Rody is ‘exacting’

For the past nine months since he assumed office, we have all heard and listened to President Rodrigo Duterte consistently talk about his pet peeves against illegal drugs and corruption. We might all agree, his profanity-laced speeches have given him the image of being fast and loose with his words.

Obviously, the 72-year-old Chief Executive has yet to metamorphose into a “beautiful butterfly” he promised in the early days of his presidency. Preferring to be called still as Mayor, President Duterte swears though he knows “how to behave” and “how to be decent.”

As he patiently explains in all his extemporaneous speeches, President Duterte admits he has never “graduated to become a statesman” yet. He makes no bones – he still speaks and acts like a typical Mayor. He served for 23 years as Mayor of Davao City. He points to Davao City as the “template” of his governance on how he intends to turn the country around to become more peaceful and economically progressive.

In fact, the President declares, he is “exacting” to all his Cabinet and the rest of the government officials.

This we have seen last Monday, when President Duterte dismissed unceremoniously from his Cabinet post a close political ally credited for prodding him to run in the last elections. At the end of the Cabinet meeting at Malacanang Palace last Monday night, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Ismael Sueno got booted out. No one saw it coming, not even Sueno who got his pink slip in the presence of his fellow Cabinet officials.

The President refused to hear out Sueno’s detailed explanation over the “white paper” submitted by his three DILG undersecretaries. Sueno was apparently beaten to the draw by his three undersecretaries. The ousted DILG chief recommended last week to the President to fire his three deputies over “irreconcilable differences” with them. Obviously, the “white paper” got the President’s eyes ahead of Sueno’s.

If any indication of Sueno’s fate, the past few days saw President Duterte mentioning “just a whiff” of corruption allegations is enough for him to let go any of his Cabinet or any other government officials no matter how close he or she is to him. His latest favorite example was having fired National Irrigation Authority (NIA) chief Peter Laviña who served as his official campaign spokesman during the May 2016 presidential election.

His previous poster models in the anti-corruption drive were two San Beda College of Law fraternity brothers whom he appointed at the Bureau of Immigration (BI). He fired BI commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles who were both accused of allegedly extorting P50 million from online gambling tycoon Jack Lam.

While en route to Nueva Ecija for a rice festival last Wednesday, the President fired undersecretary Maia Chiara Halman Valdez who works under the Office of Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco. An appointee of the previous administration, her sin was to tangle with National Food Authority (NFA) chief Jason Aquino over the controversy on the latest rice importation. In her case, a telephone call from Malacanang served the dismissal order of the President. The President sided with Aquino whom he lavished with praises such as being an upright officer and gentleman while still in the academy but who later became a military rebel. More heads to roll, the President promised yesterday. What behooves many perhaps is why President Duterte seems not to exact the same strict application of his policy at the lower ranks of the bureaucracy like those going on mass leave and abandonment of their posts.

The unpaid overtime claims of immigration personnel issue can be distilled into two major points: poor pay and poor management. And it is the public that pays. This is duplicated throughout the bureaucracy such as in renewing drivers’ licenses and getting whatever permits and clearances.

At BI, overtime (OT) pays more than regular pay. Since the government has decided not to pay, the BI employees’ only recourse is to look for a new job with better pay – and lambast DBM. They ganged up on DBM Secretary Benjamin Diokno who refuses to release the money because it is simply illegal. The public is collateral damage.

For instance, one BI officer does three shifts: regular + OT + OT. This means there are not enough officers to man the booths. This results from the failure of management to hire, a failure of manpower planning. Or, is it deliberate because it’s more lucrative? It is cheaper and more efficient if three different BI officers do the three shifts. No OT will be required. But that is not happening.

The OT charges by BI personnel at the airport were passed on to the airline companies until 2012 when this was stopped because it is not only highly irregular but made the Philippines an uncompetitive destination. As Diokno decried, this “rotten system” of BI personnel at the airports getting paid much more for their OT than their regular salary has been going on for too long already and this has to stop.

We should also automate. This is done in Singapore. But government employees hate automation. That is why we cannot fully automate the BIR and the Customs Bureau, among others. And we know why. Management must insist and find ways to prevent any effort to prevent the use of technology. Political will is key. So this goes all the way up and now becomes a governance issue.

The costs to the public and the government are unquantified so far for now. Passengers are now being asked to be at the airport five hours before departure. This is a personal cost to hundreds of thousands. The Filipino is very forgiving. In other countries, this would have provoked public outrage.

It will affect trade and commerce, and tourism. Will a first-time tourist who misses her flight because of the long lines recommend to her friends our country? The list can go on but we all know what it is.

The BI issue manifests a basic rot in government. We change people in agencies when we change administration. The new ones need to learn the ropes and by the time they have found their stride, they are ready to be replaced.

This BI issue is the face of where we are as a nation. It is a sad evidence of why we the Philippines continues to lag behind in many things in the region. It’s time for President Duterte to be as “exacting” as he is with top bureaucrats.

More heads to roll, the President promised yesterday.