Fumbling Palace men

EDITORIAL

Click to enlarge

07/12/2010

Noynoy Aquino’s men at the Palace are not giving the presidency a good impression, what with the way they miscommunicate the administration’s stand on major issues and reflect Noynoy’s capability on running a government.

But it also must be said that Aquino himself is clearly lacking in getting his people coordinated, as a leader should. This could be a major reason the Palace people appear to be dancing to different tunes, as evidently Aquino is leaving everything to his men, without, however, getting his policy or orders coordinated, as his men appear to doing their own thing, their own way.

On his first official day as President, the Palace released Memorandum Circular No. 1 (MC 1) that was obviously targeting the political appointees of former President Arroyo but the way it was worded, it affected much more the state workers, thus causing a commotion among public servants. The order was reworded and the Palace refused to admit the mistake asserting that MC 1 underwent refinement. The only trouble was that it was already signed, issued and published in the papers before being refined.

Lately, Palace spokesman Edwin Lacierda went all out in saying that the Aquino administration will take all possible actions, including impeachment to kick out Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez from his office, only to withdraw his statement the next day, stating that Gutierrez may stay on as Ombudsman because of the fixed term provided for the head of the constitutional body.

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., the official being blamed for the MC 1 faux pas, just the other day said that Aquino is studying all options to revoke Executive Order No. 464 (EO 464) that Arroyo issued requiring officials in the executive department to seek her approval before attending Congress’ inquiries which makes for a convenient excuse for her officials to evade legislative inquiries.

In the process of explaining the administration’s plan to have the EO revoked, Ochoa, nevertheless, began speaking in riddles, saying that it may take time before the EO is finally revoked because the administration is validating its ideas against the realities of the office, which is a roundabout way of saying that their viewpoints on issues have changed since they assumed power.

Ochoa would have been better off saying nothing about the removal of the EO and other oppressive edicts of Gloria, for now, something that most of the people who voted Noynoy into office have been expecting him to do.

Ochoa’s statement paints an administration that has abandoned all its lofty campaign promises now that it is already in the seat of power.

The frequent flip-flops and equivocating at the Palace, thus, prods a perception of nothing much has changed during Gloria’s nine years of misrule when lies and half-truths were a daily fare.

The problem among Aquino’s men essentially is not their public approach, particularly in relating with media, which can also be said to be faulty but can be readily forgiven as part of the learning process for a new administration.

What they have is a simple problem of having trigger-happy mouths, which seem always to get ahead of their brain, and thus the problem of their being made to look like a bunch of clueless fools the next day.

This reflects on the kind of teamwork among Noynoy’s men which seems to be non-existent with the unorganized way things are being done at the Palace.

In the rush for a semblance of change, for instance, the Office of the Press Secretary is being revamped to usher in what is being called the Communications Group where at least two diverse groups within Noynoy’s camp are fighting to have control.

That brings in the possibility that the lack of coherence at the Palace is the result of infighting among the many opportunists around Noynoy who are trying to get a piece of the action.

The Palace is known to many as a snakepit for very valid reasons.

Noynoy’s men shouldn’t be having a crash course on relating with media but they should have had a longer interaction with the Arroyo transition team which despite the sorry image of the Arroyo administration still has the necessary experience in running government that Aquino and his men are sorely lacking.

Instead of harnessing experience, it seems that the first agenda of those given positions at the Palace was to mark their turf.

Obviously, the result is chaos.

Back to top

For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph
The Daily Tribune © 2006