The New Year will herald some changes in his team, President Aquino said, with about three Cabinet secretaries to be affected. His choices will be scrutinized for indications of his priorities. Will the new appointees be chosen based mostly on proven competence, personal ties or political consideration? The success of his administration can depend on his selection of men and women to carry out his policies.
In the President’s first half-year in office, a recurring criticism is that he has surrounded himself with amateurs picked from a shallow talent pool. This, the critics say, has given his enemies ammunition to block his reform programs. The criticism is unfair to many of his Cabinet members who have performed well so far in the brief time that they have been in office. But the criticism should remind the President that Filipino patience tends to run out quickly, even with an immensely popular chief executive.
The President enters his seventh month in office with performance ratings still high enough for him to force bitter pills down reluctant throats and compel cooperation from political opponents. He can risk making decisions that are unpopular but are good for the long-term health of the nation.
Sustaining those programs for the long term will require competent, credible men and women. A president of course needs to have officials who enjoy his full trust, and it is his prerogative to fire anyone simply for loss of confidence. But the importance of fitness for the job cannot be ignored. And because he won the presidency on an anti-corruption platform, his choices should reflect the importance he attaches to personal integrity.
Turf wars are common in every administration, but a president must see to it that the infighting does not adversely affect governance. To many observers, warring factions are setting back some of the goals of the new administration. The forthcoming Cabinet shakeup, although not sweeping, should help correct this situation. Any changes should have one prime consideration: better public service. The nation deserves the best.