Welcome the new ‘hit man’
Why can’t Gloria Arroyo face problems squarely and make her job easier by firing wholesale the members of the Presidential Commission on Good Government? She does not have to say the obvious, that the PCGG has become a den of the incompetent and the corrupt.Everybody in her official family says they serve at her pleasure. So she can just fire anybody without offering an explanation. In the case of firing PCGG members, she can let the people draw their own conclusion, which will not be difficult to make.
What Gloria did instead was throw the hot potato on the lap of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, who is not in the best of health and whose decisions at the DOH have been, to put it charitably, erratic. This was done through an executive order transferring administrative supervision from the Office of the President to the Department of Justice.
In so doing, Gloria practically admitted her office had failed to effectively monitor the PCGG. Presumably because the Office of the President is over-burdened by the big number of agencies under its wings. But the explanation doesn’t fly, because just a few weeks ago, she emasculated the Department of Natural Resources and Environment before new appointee Lito Atienza took over by transferring the Philippine Mining Development Corp. to her office.
There appears to be neither rhyme nor reason to what Malacañang is doing, save what her inveterate critics allege is her penchant to place under her direct control offices where big money can be earned.
Going back to the PCGG, Gonzalez jokingly said that he is the designated "new terrorist" at that agency. He wants PCGG to make an inventory of all the ill-gotten wealth cases. He wants to look into allegations of shenanigans by PCGG officials and their nominees in sequestered corporations.
We wish Gonzalez all the luck. We are waiting with bated breath what he would do with that PCGG commissioner, for example, whose first act of business was to visit a Toyota dealer to get hold of a late-model Camry charged to a sequestered company.
Gonzalez ought to be reminded, however, that what he calls shenanigans (some call it thievery) are mostly traced to government nominees to sequestered corporations. And these nominees are selected and nominated by Arroyo herself.
To see what we mean, Gonzalez can review the findings of the Senate investigation into how Palace nominees looted the Philippine Communication Satellite Group. PCGG officials turned a blind eye to the corporate shenanigans for the very simple reason that those doing the looting enjoyed powerful protectors.
We would not like to believe that PCGG was turned over to Gonzalez because no more money could be made from sequestered companies. This flies in the face of the reality. Sequestered firms remain to be fat milking cows.
The speculation is that some sort of a deal has been struck between Gloria and the Marcos family. That makes Gonzalez not a "new terrorist." Designated "hit man" is the more accurate description.
