Changing horses midstream

As quickly as FM Jr. appointed Sen. Sonny Angara education secretary following Vice President Sara Duterte ‘s sudden resignation — albeit after feinting difficulty finding someone fit for the crucial position — this mutely betrayed simple honesty on the President’s part.

The mounting pattern of discontinuance of presidential appointees in top posts is axiomatic of the existence of a proverbial “Industrial Reserve Army” (IRA) as a ready pool of bureaucrats or technocrats to replace those who resign, retire, or are removed.

Recall the few instances when a congressman had to replace a former finance secretary, a Monetary Board Member took the place of a retiring Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor, a retired Regional Trial Court judge in lieu of an extended-retiree NBI director, and now a senator to succeed the Vice President as Department of Education head.

The whole point, nay defect, of changing horses in midstream is the shared expectation that the “President’s Men,” call it that, are the best and the brightest expected to work with him throughout the six-year horizon. It’s all coming into focus that a typical “class bias,” or enlisting the services of politicians rather than technocrats or specialists, becomes the sole criterion for appointment to top executive posts.

A “class bias” undermines merit and fitness in the government service and actually retards or inhibits the rise to top positions of those conferred Career Executive Service Eligibility, who all things being equal are pretty qualified to assume the highest positions, as well as those who rose through the ranks.

Indisputably, class bias is pretty much a given insofar as FM Jr. is concerned. There’s a sister in the Senate, a son in the House of Representatives, and a cousin as Speaker. There’s no question that they all deserve to be in their stations, elected as they were by the people or nominated by their contemporaries to lead or be the flag bearer.

In particular, those in the education sector believe that a dyed-in-the-wool educator is best to lead DepEd, one committed to the plight of teachers, more so of the young pupils, given the harsh challenges of promoting quality education at the primary and secondary levels. The same is true with the military and defense establishments that don’t need a politician or an armchair chief managing internal and external threats.

To push the logic further, the country may be better off — than worse off — if presidential appointees to the executive branch are chosen not from within the political hemisphere. Instead, merit and fitness should be the sole criteria for government employees and officials, thereby making government an “equal opportunity employer” strictly insulated from patronage politics.

Come to think of it, there are inherent “anomalies” in the very structure of government and there have been for the longest time; they are just taken for granted. One, while the President cannot be reelected to the position, senators can have two terms. Their counterparts in the House of Representatives can have three terms.

However, after the end of their respective multiple terms, a senator can run for Congress and a congressman can run for the Senate. Otherwise, both senator and congressman must take a break of one term before they can run for their respective positions again. The President, meanwhile, can run for either the Senate or Congress.

Allowing these political maneuverings results in a crippling “revolving door” that extremely favors the country’s political elite, dynastic politicians if you will. And yes, it’s a vicious cycle that promotes corruption and poverty in the body polity.

Are we marching forward or backward to a revival of feudal politics in a modern version?