FRANK MALILONG:

Then, happy low, the king said in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, lie down. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Until his rise to prominence in the Duterte administration, many of us remember Ismael Sueno only as the running mate of Lito Osmeña in the 1998 presidential election. I once listened to one of his campaign speeches on the radio and I thought that he was not serious because he joked most of the time. I did not vote for him, only Lito.

Then, happy low, the king said in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, lie down. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Until his rise to prominence in the Duterte administration, many of us remember Ismael Sueno only as the running mate of Lito Osmeña in the 1998 presidential election. I once listened to one of his campaign speeches on the radio and I thought that he was not serious because he joked most of the time. I did not vote for him, only Lito.

Both lost but while Lito garnered a respectable 2,454,432 (mostly coming from Cebu) or 11.76% of the votes, Sueno got only 537,677 or 2.10% of the votes cast for vice president.

As Interior secretary under President Duterte, Sueno was a powerful man like Henry IV. He had dominion over local governments whose officials he had authority to discipline. But like every powerful man, he had to contend with rebellion and attempts to wrest his crown.

The story is that three of his undersecretaries rebelled against Sueno. They wanted him removed and made known their wish to the president. Apparently, they were influential people, too. Maybe the president heeded their call, maybe not. But they got their wish.

In a period of only a little more than a month, President Duterte has let go two key officials of his administration. But unlike Peter Lavina who was allowed to resign as administrator of the National Irrigation Administration, there was no graceful exit for Sueno. He was not only fired, Malacañang made sure the people knew that that was what happened.

Palace officials cited loss of the president’s trust and confidence as reason for Sueno’s sacking. It is not clear what caused the loss of trust but there are murmurs of corruption particularly in the purchase of fire trucks from Austria by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).

To his credit, the president acted swiftly but not precipitately. He gave Sueno a chance to present his side during the Cabinet meeting last Monday. Unfortunately, his explanation failed to satisfy Duterte. At the end of the meeting, Sueno’s “crown” was gone.

Sueno has accepted his dismissal but continues to profess his innocence. I am not corrupt, he says and he could be telling the truth. But to run a department requires being able to work well with others. Such people skills seem to be wanting in him.

Duterte deserves praise for his decisive action. Sueno’s case, he said, should be a warning to all government officials that he will not tolerate wrongdoing in his government. That’s not very flattering to the former DILG chief but it is what the president said it is.