I served at the 'displeasure' of Presidents

YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW
Linggoy Alcuaz
9/5-7/2011



Almost every presidential appointee hides behind the skirts or pants of his or her boss.

When under pressure to resign, they pass the buck to the President and put him or her on the spot. Their byword is: “I serve at the pleasure of the President.”

A couple of months ago, P-Noy shared his feelings towards some of his officials with the media and the public. He was not getting pleasure from three of his secretaries. He did not name them publicly. However, he did confide the objects of his displeasures in private and they leaked out to the media.

One version of who constituted his pet peeves had three names: Secretary of Tourism Alberto “Bertie” Lim, Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs, the “PAPA,” Ronald Llamas, and Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Ging Quintos Deles.

Another version leaked out by Ramon Casiple, an ally of Akbayan and a frequent resource person in media fora and interviews, substituted “Massaging” Secretary Ricky Carandang for PAPA Ronald Llamas.

Bertie and Enteng
Since then, Bertie Lim resigned effective August 31.

Bertie is not the brother of former Secretary of Tourism Narzalina Lim. He is the brother of Cheche Lim Lazaro, nephew of Fr. Pat Lim, son of Secretary Fanny Aldaba Lim, and grandson of Gen. Vicente Lim.

His last job before joining the Aquino Administration was Executive Director of the Makati Business Club. He was identified then and now as an advocate of the “Open Skies Policy”.

Bertie and his Department of Tourism suffered the earliest casualty when Undersecretary Enteng Romano was the first sub-cabinet level Aquino appointee to resign.

He was forced to immediately resign after the exposure of what appeared to be the inordinate expenditure for a planned replacement of the old but successful “Wow Philippines” Tourism program with the newly designed “Filipinas Kay Ganda.”

Enteng was a convenor of the Black and White Movement way back in 2005. His immediate and irrevocable resignation was in sharp contrast to another official who earlier refused to resign.

Rico, Ronald, etc.
Department of Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Rico Puno belonged to the “Kabarilans” of P-Noy.

Other “Kabarilans” are PAPA Ronald Llamas and DOTC Assistant Secretary for Land Transport Virginia “I Shall Return” Torres.

Puno had been accused and exposed by retired CBCP President and Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz as the Aquino Administration’s link to the jueteng lords.

Puno even merited a visit and an appeal by P-Noy’s second cousin, Tonyboy Ongsiako Cojuangco to Archbishop Cruz.

The appeal was for the Archbishop to go slow on his exposés.

Kapalpakan sa Daang Matuwid
Then, Puno turned out to be the highest ranking national official (after the initially sleeping [up to a bit past 11 am] President) responsible for the shameful PNP performance in the Luneta Hostage Massacre.

In the wake of that “kapalpakan,” it was discovered that he was an illegal participant in and beneficiary of the dismemberment of the Department of Interior and Local Government.

P-Noy, in his ignorance of the law and in pursuit of jueteng money, had carved out the peace and order sector of the Department including the PNP to be under the exclusive reign of Kabarilan Rico Puno.

Secretary Jesse Robredo was perceived to be uncompromising about jueteng.

Jueteng lords had crept into the “Daang Matuwid”.

There were IOU’s to pay.

After the Incident Investigation and Review Committee turned out a negative recommendation regarding Undersecretary Puno, he refused to resign and trotted out his self-importance.

According to him he was one of the few who could tame P-Noy. What did he mean by that? What was it that P-Noy had to be tamed of?

Another time, he said that P-Noy would have to think twice before…. Before what… ?

And again, he forced P-Noy to accept whatever pleasure he could give.

Fired by Two Lady Presidents
In sharp contrast to all of them, I proudly proclaim that I served at the great displeasure of at least two Presidents, Cory and GMA. Both of them fired me.

Cory had appointed me to three positions: Acting Assistant Director of the Bureau of Telecommunications (March 1986), Deputy Commissioner (March 1986-March 1987), and, later, Commissioner of the National Telecommunications Commission (March 1987-November 1989).

GMA appointed me as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (March 2001).

In the beginning of our professional relationship, I must have been pleasing to the two of them.

In Cory’s case, I had been an ally of the Liberal Party since 1970.

Ninoy was then the Secretary General of the party. I had first been to their Times Street home in August 1972.

Our family members were sympathizers and supporters of the incarcerated Ninoy throughout the martial law years.

In the April 7, 1978 elections for assemblymen (on a regionwide basis) for the Interim Batasang Pambansa, we supported Laban as well as the April 6 Noise Barrage.

Covering for Cory
In 1980, 1981 (with my wife Baby) and 1982, I visited Ninoy and Cory in Boston.

The organizations I worked for, Kasapi, A6LM, PDP-Laban, JAJA, Atom, Bandila and Kompil, supported Ninoy and later on Cory.

In November 1983, I was instrumental in how Congressman Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, Jr. became active in PDP-Laban and its Secretary General.

After that, we often held PDP-Laban meetings at the executive lounge (sixth floor) of the Jose Cojuangco and Sons building on De la Rosa Street in Legaspi Village, Makati.

At EDSA, I and for three and a half years of my government service in the Aquino Administration, we never thought twice about laying down our lives for democracy and for the Cory Administration.

While I was Cory’s highly visible NTC Commissioner during numerous Coup threats and attempts, my wife was a Presidential Assistant Protocol Officer.

As such she would play the role of the President during practice parades.

One practice she failed to attend was the one for the March 1987 PMA graduation.

The bomb intended for Cory during the actual graduation exploded prematurely during the earlier practice.

The WAC who acted the role of Cory was killed.

GMA’s Run
GMA, too, must have been pleased with me initially.

In 1997, I rejoined Peping Cojuangco, this time in Kampi.

Kampi was the political party GMA organized as a vehicle for her intended campaign and run for the Presidency in May 1998.

GMA’s campaign manager was Peping.

There, I was designated Desk Officer for Region XI (Davao) in Peping’s side of two parallel organizations. My counterpart in GMA’s side was Mara Santos as Regional Political Officer.

Mara is the daughter-in-law of the late Luis Santos of Nueva Ecija and Davao.

Lui was a WW II Hukbalahap who resettled in Davao. He became the Chief of Police of Davao City, then ran for Mayor and won.

In May 1987, he was elected one of the three Congressmen of Davao City. He was one of the close allies of Speaker Ramon V. Mitra.

When Local Governments Secretary Jaime Ferrer, who replaced Nene Pimentel after the God Save the Queen Coup Plot of November 1986, was assassinated, he was appointed as DLG Secretary and served as such almost until the end of the Cory Administration.

He, however, resigned when Cory endorsed Fidel V. Ramos as her Presidential candidate for 1992. Lui remained loyal to Mitra and the LDP to the end.

However, GMA did not run for President. She slid down to Vice President.

She illegally tried to merge the Kampi with Lakas-NUCD-UMDP (The COMELEC would later rule that the merger was null and void).

Erap won and GMA won.

I supported both of them and had a calling card made with the words – “Kakampi ni Erap.”

History will Tell
All of the Presidential candidates that I supported and voted for from 1986 to 2010 won.

However, Cory, Miriam and FPJ were cheated in 1986, 1992 and 2004, respectively.

EDSA I righted things for Cory and the Philippines.

We are still waiting for history to put the record straight in regards to Miriam and FPJ.

We are seeing some light in the case of FPJ.

An active PNP officer, Col. Rafael Santiago exposed the Batasan break-in and switching of 2004 Election Returns.

Poor Miriam is at a disadvantage.

Too many not-so-bright people think that she is crazy and deserved to be cheated.

(To be continued)