No surprise

Let me say it outright. I am never comfortable with the idea of giving government jobs to people who belong to organizations sworn to fight, and if possible, replace that very same government. One such job -secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development- was given to one such person, Judy Taguiwalo. Taguiwalo was a recommendee of the communists and was appointed by President Duterte, if not to attain peace, then at least to show good faith.

But the communists never reciprocated. Duterte not just appointed one communist recommendee, he appointed three, plus several other leftists to positions below Cabinet rank. He even freed communist leaders whose capture came at great cost in the lives of soldiers and policemen. Yet the communists never let up in their attacks on government personnel and installations.

Furious and fed up, Duterte terminated peace talks with the communists and everything is back to square one, except that government is back with a couple of front teeth missing, a lesson all governments need to learn when dealing with rebels. Be that as it may, I do not think Duterte had a hand in the ultimate rejection of Taguiwalo's appointment by the Commission on Appointments.

There is one thing I will say about Taguiwalo, however. From the time of her appointment to the Duterte Cabinet to the time she was finally rejected by the Commission on Appointments, she was never tainted with anything derogatory. And I think she did her job as social welfare secretary creditably well. If only I can live with the irony of having a woman with communist ties working deep inside the very government the communists seek to destroy, I would vote to let her keep her job.

But I guess that was how the chips were bound to fall and I am sure even Taguiwalo herself did not expect too much. Indeed, she can even claim that she lasted far longer than anybody expected. That she survived two prior Commission on Appointments votes by getting reappointed each time she failed to pass speaks volumes of where she stood as far as Duterte was concerned.

Unfortunately for her as a person, against whom I hold nothing, the best I can say for her in the aftermath of her rejection is that she was a victim of a political purge. It is all politics in this game, whether you are in the periphery as a communist, or on the inside as an influence peddler or traditional politician. So Taguiwalo shouldn't take her fate personally. If politics is dirty, then she just had a first-hand messy experience.

Taguiwalo did say something following her rejection, and it is that politicians wanting a piece of the social services pie that she had rebuffed were behind her ouster. That is not surprising, of course. As I have said, you either play the game or you don't. But you have to accept the consequences of your choice. She, therefore, shouldn't have said what she said, even if it was the obvious thing to say.

Because by saying so, she only succeeded to expose what probably was the only chink in her armor. She could have chosen to stick to the moral high ground by biting her lip. People know what happened even without being told. Taguiwalo just lost it when she opened her mouth. And now nobody is sure if there is ever a person in government without an interest in what is in it. In parting, let me just say thank goodness she did not color her hair.

‘She could have chosen to stick to the moral high ground by biting her lip. People know what happened

even without being told. Taguiwalo just lost it when she

opened her mouth.’