A surprise resignation

THE SUDDEN resignation of Secretary Jose de Jesus of the Department of Transportation and Communications on Monday after serving the Aquino administration for 11 months, took the President and the public by surprise. De Jesus was the first Cabinet member to quit the administration, and his departure is considered a crippling blow to the government in the light of the fact that he is one of the few credible and performing officials of the administration.

The resignation came amid reports of heightening internal squabbles among rival factions within the administration and speculations that President Aquino is planning a Cabinet revamp as a means to reverse a decline in his administration’s public approval ratings as it completes its first year in office.

The President is reported to be dissatisfied with the performance of his administration and ready to remove “underperforming” officials in a government, which has increasingly been criticized as being dysfunctional and unable to show consequential achievements. But underperformance cannot be tagged on De Jesus’ work record.

For De Jesus, the resignation ends years of public service. He served as public works secretary of the President’s mother with distinction and considerable accomplishments. Prior to joining the DoTC, he was president of Manila Electric Co. and also the Manila North Tollways Corp., operator of the North Luzon Expressway.

De Jesus leaves the Aquino government with an unsullied reputation for honesty, competence and delivering results. He has never been linked to any corruption scandal since he joined the Cory Aquino Cabinet. He cited “health” reasons for his resignation, but there are reports he was pressured to resign over a disagreement with the President on whether to replace suspended Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Virginia Torres or to allow her to return to her post.  According to newspaper reports, De Jesus had recommended the suspension of Torres to pave the way for a deeper investigation by the Department of Justice of the controversies involving Stradcom Corp., the LTO’s information technology provider.

According to newspaper reports, Torres went on leave in April after the DoJ had investigated a complaint against her for alleged conspiracy in the failed takeover of Stradcom’s central operations center in December by a group of businessmen.  The DoJ is reported to have recommended administrative charges of grave misconduct and gross negligence against Torres and her head executive assistant. It also found the two liable for conspiracy charges and recommended that they be asked to go on leave or be suspended. The DoTC elevated the fate of Torres to Malacañang because she is a presidential appointee, but she was instead told to just go on leave. De Jesus apparently could not stomach this crony-like arrangement.

It did not help either Torres or the administration that the President is a shooting range buddy of Torres.  Whether or not the reported crony-favoring tendencies of the President was the main reason for the  resignation  of De Jesus or policy issues is not clear, but it came even as the secretary and his staff were “drawing up plans for the next five years and setting up a lot of deadlines,” according to some of his staff.  Since joining the DoTC, De Jesus had ordered a review of key infrastructure projects approved by the past administration.

This sudden disengagement of De Jesus also comes in the midst of the controversy over the merger of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Digitel, a move that has been criticized in both the business sector and Congress as raising the threat of a monopoly in the telecoms industry by the dominant service provider. The telecoms industry is in turmoil and needs clear direction from the government as regards the latter’s role in establishing its authority in putting a semblance of order and curbing the predatory expansion of aggressive business combines seeking control of key economic sectors.

There is a perception in the business community that the uncertainty on the part of government about its role in giving direction to business is behind the administration’s moves to revamp the Cabinet as a means to reinvigorate economic growth.  The resignation of De Jesus has the effect of forcing the government to stop procrastinating over the revamp.

The government has to replace De Jesus fast since the telecoms industry is in turmoil over matters which require the government’s intervention.  It cannot afford to leave a vacuum in that sector.

The administration has taken some initial steps to organize a dynamic Cabinet. It has reorganized the Cabinet into five strategic clusters to effect coordination of policies and programs. It intends to create the position of chief of staff, to give defeated vice presidential candidate Manuel Roxas II a job, superimposing his position on the office of the executive secretary.

In his confusion, the President is doing the wrong things. He is not getting a stronger Cabinet from these innovations. There are at most two credible and competent Cabinet members:  the secretary of justice and, until last week, the DoTC secretary.  He has already lost De Jesus who was handling a sector where the President needs a strong hand. Maybe, De Jesus had a strong sense that, under the President’s management style, he couldn’t accomplish much.