January 6th, 12:25am January 5th, 7:14pm TDTWithout Fear Without Favor

The bungled administration of yellow President Noynoy Aquino which imposed on the country six years of what was termed as a student council governance was particularly the result of a highly irregular 80-20 deal between Noynoy and sidekick Mar Roxas who is now trying to make a political comeback.

The deal resulted in Mar, who was frustrated in his 2010 vice-presidential bid by darkhorse Jojo Binay, to assume diverse roles initially as “troubleshooter” under the Aquino administration.

Right after the lapse of the one-year ban on a losing candidate to be appointed to a government post, Roxas immediately worked on being posted as Noynoy’s “Chief of Staff” which was when media got a whiff of the 80-20 pact between him and Noynoy in which Mar would take over 80 percent of the functions of the presidency.

After his stunning loss to Binay, Mar was the political nanny of the totally inexperienced Noynoy in nearly all of his important functions, including his travels abroad.

Thereafter he was named chief troubleshooter and his most memorable non-achievement was the effort to placate Taiwan after the monumental blunder of deporting 14 Taiwanese workers to China. A “livid” Taiwanese president faced Roxas and was berated about, expectedly, the incompetence of the administration of Noynoy.

A few weeks later, Taiwan suspended the entry of Filipino workers into the territory.

Noynoy has been defined by his aversion to hard work, preferring to dish out tough rhetorics while being described as outright lazy and spends late night outs almost daily during his initial years in office.

Noynoy’s usual day starts at past 10 a.m. and he is usually late for morning functions. He will then have lunch at noon and take a siesta that lasts up to 2 p.m. He works for an hour until 4 p.m., after which he declares private time for the rest of the day as he eagerly shared with Mar much of the rigors of being president.

Noynoy was also usually incommunicado on Saturdays and Sundays.

Roxas’ role in the Palace aside from being without any basis under the law and the Constitution also raised a public outcry since it reflected his hunger for power and Noynoy’s aversion to work.

He later on assumed the role as secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) and afterwards head of the Department of Interior and Local Government.

Mar as chief of staff did not work out as a result mainly of the protest from the rival faction’s head, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, who worried that the position will encroach on his functions.

Bumped off by Mar at the former DoTC was Ping de Jesus who was any way about to throw in the towel on Noynoy.

De Jesus was exasperated by Noynoy’s clear lack of leadership resulting in people around him to have their way with him.

Noynoy then seems to benefit from the pockets of conflicts that he created within his circle that resulted in his fractious administration.

Mar headed the so-called Balay faction named after the Liberal Party headquarters in Quezon City while Ochoa headed the Samar faction which campaigned for a Noynoy-Binay tandem and was headquartered in Samar Ave.

Noynoy started his tenure with a promise that the people are his boss but he ended up giving in to the whims of Mar, including the 80-20 power sharing.

Such accommodations and inexperience all ended when President Rody Duterte took over the reins of power and took hold of and responsibility for every problem he inherited.

Leadership is about political will that Noynoy and Mar never possessed.