06/07/2010
Like the Biblical plague, thousands of locusts are descending upon the Philippine bureaucracy’s plains once again. New would-be appointees to the 5,000 posts the Aquinorroyo II regime will be recompensing for real or imagined service if the last electoral exercise is to strip bare the country’s political landscape.
Excluding President Joseph Estrada, there have been three full-fledged Yellow governments already since 1986. From the Edsa I regimes of Cory and FVR to the decade-long Edsa II Aquinorroyo era, where platoon changes occurred among political appointees, with others getting retained for one reason or another. The only change in the past 25 years has been the nation’s socio-economic crisis going from bad to worse. Instead of offering salvation or alleviation, the thousands of appointees from the Yellow movement have only burdened the nation. Let’s look at some of them.
Cory’s Cabinet had the likes of Joker Arroyo, Jess Estanislao, Frank Drilon, and many others. Joker’s fight with then Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin was said to have led to the latter’s suicide (although others maintain he was “suicided” by a US financial mafia). Joker, of course, also abolished the Department of Energy which precipitated the nation’s energy and power crisis — a crisis that has never left us since.
Jess Estanislao, meanwhile, as Finance Minister of Mrs. Aquino, abolished the OPSF ( Oil Price Stabilization Fund) as part of their administration’s overall deregulation of the economy. In as much as he claimed that it burdened the government, 25 years later, we can find more regulated economies like China or Thailand that are enjoying more robust growth with OPSFs of their own.
Drilon, for his part, was alleged to have used DoLE funds and resources for his late wife Violy’s IBP (Integrated Bar of the Philippines) campaign.
In all, Cory had the most number of appointees during her one-year revolutionary transition stint. She named carpetbaggers not only to national posts but also appointed literally tens of thousands of local officials in the nearly six dozen provinces, 2,400 municipalities and thousands of barangays.
While Cory’s administration claims to have “restored democracy,” it literally wiped out all elected positions to entrench its own unelected local officials, including the Ampatuans of Maguindanao, who 24 years later would come to haunt the entire nation.
When Cory anointed Fidel Ramos and ensured that he would be her heir, a new Cabinet and a host of underlings came, such as Bert Romulo, Bobby de Ocampo, Ruben Torres, Francisco Viray, down to Bebot Bello et al.
A standout among FVR’s Cabinet whom the grapevine is buzzing to be the next Finance man, former Finance Secretary Bobby de Ocampo, is someone I used to call “Bobo” de Ocampo for failing to heed our warning during a media kapihan I hosted at the old Cyber Press Café along Timog Avenue. It was March 1997 and I had gotten wind from the LaRouche Movement in the US of the plot by George Soros to crash the Asian currencies starting with the Thai baht, followed by the peso. De Ocampo, who was guest at that kapihan, said that it couldn’t happen to the peso because it was very stable at P35 then. Two months later, the peso crashed to P45. Yet even with that egregious error, he was still named “Finance Secretary of the Year” by Euromoney magazine and later became president of the Asian Institute of Management!
Dr. Francisco Viray and Engr. Delfin Lazaro were FVR’s Energy secretaries who were both party to the ensuing “Dark Age” which made the country suffer 12-hour blackouts and provided FVR the excuse to sign the larcenous purchased power agreements (PPA) that led to one of the highest electricity prices in the world.
Ruben Torres was infamous for allegedly raising his 1998 senatorial campaign funds from the OFW deployments to Taiwan, which were just opening massively at that time. Now, we are told that he is allegedly enjoying a life of ease in his Zambales farms. As for Bert Romulo, Cory Aquino’s Budget secretary, Gloria’s Finance secretary, Executive secretary and now Foreign secretary, perhaps an article wouldn’t be enough to chronicle the widespread protests from the rank-and-file of the Department of Foreign Affairs against his tenure.
And who could forget FVR’s Public Estates Authority (PEA) chief, who’s now floating along on the PEA-Amari golden parachute?
When GMA’s turn came, her co-conspirators to the Edsa II coup also got their juicy appointments. Gen. Edgardo Espinosa (alias “Spine”) got into Meco in Taipei (but was ousted soon afterwards allegedly for corruption). Then, we also witnessed Gen. Leandro Mendoza becoming DoTC chief; the shameless Hilario Davide getting the UN ambassadorship without confirmation; “civil society” fixtures like Dinky Soliman and Cesar Purisima getting the DSWD and DoF portfolios; and the likes of Bert Romulo and Bebot Bello continuously bungling their jobs but still itching to be re-appointed by Aquinorroyo II.
I myself got an offer for a directorship one month before election day. It was flattering but I declined it. The idea of joining the locust swarm revolts me. I’ve seen how these thousands of parasites — uncommitted to the public good and incompetent to eke out a living on their own — get appointed to cushy posts and live cushy lives at the expense of the truly hardworking people of this nation.
(Tune in to 1098AM, Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Destiny Cable Channel 21, Talk News TV — Infowars Edition, on “Gore and Smartmatic Info War vs Filipinos” with Mon Pedrosa and Adolfo Paglinawan, Tuesday, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)
(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel)
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100607com5.html
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