Ramos presidency failed to translate into votes for his anointed, then speaker Jose de Venecia. Joseph Estrada’s star power earned him a landslide victory.

Erap didn’t get to pick a successor. Instead the presidency dropped into the lap of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2001. GMA’s election machinery when she sought a six-year term – if the accusations are accurate – edged out action king Fernando Poe Jr. by a million votes in 2004.

Surely P-Noy understands first hand the cult appeal needed by those who aspire for the presidency in this country. And surely he suspects that his anointed doesn’t have it.

A Liberal Party stalwart, who has been wringing his hands in despair over an unfinished key infrastructure project in his province, recently sighed to The STAR that the LP standard bearer is a heavy weight to carry: “Mabigat dalhin.”

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The non-performers in P-Noy’s official family are adding to that weight, especially since they are known stalwarts of the LP or are members of his inner circle who are co-terminus with him.

One has seen his family fortunes expand exponentially since 2010, to now include a budding airline and tourism infrastructure in his turf. Perhaps the wealth will be depleted in litigation expenses once P-Noy steps down.

If daang matuwid now sounds like a tired refrain, it is because people believe P-Noy allows straying from his straight path if the wrongdoers are his allies.

P-Noy doesn’t grasp – or probably doesn’t care – about the damage to his anointed that is being inflicted by his late mother’s former security aides who are now running the Department of Transportation and Communications including the airports.

Every commuter who is inconvenienced by the regular breakdowns in the Metro Rail Transit, every driver who keeps going back to the Land Transportation Office to follow up his license card, every motorist who fails to get his vehicle license plates upon payment is blaming P-Noy. This is what’s rubbing off on his candidate.

Now there’s the case of his team in the National Printing Office, who will be in charge of printing the ballots for May. In July last year, the ombudsman ordered the dismissal of six top NPO officials for grave misconduct over the anomalous printing of travel clearance certificates of the National Bureau of Investigation. If the officials belong to the opposition, the ombudsman’s order would surely have been served faster than you can say motion for reconsideration, even after office hours and at the respondents’ home. But the NPO officials have been allowed to stay on until after their MR has been decided on. The NPO is under the Office of the President.

Daang sarado, for all its perorations against the pork barrel scam, also has one of those indicted in its Senate slate, mainly because his father heads a charismatic group that is promising over a million votes. Three senators have been detained without bail in connection with the scam. No one else has followed in the senators’ wake.

The budget chief has been indicted for plunder in connection with the Disbursement Acceleration Program. Daang sarado deems him innocent until his accusers can prove his guilt; when it comes to the opposition, the reverse is the norm. The ombudsman recently announced that P-Noy can’t be held criminally liable for the DAP.

With the looming departure of Del Rosario, P-Noy will still have some assets in his stable. Like bad news selling more than the good, however, what the public remembers are the lousy performers who make people’s lives miserable.