P-noy must not coddle incompetents

Over the past week, sworn critics of P-noy coined what turned out to be a pretty effective term to dismiss the President as ineffective because he is lazy. I think it is unfair. It is obvious from the number of public events P-noy attends that he is far from lazy or just taking it easy. I have also been told that he is pretty hands-on, attending meetings of cabinet clusters and participating in policy formulations.

Unfortunately, his less than competent communications staff made a bad situation worse by announcing P-noy was “under the weather” and will just be at Malacañang working on state papers. They then released an obviously posed photograph of the President at work with a glass of wine on the table. It was sheer stupidity—so defensive and trying too hard. And they did it again yesterday showing P-noy trying to carry a heavy load of paper, a photo quickly parodied in social media... photoshopped with the DPWH officials “inspecting” typhoon damage.

So the term “Noynoying” landed not just in the local lexicon but featured in Wikipedia and horrors… the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ story defined it as “a term that involves sitting around and staring into space.” Wikipedia entry defined “Noynoying” as “an Internet meme that defines an effortless pose, or activity consisting of sitting or standing around, in an unconcerned manner.”

Hopefully the WSJ article will not give investors reason to pause and reverse their very positive attitudes towards the country and P-noy. But the WSJ article did cast some doubts on P-noy.

Says the WSJ: “Noynoying plays on the widespread perception that Mr. Aquino – who is widely known by the nickname Noynoy – might not be the most hands-on president to have led the Philippines. Since being elected in a landslide in 2010, Mr. Aquino has sometimes been caught laughing it up with celebrities instead of attending to the impact of typhoons and other disasters.”

I would however, offer a definition of “Noynoying” which is even more damaging to P-noy: His coddling of incompetent friends he appointed to public office. It happened with Rico Puno of DILG during the Luneta massacre, with Bong Naguiat of Pagcor with his $6,000 a night holiday in Macau and with CAAP Director general Ramon Gutierrez who has failed to improve things enough to merit our upgrade to Category 1 by the US FAA.

DOTC Secretary Mar Roxas told a news briefing last Tuesday that results of the FAA’S recent technical assessment showed the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines’ (CAAP) failure to address deficiencies that has kept us in the doghouse with

regulatory agencies in the US and Europe. I am not surprised. I have heard from aviation industry people that indeed, things have not improved.

According to Sec. Mar, Gutierrez and the rest of the CAAP officials made a promise to President Aquino himself a year ago that the country would be able to regain its Category 1 status with the FAA within a year. Sec. Mar sounded like he doesn’t think this is going to happen… in other words FAILURE! Notwithstanding all the support given by Malacañang, Roxas said the CAAP still failed to make significant improvements that could warrant an upgrade.

There were reports that Sec. Mar walked out in disgust during the final meeting with FAA assessors over the report which showed the incompetence of CAAP officials. “The assessment was a diagnostic assessment on how well the CAAP was able to address deficiencies in the country’s regulatory framework. The diagnosis was not very good,” Roxas said.

Sec. Mar said he would ask P-noy for instructions on how to proceed with the implementation of reforms at the CAAP. Roxas washed his hands in frustration and has thrown the ball to P-noy because all the CAAP officials are P-noy’s personal choices. Gutierrez is said to be P-noy’s personal pilot. The FAA pointed out there is still a total of 23 deficiencies in the Philippines’ air industry regulations.

Unless we get the upgrade, our airlines are at a big commercial disadvantage and our tourism promotions program may be jeopardized. This kind of “Noynoying” — coddling of proven incompetents — is costing the local economy some serious money. It is bad for P-noy, it is bad for the country.

P-noy’s incompetent friends have no sense of shame and will not resign for failure or for embarrassing P-noy and the country. But P-noy must not be afraid to look for more competent Pinoys to get the job done. Surely, there are better trained, better qualified Filipinos than the friends he placed at CAAP. For example, a Pinoy is running Singapore’s Changi International Airport, the world’s best.

I want to propose this litmus test for P-noy to measure the competence of his KKK gang members: If they need the job or cling to it for dear life, they don’t deserve it.

MWSS

But there are competent KKK members too who are doing a pretty good job. Despite current criticisms in the light of the oil price problem, Energy Secretary Rene Almendras understands the technical aspects of his job and has the respect of the private sector energy industry. He is however, losing points because he lacks political and media savvy.

Last Tuesday, I also met a P-noy Ateneo kaklase who seems competent and sincere about his public service intentions. Gerry Esquivel, administrator of MWSS, dropped by the Tuesday Club to brief me on what is going on at the water agency notorious for lack of performance and outrageous bonuses during the reign of Ate Glue.

The bad old days are over, Gerry assured me, no more bonuses and there is now total transparency. Best of all, it seems MWSS is finally performing its job of planning for and implementing projects that will assure the water needs of some 12 million people in Metro Manila.

Esquivel started his house cleaning by completely revamping his board. He asked for and got the resignations of all board members appointed by Ate Glue who are mostly politicians and lackeys of politicians. He then asked P-noy to appoint a very respectable board composed of technocrats with proven track records in the private sector.

The chairman is Dondi Alikpala who served many years in the National Water Resources Board and was one of the young technocrats recruited by Dick Gordon in the early days of SBMA. Dondi previously worked with the ADB precisely on water resources management. He has a Business Economics degree from UP and an MBA from Fordham.

Esquivel himself is an Architecture graduate of UP and a successful entrepreneur in the construction business before he was persuaded to leave private business for a while and help out at MWSS. It is obvious he doesn’t need this job. He submitted his undated letter of resignation when he was persuaded to sign his appointment papers. He told me he once thought he would become a Jesuit and that’s probably why he took the job because he takes this “man for others” thing seriously, unlike some Ateneans in government. Here are the new MWSS board members: Fr. Jett Villarin, S.J., president of Ateneo and an international expert on climate change who was part of the team that won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their work on climate change. He has a doctorate on Atmospheric Sciences from Georgia Tech.

Benjamin Yambao is a professional banker with experience working with the former Central Bank, a Hong Kong-based bank, a gold mining company and in a life insurance company. He was also president of the Chamber of Thrift Banks.

Maria Cecilia Soriano was a Finance usec during the Ramos years, seconded to the World Bank and had done studies on the water sector for the World Bank, the ADB, Ausaid, GTZ, USAID, DOF and the NWRB. She has a PHD in Economics from UC Berkeley.

Emmanuel Caparas is an IT professional and an alumnus

of the UP School of Economics and Upcollege of Law. He has put his law practice on hold to organize an IT business.

Hermogenes Fernando is also an IT professional who has worked successfully with Intel Philippines, Motorola, Fastech, Synapse Network, Timex and Philippine Petrochemical. He has also been cited by AIM for operations and personnel management.

Lawyer Raoul Cerdena is the current Government Corporate Counsel who has had experience in private law practice over 14 years in the fields of corporate, civil, criminal and commercial law.

The impressive composition of the board, no one motivated by bonuses and landing contracts, is a good start. We will check out the programs they are working on in future columns. Jose Villaescusa sent this one. GIRL: Mom, how do lions make love? MOM: I have no idea honey...your dad’s friends are either Rotarians or Jaycees, so I’ve never had a Lion before!

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco

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