The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Ed Javier / Where I Stand
The nation is angry. If the President’s advisers want him to sail smoothly to the end of his term, they must advise him to do something decisive. That way, he can regain control of the country’s emotion gone awry. He just might be able to leave Malacañang with his head held up high.
For starters, the Presiden t must let go of two of his albatrosses. One is the suspended chief of the Philippine National Police, Allan Purisima. The other one is Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala.
Someone has to take responsibility for the bloodbath in Mamasapano, Maguindanao. Someone high up. Unfortunately, the blame won’t go to Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas. Nor will PNP Officer-in-charge Leonardo Espina be absorbing the public’s wrath. Both have been left out in this bungled operation. No, they will not be blamed.
The apparent Malacañang-cooked ploy to pin the blame on the supposed “minimal compliance” by some members of the PNP Special Action Forces (SAF) who perished in the massacre also won’t work. Nobody is buying the lie that no one very high in the administration totem pole did not bless nor give the go-signal for this botched operation.
If the President does not watch it, the buck will stop with him. If his cabal fails to manage this situation, he will be damaged goods. Very damaged.
One palliative is to let Allan Purisima go. Let Espina or somebody else respected and competent from the PNP corps of officers assume the position on a permanent basis. Let Purisima take the blame, whether or not it can be established clearly that he, indeed, called the shots for the botched operation.
The President must show that he can let go of his appointees who have done nothing for him except to serve as his security blanket and emotional crutch. A permanent exit for Purisima would do that.
Another crutch he must now let go-—and let go ASAP—is Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala.
Alcala has long been mired in controversies. The garlic-cartel issue now being investigated by the Department of Justice has buried Alcala deeper in the quicksand of scandals that rocked his department.
Even before that, the rice smuggling and hoarding scandal had rocked the National Food Authority (NFA) when it was still under his watch.
Aggravating these is that well-known inclusion of several agencies under him in the list of alleged entities that were reportedly involved in the modus operandi of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) identified with Janet Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the multibillion-peso pork-barrel scam.
Billions of pesos in the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to fake NGOs accredited by the DA were reportedly used as conduits for the pork-barrel funds.
Whistleblowers point to a high-ranking DA official as the alleged gatekeeper of NGOs that received public funds for livelihood projects. Alcala pledged to look into the possible culpability of a DA official although it’s not clear if anything has come out of the investigation.
This reflects badly on Alcala’s kind of leadership. He himself is facing several plunder charges. Has he been able to deliver on his promise to reform the agency? We don’t think so. Reading the newspapers nowadays reveals that almost every major anomaly involves his department.
The President has been known to fire agency heads who have been accused of lesser evil. The public can only wonder why someone like Alcala can lounge cozily in his position despite all these.
True, there have been gains in the agriculture sector. However, if the President does not watch out, Alcala’s continued controversial presence in office might eclipse whatever gains have been achieved in the agriculture sector.
Purisima and Alcala, plus similar other personalities in the Aquino administration, are a threat to two things that are crucial at this point. One is the President’s legacy. The other is the power of his endorsement in the 2016 elections.
The public is angry. The way it looks, that collective anger is not about to subside in the near future. In fact, given the President’s penchant for ignoring public sentiments and emotions, that anger can still turn for the worse.
That anger can make them forget whatever good may have been achieved during his term. The President must not forget that his mother had low ratings prior to her departure from office. It will be recalled that the dip in her rating could not be stopped that she fumed at one Cabinet member whose star was rising prior to the end of her term.
Albatrosses such as Purisima and Alcala can only damage the President’s endorsement power. The worst thing that can happen to him is for candidates in the Liberal Party slate to request that he abstain from joining them in their sorties.
By refusing to get rid of the albatrosses, the President may end up being one.