PROXY: DE FACTO PRESIDENT
MANILA, MAY 17, 2011 (STAR) FIRST PERSON By Alex Magno - Until we see that office order resurrecting the post of presidential chief of staff, everything that is said about the role Mar Roxas will play in the Aquino administration will be speculative.
The formal appointment has yet to be made, although the ban on losing candidates getting appointive posts has passed. Notwithstanding, it is a given that Roxas will get an appointment. In the iffy manner things get done in Noynoy's palace, no one really knows when that appointment will come.
It is also a given that this appointment will not be for the post of executive secretary — the only official empowered to make issuances on behalf of the President of the Republic. Paquito Ochoa, although largely invisible, seems secure where he sits.
The signals are that Roxas will get the post of presidential chief of staff. The delay appears due to the fact that this office is in the process of being tailored to suit the particular relationship between Roxas and the President.
In the previous administration, several persons served in that post: Renato Corona, Rigoberto Tiglao, Mike Defensor and Joey Salceda. All of them basically functioned as presidential troubleshooters, doing things at the specific instructions of the Chief Executive. Those assignments were largely impromptu. They had no pre-defined duties.
Corona, given his illustrious background in law, served basically to ensure the actions of President Arroyo would pass the tightest legal scrutiny. Tiglao and Defensor managed political issues, oversaw the work of the bureaucracy and doubled as presidential spokesmen during critical times. Salceda, with his expertise in finance and economics, served largely as President Arroyo's chief economic adviser.
There were no entrenched factions in Arroyo's team. There were therefore no problems regarding the relationship between the chief of staff and the executive secretary, who is legally the chief of the Office of the President. Arroyo had executive secretaries — de Villa and then Ermita — who enjoyed seniority and political gravitas. These are two virtues the current executive secretary lacks.
This is where the impending appointment of Mar Roxas as presidential chief of staff seems problematic. The Office of the Executive Secretary is conceded to be the bastion of the Samar faction. Mar, for his part, is the leader of the Balay faction — the faction, in fact derives its name from the Araneta-Roxas mansion in Cubao that housed his campaign team.
There is apprehension that the forthcoming appointment of Roxas will further polarize the factional struggle plaguing the Aquino presidency. This is the reason why his functions as chief of staff needs to be spelt out in detail in a formal office order reviving that particular office. Any overlap in the duties of the executive secretary and the chief of staff will invite friction or provoke outright factional warfare.
While barred by law from occupying an appointive post, Roxas was informally designated presidential troubleshooter. This informal designation so far involved only one errand: the failed attempt to repair the diplomatic damage with Taipei over that controversial decision to deport undesirable Taiwanese nationals to China. That strange decision angered Taipei. The diplomatic wound has not healed.
There are other administrative issues. The presidential chief of staff holds no real portfolio. He does not enjoy Cabinet rank. Anything less than a Cabinet rank will be deemed demeaning for Mar, who needs a well-established springboard to make a run for the Senate in 2013 and, presumably, resume his quest for the presidency in 2016.
An office order elevating the presidential chief of staff to Cabinet rank will be tenuous. That will raise many questions relating to a bloated presidential staff and the creation of a virtual portfolio without an act of Congress.
Whatever role Roxas is given in the Aquino presidency will also be an annoyance for Vice-President Jojo Binay. It is a given among all the political circles that Binay will seek to succeed the incumbent President in 2016. Roxas has a standing electoral protest against Binay.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda routinely obfuscates when he speaks. Asked about what the exact role of Roxas as presidential chief of staff will be, Lacierda began by saying that he will perform vital roles and then says he will represent the President during functions the Chief Executive cannot attend for one reason or another.
What Lacierda seems to be saying is that Mar Roxas will be a proxy for the President, making ceremonial appearances in place of the real thing, probably reading some prefabricated presidential speech. One imagines what a normal day will be like for Chief of Staff Roxas: he dresses up every morning and waits for engagements for which the President becomes unavailable.
That seems to be a job for a dummy. It is decorative rather than substantial. It is ceremonial rather than vital.
Then again there are those, principally Mar's friends, who say that the defeated vice-presidential candidate has much to offer in saving what, this early, seems to be a floundering presidency. He could bring expertise to a presidency that has demonstrated none. He could bring a work ethic the Palace lacks.
In which case, he will not just be a proxy for the President. He could grow into a Proxy President, doing the work presidents should do but which this "laid-back" President in not wont to do.
There is a moral hazard here. A working Mar might serve to encourage a non-working Noy. The more "laid-back" Noy becomes, the more powerful Mar will be.
To some, that might seem just fine — except that Mar was not elected to be de facto president.
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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