Minimizing the pains of presidential transitions

Whenever the country, and any country for this matter, changes its head of state and head of government, there is normally a certain quantum of anxieties, fears, apprehensions, and even doubts and pains. This time in the Philippines, political appointees of PNoy and past dispensations must all be packing their bags by now, preparing their passports and must be ready to go after June 30, 2016. The incoming president has declared emphatically and without equivocation that his administration has no space for any PNoy appointee, including the good, the bad and the ugly, if any. Ugly, of course, in the context of the new protocol of integrity, lifestyle, and reputation.

There is a formidable legal caveat though. Career officials and personnel who have civil service and career executive job security are shielded from the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes." That said, however, does not mean that the new dispensation cannot move them around, transfer, and reshuffle them or send them to the peripheries of Bonggao, Tawi Tawi, or guard the western borders of the Spratlys. The President and his Cabinet, his alter egos, can make life easy or difficult for regional and bureau directors, even police and military commanders. He can either retain you or promote you or dismiss you, for cause and with expeditious due process.

That is the essence of presidential prerogatives and don't ever think that he is joking or merely pulling your legs. All the echelons of the bureaucracies, the government-owned and controlled corporations, the bureaus, the agencies, including all the civil and military units, the fire protection, the jail and prisons bureau, and all those involved in drug prevention and prosecutions, the judicial organizations (respecting, of course, the judicial independence of the courts), the prosecutorial services, all the agencies under the Department of Justice, the bureaucracies in the CHED, the DepEd, the directors, superintendents and supervisors and principals.

The president already warned  at least two police generals in Camp Crame who are allegedly linked to drugs and cries syndicates, (and there are more reportedly), to resign or retire immediately, at least before June 30, or else the incoming president shall unmask them and prosecute them, aside from dismissing them with ignominy and shame.

The president has a very effective intelligence operation watching the police, the military and the civil service. The president also warned the BIR, the Customs Bureau and the LTO and/or LTFRB to shape up or the agencies would be abolished and all of them shall go. Let the incumbents therefore beware. Even if they are career officers, they can lose their post by abolition.

There is however a very important caveat, and that is the requirement of due process. With due respect to President Rody, there are hundreds of thousands in the public service who are honest, hardworking, and devoted to the service. The condemnation should not be a shotgun approach where the good ones would perish along with the evil. There must be an opportunity to be heard before condemnation shall be made. Only the true scalawags, the scoundrels, and the rascals shall go. The meek, the honest, and the true public servants should have their poetic rewards. What matters most is that there must be justice in the movement of people.