Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 23:59:00 05/18/2008
MANILA, Philippines - With the appointment of Jesus Dureza, the presidential adviser on the peace process, as the new press secretary, not a few have asked the inevitable question. Will Dureza finally bring peace to Malacañang’s often-strained, sometimes fractious relations with the media?
The short answer is No, probably not. The long answer depends on an altogether more important question: Will he sacrifice his considerable reputation at the altar of presidential legitimacy?
It is our duty to ask, because of the exact same sacrifice made by his predecessor, Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye. In the continuing Cabinet rigodon, Bunye has been given the privilege of a graceful (and well-compensated) exit, as the newest member of the Bangko Sentral’s Monetary Board. But even to those among the middle forces and the media who remember Bunye from the days of the freedom struggle, even to those who still see him as the same affable fellow, genial and smart, there is no dispute: his service as President Macapagal-Arroyo’s resident rationalizer has made him a diminished man.
The incredible shrinking Toting Bunye: Is this a sign of the fate lying in wait for Jess Dureza?
Bunye has appeared on television and been published in the papers countless times (he even has a column available online, at the Office of the Press Secretary website). But out of all that footage and film stock, one image will define him for all time: that time, three years ago next month, when he appeared before the cameras with two compact disks in hand, just as the “Hello, Garci” scandal was breaking. He told a rapt nation that he had evidence that the President’s alleged wiretapped conversation with election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano (the CD in one hand) were a fabrication, because the conversation was actually between the President and a certain political aide named “Gary” (the CD in the other hand).
This bold attempt to immediately contain a political crisis immediately backfired, because it turned out that the object of the wiretaps was not the President, after all, but Garcillano. In other words, and as the recordings and transcripts circulated or published online immediately made clear, President Arroyo’s supposed conversation with “Gary” could not have been part of the Garci tapes.
The flaw in the plan to cover up the crisis was that it was based on a faulty reading of the problem (Palace operatives thought it was the President’s phone which had been bugged). The faulty reading of the problem, however, proved that there was in fact a cover-up. A Palace official—the President’s spokesman, no less—had been caught with both hands inside the CD jar.
Much later, under questioning in Congress, Bunye alleged that the package of CDs had only come into his possession, sub rosa. He said he didn’t even know where the package came from. The brainless excuse, from an otherwise careful lawyer, led many to conclude that Bunye, at the very least, was part of a cover-up about a cover-up. If Bunye really did not know the provenance of the two CDs, why did he present them to the media? As his old and new friends from the banking industry might say, It doesn’t compute.
Loyalty is a virtue; there is no gainsaying that. But public officials are expected to be loyal to duty and country above all. Bunye’s I-have-two-CDs epiphany showed that he placed loyalty to the President above public interest. The hissing sound we’ve heard from the Malacañang briefing room since then—that’s the sound of a once formidable lawyer-politician, deflating.
The fault, it is true, lies not in his star but in himself, that he is an underling. It is hard to argue with Shakespeare’s political insight. But it is also true that the President whom Bunye served demanded nothing less than a self-immolation from him (and from other officials, many of them the proverbial nice guy). This is the same President that Dureza will now serve in closer quarters. Will he remain his own man, or will we, too, sort someday through his ashes on the already overburdened altar of sacrifice?
Copyright 2008 Philippine Daily Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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