A piece that I wrote two weeks ago titled “Binay, PDAF/DAP and Bangsamoro dominated the 2014 headlines” discussed the names and the issues that hugged the headlines and the evening television newscasts. Today, I propose to do a tour of the Executive Department horizon and indicate which Cabinet department performed substandardly in 2014.
In my view the departments that recorded underwhelming performances in the year just past were the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Transportation and Communication and the Department of Agrarian Reform.
The Department of Agriculture is being run by the worst administration in the city’s post-World War II history and its present head is the worst Secretary in the department’s history. This is so regrettable, considering that Secretary Proceso Alcala oversees the production of the nation’s food and fiber and its traditional commodity exports.
When one hears or reads about the DA, it is almost always about rice imports and the corruption perennially associated with them, about excuses for failure to achieve national rice self-sufficiency and about lack of policy direction at the coconut, sugar and other agricultural agencies attached to the department. Contemplating the situation at the DA under PNoy Aquino, one is sorely tempted to think of the phrase ‘a lot of headless chickens running around.’
What a far cry from the days of the likes of Arturo Tanco Jr. and Roberto Sebastian! Indeed comparing Tanco with Alcala is almost akin to comparing apples and oranges. Those who can grasp the supreme importance of Philippine farms to this country’s economic development are counting the days until Proceso Alcala returns to the provincial politics where he should have stayed.
The Secretary of Transportation and Communication has been, for me, one of the biggest disappointments among PNoy Aquino’s Cabinet appointees. That’s because, like many people, I expected much—probably too much—from the nephew of the iconic Cesar Virata. Not only is the incumbent Secretary a man of many talents —engineering, law and industrial management learned from, among others, the US Military Academy and the University of the Philippines—but he also has youth and local political experience on his side.
But whether it is the transportation part or the communication part of it, Emilio Abaya Jr. has thus far not been able to come to grips with the DOTC. The telecommunications companies, the MRT and LRT, the land transportation agencies and maritime transportation—Secretary Abaya has not been able to convey the appearance of being a leader rather than a reactor. A growing number of people have been heard to say that Emilio Abaya Jr.’s job is just too big for him. I’m beginning to think that they are right.
Mar Roxas would have the Filipino people believe that he is equal to the responsibilities of the Presidency of the Republic. But his performance as Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (and, earlier, his performance at the DOTC) is leaving many people doubtful as to his capability for being this country’s Chief Executive.
The grandson and namesake of the nation’s first post-World War II President clearly has not made his mark on the local governments. In other countries, the head of the Department (or Ministry) of the Interior is a powerful and discipline-enforcing official. Secretary Roxas has been no such official. Whatever progress has been achieved in the development of the countryside has been the result of savvy local executives like Joey Salceda and the late Jesse Robredo. The comment has been made that Mar Roxas has since 2010 been functioning more as Liberal Party chief than as Secretary of the Interior. I am inclined to agree.
And of course the other half of Secretary Roxas’s domain, the Philippine National Police, has remained its usual substandard self. Contrary to the PNP’s hype, this country has not become a less crime-ridden place during Secretary Roxas’s watch. For most Filipinos, the man in PNP uniform has remained more a person to be feared than to be respected. As for corruption, the questions being asked by the citizenry are, was the Secretary asleep at his post when the Purisima case was building up and how many similar ranking-official situations are there?
Finally, the Department of Agrarian Reform. There are many people in this country who think that Philippine agrarian reform is an interminable thing. Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes is apparently of the same mindset. The five-year extension of the life of the original Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program is about to end, but close to 500,000 hectares of CARP-covered land remain unreformed. Clearly, Secretary De los Reyes’s tenure at DAR has been a case of business as usual.
Could DAR have done a much better job of completing the land redistribution project? I believe it could. But only with an operational approach that was not business-as-usual.
E-mail: rudyromero777@yahoo.com