All wrong
All wrong
Updated 01:04am (Mla time) Sept 22, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 22, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
ACCORDING to former senator Ramon Revilla's own supporters, he can stake his claim to fame on being the "father" of the public works and highways Infrastructure Program Act of 1995, which put order into the disparate public works programs of the government. He also takes credit for having co-authored legislation such as the law providing for retirement pay to qualified sector employees in the absence of any retirement plan, the law mandating representation for the women sector in the Social Security Commission, the law establishing a senior citizens' day center in cities and municipalities, and the law increasing the minimum wage of house helpers. But it should be pointed out that he merely appended his name as a co-sponsor to these acts, and cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered as to have actually authored them.
The fact is that Revilla as a senator was all about public works, at a time when that sector was plagued with scandal after scandal, including scams involving the very agency he has now been appointed to chair: the Public Estates Authority.
The Public Estates Authority (PEA) has been hit by so many crooked deals that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, with great fanfare, declared two years ago that she would abolish it. And yet, after announcing its abolition, she allowed the agency to continue to function. And now she has put a new man on top: Ramon Revilla Sr.
Given his record of public service, which has been unmarred by genuine accomplishment, it is very tempting to say that any position Revilla is qualified to hold deserves to be abolished. And this is precisely what has happened: Revilla has been deemed by the President qualified to head an office that has already been abolished.
And yet the appointment of the former senator is no laughing matter. It is yet another example of the say-one-thing-and-do-another tendency of the Arroyo administration. It betrays an attitude toward governance that is obsessed with politics to the detriment of professionalism and rationality.
The best that can be said of the President's appointment is that Revilla is being given a face-saving sinecure in return for his political support, and the goodwill of his son who succeeded him in the Senate. A lot worse can be said. Or at the very least, many hard questions need to be posed.
Does it make sense to appoint to a scandal-ridden agency involved in the disposition of public lands and the farming out of contracts, the former head of the Senate public works committee? No, it does not, particularly since even Revilla's own propagandists say he only consolidated the system of public works, but did not do anything to accomplish what that sector really required: a thorough clean-up of the system.
Is there any sense in appointing a man who has been involved in real estate development (Revilla has headed JAB Realty and Development Corp., Sea and River Estate, and Southfield Estate) to a government agency that has control over large tracts of public lands, bordering areas near his home province? Assuming that Revilla has been squeaky clean in his own private business dealings, isn't there still a potentially vast conflict of interest in appointing him to head the PEA?
The President would have a resident of Cavite province, who has dabbled in real estate, heading an agency that still has extensive powers to dabble in real estate development and draw up contracts involving public works. At the very least, this places Revilla in an awkward position, at a time when he should be enjoying his sunset years instead of worrying about potential scandals.
Perhaps Ms Arroyo thinks that Revilla's experience as a senior intelligence officer in the Bureau of Customs from 1965-1972 somehow qualifies him for the job of leading and cleaning up the PEA? Then again, we have to wonder at the wisdom of the appointing authority that believes customs experience -- particularly in Cavite, a hotbed of smuggling at the time Revilla was working in the bureau -- can teach anyone anything except evading the law. Even if Revilla turned out to be the only honest person associated with the fabulously corrupt Bureau of Customs at the time, such experience was too long ago, and he is now too far advanced in years, to do much good.
This is simply the wrong person for the wrong job, the wrong appointment for the wrong reasons, the wrong move for the wrong agency. It is wrong, in every conceivable respect-except if you respect only the naked abuse of the power to appoint and uphold only the most cynical of motives and criteria for official appointments.
Updated 01:04am (Mla time) Sept 22, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the September 22, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
ACCORDING to former senator Ramon Revilla's own supporters, he can stake his claim to fame on being the "father" of the public works and highways Infrastructure Program Act of 1995, which put order into the disparate public works programs of the government. He also takes credit for having co-authored legislation such as the law providing for retirement pay to qualified sector employees in the absence of any retirement plan, the law mandating representation for the women sector in the Social Security Commission, the law establishing a senior citizens' day center in cities and municipalities, and the law increasing the minimum wage of house helpers. But it should be pointed out that he merely appended his name as a co-sponsor to these acts, and cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered as to have actually authored them.
The fact is that Revilla as a senator was all about public works, at a time when that sector was plagued with scandal after scandal, including scams involving the very agency he has now been appointed to chair: the Public Estates Authority.
The Public Estates Authority (PEA) has been hit by so many crooked deals that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, with great fanfare, declared two years ago that she would abolish it. And yet, after announcing its abolition, she allowed the agency to continue to function. And now she has put a new man on top: Ramon Revilla Sr.
Given his record of public service, which has been unmarred by genuine accomplishment, it is very tempting to say that any position Revilla is qualified to hold deserves to be abolished. And this is precisely what has happened: Revilla has been deemed by the President qualified to head an office that has already been abolished.
And yet the appointment of the former senator is no laughing matter. It is yet another example of the say-one-thing-and-do-another tendency of the Arroyo administration. It betrays an attitude toward governance that is obsessed with politics to the detriment of professionalism and rationality.
The best that can be said of the President's appointment is that Revilla is being given a face-saving sinecure in return for his political support, and the goodwill of his son who succeeded him in the Senate. A lot worse can be said. Or at the very least, many hard questions need to be posed.
Does it make sense to appoint to a scandal-ridden agency involved in the disposition of public lands and the farming out of contracts, the former head of the Senate public works committee? No, it does not, particularly since even Revilla's own propagandists say he only consolidated the system of public works, but did not do anything to accomplish what that sector really required: a thorough clean-up of the system.
Is there any sense in appointing a man who has been involved in real estate development (Revilla has headed JAB Realty and Development Corp., Sea and River Estate, and Southfield Estate) to a government agency that has control over large tracts of public lands, bordering areas near his home province? Assuming that Revilla has been squeaky clean in his own private business dealings, isn't there still a potentially vast conflict of interest in appointing him to head the PEA?
The President would have a resident of Cavite province, who has dabbled in real estate, heading an agency that still has extensive powers to dabble in real estate development and draw up contracts involving public works. At the very least, this places Revilla in an awkward position, at a time when he should be enjoying his sunset years instead of worrying about potential scandals.
Perhaps Ms Arroyo thinks that Revilla's experience as a senior intelligence officer in the Bureau of Customs from 1965-1972 somehow qualifies him for the job of leading and cleaning up the PEA? Then again, we have to wonder at the wisdom of the appointing authority that believes customs experience -- particularly in Cavite, a hotbed of smuggling at the time Revilla was working in the bureau -- can teach anyone anything except evading the law. Even if Revilla turned out to be the only honest person associated with the fabulously corrupt Bureau of Customs at the time, such experience was too long ago, and he is now too far advanced in years, to do much good.
This is simply the wrong person for the wrong job, the wrong appointment for the wrong reasons, the wrong move for the wrong agency. It is wrong, in every conceivable respect-except if you respect only the naked abuse of the power to appoint and uphold only the most cynical of motives and criteria for official appointments.
posted by Dante at 4:12 PM
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