Roxas clustered out in Cabinet power play

LAST FRIDAY, President Aquino signed Executive Order 43 reorganizing the Cabinet into five clusters designed to “ensure efficiency, effectiveness and focus in carrying out the programs and policies of the government.”

The restructuring came in response to criticisms that the administration has little to show in concrete socioeconomic achievements despite having been in office for nearly a year—a year marked by a noisy punitive campaign exhuming the alleged corrupt transactions of the preceding Arroyo administration.

There is nothing innovative in this much ballyhooed restructuring. It is based on an old system handed down from the administration of President Cory Aquino, the President’s  mother, and effectively used by her successor Fidel Ramos, who initiated the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) concept.

Under EO 43, the Cabinet has been reorganized into five clusters, namely: good governance and anti-corruption; human development and poverty reduction; economic development; justice and peace; and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

The restructuring was announced by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. who said, “the President  believes it is more productive and efficient to meet Cabinet secretaries on specific concerns rather than have officials join meetings on concerns that do not  involve their portfolios.” Each cluster will be chaired by a Cabinet official, “with a line agency or office designated as secretariat.”

The announcement was a self-serving giveaway in which Ochoa laid down the rules of engagement for Cabinet members, especially for himself. He said the executive secretary (ES) and the Presidential Management Staff will attend all cluster meetings, with the former exercising “general monitoring and oversight functions.”

The adoption of the cluster mechanism was no less a coup staged by Ochoa to fortify his position. It was announced amid statements by the President that he intends to appoint former Sen. Manuel A. Roxas II as chief of staff, a new Cabinet position with still unspecified functions and jurisdiction. The EO explicitly situates the ES at the apex of the Cabinet hierarchy, as the overarching “premier” of the President’s official family. There is no mention in the EO about the position of the chief of staff and the place of Roxas in the nomenclature and Cabinet hierarchy. The EO promulgated by Ochoa, presumably with the approval of the President, is an exclusion order that puts Roxas on notice that he has no place in the Cabinet, or a power base.

It is not farfetched to say that the directive could have sent Roxas fuming to seek clarification with the President about his status as a Cabinet secretary. The EO excluding Roxas explicitly defines that the Good Governance and Anti-Corruption Cluster is chaired by the President, with the Department of Budget and Management as the secretariat. Its members are the finance, interior and justice secretaries, as well as the head of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office, and the chief presidential legal counsel.

The Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cluster is led by the social welfare secretary, with the National Anti-Poverty Commission as secretariat. Its members are the agrarian reform, agriculture, environment, education, health, labor, interior and budget secretaries, as well as the director general of the National Economic and Development Authority and  chair of the Commission on Higher Education.

The Economic Development Cluster is headed by the finance secretary, with the Neda as the secretariat. The members include the Neda head, the  agriculture, budget, interior, trade, public works, transportation, energy, science and technology and tourism secretaries.

The Security, Justice and Peace Cluster is chaired by the ES, with the National Security Council serving as the secretariat. Its members are the interior, foreign, defense and justice secretaries, as well as the presidential adviser on the peace process.

How Roxas fits into this scheme without overlapping the functions of the executive secretary across the entire spectrum of  the executive department—and without clashing with the executive secretary—is the big puzzle facing the administration. This jigsaw puzzle developed as the President made a great show of the eminent entry of Roxas into the Cabinet with a bicycle caravan around Quezon Circle, dressed in the emblematic yellow color of the administration.

In an ostentatious show of unity that failed to mask the factional infighting within the administration over the spoils of office, the President led the bicycle brigade, with Roxas and Ochoa riding along. There was, however, a sour note in that demonstration. Vice President Jejomar Binay, who defeated Roxas in the May election, did not show up. Ochoa is said to be allied with Binay in the cleavage that divides the administration supporters into two main contending factions.

How long Roxas can maintain his equanimity in this charade over his status in the Cabinet, despite assertions by the President that he is going to define the place of Roxas in the new setup, is a matter of conjecture. What seems clear is that Roxas has been given a token position with vague powers and authority. What is vague is where the chief of staff will draw its personnel and how much budget his projects will be given. However experienced and administratively talented Roxas may be, he has been set up in a trap where it’s hard for him to succeed.