Repaying debt

Asked about the fate of actor Cesar Montano, President Duterte seemed clueless about the abuses imputed on his appointee as chief operating officer of the Tourism Promotion Board.

Or at least that’s a kind explanation for Du30’s quick expression of trust in Montano who, if the accusations against him are true, didn’t lose time turning public office into a personal playground. The administrative complaints could earn Montano a criminal indictment for nepotism and wanton spending of people’s money – offenses that could put him in prison for many years.

If the complaints are true, Montano is hardly the first public official who sees the government as an employer with bottomless pockets and infinite job vacancies with no qualifications required. The Duterte administration inherited the culture – but doesn’t the new government stand for “real change”?

Du30 made two major promises during his campaign for the presidency: to drastically reduce the drug problem and criminality, and to curb corruption.

Both promises were greeted with raised eyebrows. His self-imposed six-month deadline to stop the drug menace was his first unfulfilled promise, despite the brutal Oplan Tokhang and Double Barrel.

The promise to stamp out corruption has been met by the same skepticism that hounded the twilight of daang matuwid, especially since Du30 has aligned himself with characters linked in recent years to plunder.

As Noynoy Aquino must have realized, it’s not enough for a president to be personally clean (although it’s a great improvement in this land of mandarambong); his trusted officials must be just as clean. Today the public continues to suffer from having the Metro Rail Transit turned into a milking cow during his watch. Even the pervasiveness of the drug menace can be blamed on corruption, which continued during daang sarado. Police generals now tagged as the top coddlers of drug dealers were known to be close to officials of the previous administration.

Yesterday Du30 repeated his warning: “Corruption in government must stop… ayaw ko ng corruption.”

The warning was issued before the League of Municipalities. Many members of the league of local government executives must have secretly snickered at the warning and thought, “Make me.”

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Du30 said his narco list included the names of 40 percent of barangay captains and other village officials nationwide. The barangay officials are all holdovers from the previous administration. 

We know how the new government deals with village officials linked to drugs. What will be revealing is how the President deals with his appointees who are implicated in wrongdoing.

So far Duterte has shown that he won’t hesitate to jettison his appointees who undermine his promise of clean government.

Du30 has gotten rid of his campaign spokesman Peter Laviña, stressing that the National Irrigation Administration chief did not resign but was fired over a corruption scandal. There are reports that the next on the firing line is Jason Aquino, chief of the National Food Authority, for unauthorized rice importations.

Also out are two immigration deputy commissioners linked to the P50-million bribery involving casino mogul Jack Lam last November. Al Argosino and Michael Robles belong to Du30’s San Beda law school fraternity Lex Talionis.

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Du30 also did not hesitate to let go of his college dormitory roommate Perfecto Yasay Jr. as foreign affairs chief. While the President had made it abundantly clear that Yasay was merely warming the seat for Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, Yasay had also made it clear that he wanted to keep the post – the reason he had to face the Commission on Appointments (CA).

Yasay gave the President a perfect reason to dump him – unanimous rejection by the CA committee on foreign affairs, and for an ignominious reason: perjury.

Since the CA panel’s rejection, Du30 has been attempting to soften the blow, explaining that Yasay was granted asylum during the martial law regime and therefore had to be issued a US passport. But Yasay held on to his American citizenship long after martial law was over, until it no longer suited him.

And Du30 himself knew that the story was irrelevant to the main issue against his friend: lying to the CA. So unlike Du30’s continuing open support for embattled Environment Secretary Gina Lopez, he dropped Yasay like a hot potato.

Yesterday Du30 hinted that his running mate Cayetano might not get Yasay’s post after all. Maybe Du30 thinks Cayetano has an American mother and there could also be questions about his citizenship and fitness to be the nation’s top diplomat. Maybe it’s Du30’s way of assuaging Yasay’s pain.

Or maybe “real change” has also come to the Department of Foreign Affairs, with a career diplomat, acting Secretary Enrique Manalo, to get a permanent appointment.

The entrance exam for the foreign service is one of the toughest. Career diplomats surely dream of rising to the top of their department.

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After the scandals involving some of his appointees less than a year into his term, President Duterte could use better vetting and cast a wider net in his recruitment.

There’s nothing wrong with a president wanting to work with people he knows well and trusts. Every president recruited officials from his pool of friends from school, his profession and hometown.

As Joseph Estrada memorably said, “weather-weather lang ’yan.”  To each his own season. These days the weather favors the San Beda and Davao City networks.

But even when drawing from one’s friendships and old school ties, or repaying political debts, it should be possible to consider capability and fitness for the job. Corrupt societies are characterized by the lack of a meritocracy, with career advancement based largely on the right connections.

Several of President Duterte’s appointees are clearly in over their head in their jobs, and public service has suffered.

Their only qualification is that they supported the President during his campaign. It’s useful to remember that he owes his presidency not just to these individuals, but to the 16.6 million Filipinos who elected him by a landslide, from Mindanao to the Visayas and what he likes to describe as “imperial Manila.”

Filipinos have suffered enough from official incompetence and rapacity. With over 103 million Filipinos, people wonder, each time the President makes a questionable appointment: don’t we have enough competent people?

Wala na bang iba? Isn’t there anyone else? Political debts can be repaid in other ways, not at the expense of public service.