MANILA, MAY 25, 2011 (MANILA STANDARD) Dismay, when not followed by action, is just too lame a word for a chief executive.
President Benigno Aquino III says he made prisons director Ernesto Diokno know how dismayed he was that former Batangas Governor Antonio Leviste, convicted for the killing of his longtime aide, was able to gallivant outside his prison cell.
Leviste, in a hearing Monday, said his toothache became too unbearable that he could no longer wait for any prison official to approve his request to visit his dentist. Insisting that Bureau of Corrections officials were not to be blamed for his excursion, Leviste said that if anyone must be blamed, it must be he.
Diokno, an Aquino appointee, was summoned by the President last week soon after news of Leviste's furlough broke. In the meeting, Aquino also told Diokno that he expected nothing of the sort would ever happen again, implying that he would get to keep his job. Nonetheless, presidential dismay supposedly pushed the former general—with close ties to the Aquino family dating back to the series of coups d'etat during the President's late mother's time—to take a leave of absence from his job.
That the President did not fire Diokno is confounding. The only reason we could imagine was that it would not seem fair to Diokno, given that all the other Aquino appointees who had committed blunders in the past months got to keep their posts as well.
But who cares what is fair to an incompetent and unapologetic official? The only thing that would be fair is for the President to be sincere when he says that heads will roll. Then again, we've heard this before, and what came out as a tough warning has in fact been exposed to be lip service.
The President's refusal to be harsh with erring allies sends a message that closeness with the powers that be pays, and that even though the crackdown on corruption or incompetence rages on, it does not apply to those who are close to him.
Diokno could have bowed out and admitted his mistake, too, but he kept insisting that he was not at fault and should not be blamed. He should not have taken a leave of absence. If he claims to have any honor left, he should resign—especially since his boss cannot seem to find the spine to sack him.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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