There are reports that Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II is on his way out of the Duterte Cabinet due to utter incompetence. Imagine, his prosecutors found no probable cause against self-confessed drug lords!
I have been a journalist for nearly 70 years. I know that a president can only be as effective as his alter egos in the Cabinet.
Santa Banana, a president may want change to come soon but if his Cabinet is lousy and incompetent, he will always fail.
I have seen many presidents come and go in my career. I think the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos had the best and most effective Cabinet. My gulay, who can dispute the qualifications of Cesar Virata, Juan Ponce Enrile, Alex Melchor, O.D. Corpuz or Estelito Mendoza? I can go on and on.
This is not to say that other presidents did not have good, honest and competent Cabinet.
A president cannot micro-manage, so he must rely on the members of his Cabinet.
If I were to score the Duterte Cabinet, I would give it 80 percent. In fact, I would give a failing grade if not for the presence of Secretaries Sonny Dominguez, Ernesto Lopez, Silvestre Bello III, Ernesto Pernia, Leonor Briones, Salvador Medialdea, Jesus Dureza, Arturo Tugade and Delfin Lorenzana, Roy Cimatu and acting Secretary Eduardo Ano.
I cannot blame the President for appointing incompetent individuals tohis Cabinet. He had a narrow bench to choose from, being a city mayor, He could only rely on his former classmates, fraternity brothers – people he personally knew.
Luckily he is just on his second year. He can correct the mistakes he made. One of the albatrosses around his neck is Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon Teo, who goes on excessive junkets. Sure, it is her job to promote the country abroad, but must she bring everybody as part of her entourage?
Mr. Duterte said he would fire appointed officials if there was a whiff of corruption around them. What happened to this statement with regard to the tourism secretary? Why is he making an exception?
* * *
The camp of Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno keeps on saying that the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over the quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida contesting Sereno’s qualifications to become the head of the judiciary. It was found she failed to submit her Statement of Assets, Liabilities when she was a professor at the UP College of Law.
The argument for that petition was that Sereno did not possess the credentials to be the “first among equals.”
I don’t know the law schools Sereno’s lawyers attended, but do they not realize that the Supreme Court deemed the petition justiciable, and as such could be deliberated, it acquired jurisdiction on the case.
Oral arguments on the case will be held on April 10. Sereno should be present to answer questions from her colleagues.
Yes I admit that am official like Sereno can only be removed by impeachment. But the quo warranto is a different case. It questions whether she was qualified to be chief justice in the first place.
If the Sereno camp cannot still get it, they must be dumb.
* * *
Malaysia has deemed fake news as criminal in nature. Here we are still debating whether spreading fake news should be criminalized. This especially applies to public officials who peddle fake news, because they are subject to higher standards of accountability.
But there are some quarters who claim that criminalizing fake news would be an abridgement of rights and would curtail freedom of expression. In fact I was angered when presidential spokesman Harry Roque claimed that such a law would be against the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression and the press.
I don’t know where Roque is coming from, but as a lawyer, he should be aware of the fact that these freedoms are not boundless. They can be curtailed by law. For example, press freedom is limited by the law on libel. This means that while we in media have the right to express our opinions, we cannot just trample on the rights of others.
So yes, I say those who peddle fake news should be penalized by the law.
