“If we look at his current Cabinet, it is obvious there must be some changes”
WITH about two-and-a-half years to go, it would seem PBBM’s leadership is faltering due to unfulfilled promises and underperformance.
The governments prolonged fixation on the flood control corruption scandal is now also taking its toll on his governance.
PBBM will of course ultimately bear the responsibility for the success or failure of his government.
Success will largely depend on how good leader he is and whether he can utilize to the maximum the collective talent of his cabinet to produce better accomplishments with the remaining time that he has. results.
At this moment, however, his approval and trust ratings as far as the citizenry is concerned has gone down to the negative.
Reshuffling the cabinet to improve performance is quite normal during a president’s six year term.
This is because things do not always go according to plan and adjustments will have to be made like changing underperforming or incompetent underlings.
PBBM, however, does not seem to be the kind of leader who easily relieves underlings.
As much as possible, he does not want to hurt their feelings by firing them. But if we look at his current Cabinet, it is obvious there must be some changes.
A few weeks ago, for instance, critics once again asked PBBM to replace his Secretary of Tourism.
Up to now, however, she is still in place and apparently thriving. It may be because the DOT Secretary belongs to a well-entrenched political family in Cebu and in our world of politics removing the person is not so easy to do.
But therein probably lies the problem when incompetent and unqualified people are appointed to senior positions due to political considerations or reward and not because of competence.
And her case is hard to defend because while our neighbors are boasting of record tourist arrivals, ours on the other hand are even decreasing instead of growing.
The last straw was perhaps that recent tourist magazine publication with the picture of the Tourism Secretary on the cover.
Imagine a tourist magazine contracted to go around the country to take pictures of the best tourist spots for publication to attract tourists and end up with the photo of our Tourism Secretary on the cover? It is so unbelievable but it happened.
His economic team also has so far done a mediocre job considering their qualifications and experience.
When PBBM was sworn into office, there was a lot of optimism because the country was poised for bigger and sustained economic gains.
But after over three years, economic growth has stalled with the government failing to meet projected economic targets.
Our national debts have also ballooned and the peso’s value relative to the US Dollar has sunk to its lowest value ever. This is clearly not a success story but an underperformance.
With the Department of Agriculture relegated to simply importing our food what is there to say? Success in this area is whether we have enough affordable food to eat without having to import all of them and on this score, the DA has failed miserably. It should just simply be abolished or completely restructured.
This is true to the agencies handling traffic and transportation which is very important if we want the country to be moving efficiently.
Unfortunately PBBM seems to insist on appointing lawyers to these highly technical positions which in the past have resulted in failures in the instances when these agencies were headed by lawyers.
It would be safer and more appropriate if the President appoint qualified technical people for the positions for better results.
The Department of Energy should also stop sending one official to appear on TV to defend oil companies for their weekly gas price increases with geopolitical analysis.
That is not the job of DOE. It is there to protect the interest of the public not the oil companies that are already making so much money.
To be fair however, there are a few departments that are doing a really good job like the DSWD and the DOST.
Unfortunately, there are not many of them and the overall mark at this time validated by economic surveys and public sentiment must be barely above water.
PBBM should therefore not wait any longer if he wants to reverse the situation and end his term with satisfactory passing marks. Otherwise, his legacy will definitely be affected negatively.
