The US industrialist Henry Ford once said the only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. By this token, the recent firing of a growing number of presidential appointees has given President Rodrigo Duterte ample opportunity to learn.
The lesson isn’t earthshaking, and it should be apparent to most, but Mr. Duterte, given his unorthodox bent, must have felt that he was somehow exempt from the commonly held truism that patronage politics does not benefit the people.
In his early days in office, Mr. Duterte unabashedly and unapologetically said he aimed to reward friends and allies who had supported him during his presidential campaign by appointing them to key government posts.
That has clearly not worked out all that well.
Earlier this month, Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo, whose family were strong Duterte supporters, resigned after a Commission on Audit report showed that P60 million in her department’s funds went to a TV show produced by her brother, Ben Tulfo.
Teo’s fall from grace and the appointment of a career public servant has uncovered more financial mischief—and the resignation of yet another Duterte supporter, Cesar Montano, from the Tourism Promotions Board.
Montano was at the center of a controversy involving the misuse of P80 million to sponsor a food tourism project called Buhay Carinderia with no concrete results to show.
In other instances, Mr. Duterte had appointed loyalists who were clearly unqualified for their new positions. The many embarrassing blunders emanating from the Presidential Communications Operations Office are proof positive that loyalty does not guarantee competence.
On many recent occasions, the President has expressed disappointment that those he has had to fire over graft and corruption were friends who supported him during the last campaign.
“What is painful, most that I have dismissed are the very same people who urged me [to run] in the first place. They went back and forth in Davao, to egg me (to run),” the President said.
We were pleased to hear the frank acknowledgement, but puzzled when he again came to the defense of sacked Customs commissioner Nicanor Faeldon, who is facing charges for allowing P6.4 billion worth of shabu to get past Customs. Despite the criminal case pending against him, Faeldon has been reappointed to the Office of the Civil Defense.
Mr. Duterte says he believes Faeldon is honest, and that he was merely hoodwinked by the drug syndicates. That assessment hardly inspires public confidence in Faeldon, as it casts serious doubts on his competence.
The word that has disappeared from public discourse of late is meritocracy, which is government by people selected on the basis of their ability—not who they know or who they supported in the last election.
For all our sakes, we hope the President truly learns from his mistakes, and stops punishing the people with appointees who are corrupt, incompetent or both.
