Resign

NO HOLDS BARRED

Armida Siguion-Reyna

06/18/2010

Heaven knows the number of times this lola made the call here for the Inglorious One to do so, but she never did, not even after the public release of the “Hello Garci” recordings which indubitably showed numbers were manipulated to make it appear she won in 2004 over Fernando Poe Jr., “So will I still lead by one million?… ‘yung dagdag, ‘yung dagdag!” Wags said the problem there was how to make someone who was never really elected officially leave a post not hers to begin with.

Jokes like these were cracked in the gazillion rallies mounted to make her go but I never thought it funny, not even the one that had her manikurista supposedly complaining “Wala nang kuko si Ma’am, napudpod, kakakapit sa puwesto.” Especially as in real life that manikurista, by the name of Anita Carbon, also constant traveling companion and part of Gloria Arroyo’s sisterhood of the traveling pants to here and there of the globe, got appointed trustee of the government-run Home Development Mutual Fund of the Philippines, or the Pag-ibig Fund, which enables members to acquire suitable housing through an efficient savings system. As trustee, Carbon was to get a monthly compensation of a little over a hundred thousand pesos, for a fixed two-year term.

Exactly what she was going to do in the board is perhaps what scared her, for in the end she decided not to accept the designation, no matter she was to “represent the poor,” according to her female Bossing. Buti pa si Carbon, at nagdalang-hiya, hindi naniwala sa kanyang supposedly being kinatawan ng mahirap. Hearing that from the woman who looked down on FPJ for being merely an artista must have been a little bit too much for Carbon to believe. I have no love lost for the Pagcor’s Efraim Genuino, or johnny-come-lately at the Cultural Center Carmencita Pedrosa, but they voluntarily gave up their respective offices and for that they must be recognized, no matter the real reasons for their leaving.

Genuino’s use of Pagcor funds to favor administration candidates and party-lists has long been touted, there are rumors of a bigger scandal to do with alleged laundering of funds involving another movie producer and a senator. His abrupt departure has been accepted by the President-elect as “at least one less headache.” Pedrosa claims she wanted to leave first before she got sacked. Why she was so sure of being booted out may have had to do with the false white paper she had circulated regarding then candidate Aquino’s psychiatric health, and for which she is yet to apologize.

Anyway. This much can’t be said of the other 250 or so “midnight appointees” now clinging to their postings. Midnight, because the ban on the presidential appointees for the outgoing president fell on March 10, 2010, and the appointments were made photo-finish on March 9, some say even after, and that documents were antedated na lang to make appear aboveboard. Among these, according to the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan matrix, also based and derived from abs-cbnnews.com and Newsbreak: Minita Chico-Nazario, as chairman, Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC).

The former Supreme Court justice is said to have been rewarded for concurring with the Supreme Court majority decision in Romulo Neri v. Senate Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations, et al. Said decision effectively allowed Neri not to spill the beans on the NBN-ZTE transactions being investigated in the Senate at that time; Chico-Nazario was touted to be for pushing Neri to testify, alas and alack, hindi pala. Now she heads the PNOC-EC. Tirso Danga, as board member, PNOC-EC. Danga was chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, when the Isafp was wiretapping the telephone conversations of government officials.

The “Hello Garci” tapes are held to be a harvest of that wiretapping, lo and behold, for some reason Danga was rewarded. Ang sabi daw, there’s more of the recordings where it came from. Containing specifically what and between whom, we’re not yet to know. The PNOC-EC seems to be the favorite tapunan of midnight appointees, scuttlebutt has it the honorarium there is nothing to sneeze at. Manolo Gorospe, infamously known as the Comelec’s “Kissing Lolo,” is board member of PNOC subsidiary Development and Management Corp. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, under whose watch Jonas Burgos disappeared and extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances were documented, is president and CEO of the PNOC Alternative Fuels Corp.

If you were staunchly pro-Arroyo to the last remaining months — or should I say gasps? — of her tenure, you would have been rewarded. Her political adviser Gabby Claudio who is not an engineer got appointed to a fixed term in the water utility board where the vacancy was clearly for an engineer. Pro-Arroyo columnist Alex Magno is board member of the Development Bank of the Philippines. Donald Dee, whose name cropped up several times in the NBN-ZTE investigation, is board member of the Social Security System. Ramon Revilla, whom I last heard to have had a stroke and while recovered is arguably not in a position to fully carry out responsibilities, was reappointed chairman of the Philippine Reclamation Authority. Mark Lapid, former Pampanga governor, was appointed general manager of the Philippine Tourism Authority vacated when Dean Barbers ran for elective office. E, the PTA was abolished in favor of the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority, so gumawa ng madaliang implementing rules and regulations nito, at muling iniluklok si Lapid for a fixed term of six years, mahabaging langit.

Ten regional trial courts were filled up, as all other imaginable vacancies. As Malaya columnist Lito Banayo pointed out — basta lang may bakanteng puwesto, nilagyan. Basta may butas, pinasukan. Leaving the president-elect with the big PR headache of either firing the midnight appointees or leaving them in position where they are able to bar disclosure of anomalies of the past administration. As Banayo again explains, Arroyo did not have to inflict her midnight appointees on the incoming presidency, as “The enabling law provides that directors shall serve for one year, or ‘until his or her successor shall have been duly appointed and qualified.’” Meaning, say, if Movie and Television Review and Classification Board Chairman Ma. Consoliza Laguardia has not been replaced by June 30, when the new president takes over, she continues to serve as MTRCB chairman. Unless she resigns, which is the honorable thing to do.

How to expect honor from 250 people who got to be where they are now for forgetting the difference between right and wrong — ibang usapan na iyan. To save face, they can only resign.

(For comments, write to armida114@yahoo.com)

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