E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
A Villar saving grace
Sunday, 11 11, 2007
Delineating the leadership parameters of Senate President Manny Villar Jr. as chief executive of the Senate is proving to be a real challenge. He has made enough gaffes to deserve a rating of “poor” when it comes to organization building. He has passed over the promotion of a number of deserving employees in the Senate Secretariat in favor of protégés and, in one tragic instance, unwittingly designated an officer-in-charge well-known for involvement in shady deals for many years now.
But whether by stroke of pure serendipity or by the law of averages, Villar’s appointment of lawyer Edwin Bellen as deputy secretary for legislation is something I will have to applaud. Bellen’s promotion is well-deserved, and if I were to rate Villar on the basis of the comments I got from Senate Secretariat employees during my visit last week, I would grant that Villar has saved himself from the embarrassment of being completely shut out of the employees’ affections because of this particular promotion.
One Secretariat staffer — Dan Pinto, the director of the Printing Service Office — even followed up that “survey” I did with an e-mail message. It seems that my past articles on Villar had not sat well with Pinto. Way back when I was still with the Senate, I have known Pinto for his occasional streaks of blunt upfrontness, and here he is now: taking issue with me on two counts. He says, one, Villar is doing well as Senate President, and that his election by a majority coming from all shades of the political spectrum is opportune in that chamber of disagreements; and, two, that Villar is providential for the Senate Secretariat, noting that for the first time in a long, long time since Sen. Ed Angara was Senate President, performance and seniority are now being rewarded, as in the case of Bellen.
The cadence and style of Pinto’s e-mail made me wish that perhaps government employees could write in that manner, but then I remembered that he was, after all, my locum tenens of sorts, many years back. So while I give him points for his short, clear and concise prose, I do not agree with him on his defense of Villar as a good Senate President.
But I will concede to Pinto that Villar really did well in bringing together a majority of the senators to install him in the third most powerful position in our government. As to Villar’s ascension to the Senate presidency on the strength of a rainbow coalition (sounds like JdV-ish), Pinto had better realize that Villar is a political creature whose vocabulary does not include the word “constancy.” This is exactly another kind of creature whom the nation should be wary of (we know who the other one is). His notorious fence-sitting on vital issues confronting the nation, if that will carry over to his presidency over the land — God have mercy on us! — will spell helter-skelter to the nation. We need stability in relationships. We need consistency in policies. We cannot afford to have a leader consorting with the enemy, or making enemies of his erstwhile allies.
On Villar’s choice of Bellen, Pinto’s e-mail reads: “It is unfair for opinion writers like you to generalize. Look at the appointment of Edwin: It is well-deserved, and has left no one among his peers at the Secretariat grousing about it. Edwin grew up from the ranks, literally and figuratively, and he has not sucked up to anyone to get to be where he is now. Edwin had been promoted by reason of qualifications and performance alone. Given time, Edwin could very well turn out, I am afraid, a much better deputy secretary than you once were.”
The Senate Secretariat is very dear to me, for that is where I continued my career in public service when then Senate President Jovito Salonga plucked me out of the academe. I can agree with Pinto’s points on Bellen’s appointment, but not on the flippancy with which Villar handled the unceremonious removal of Senate Secretary Oscar Yabes. Villar could have handled it better; a certain noblesse oblige, after all, is expected of a future(?) president of the country when he must sacrifice deserving bureaucrats at the altar of political expediency. And my original question remains: Why terminate a good and performing Senate Secretary like Yabes?
Mr. Pinto, I agree with you on the matter of Bellen’s promotion. I was responsible for Bellen’s original appointment in 1992. Way back then, I saw the potential in the man, that’s why I never hesitated to have him promoted three times over in a span of five years. In fact, Bellen’s becoming the deputy secretary for legislation is overdue. He should have been appointed to that position in 1998 when I left the Senate, but politics came in the way.
This young lawyer from Bacacay, Albay, has already achieved a lot, handling several sensitive positions in the Senate that drew upon his innate intelligence and initiative, not to mention his complete neutrality from the political shades that oftentimes besmirch legislative research outputs. Also, Bellen has never stopped learning — an imperative of his being a professor of constitutional law in a major law school in Quezon City, which comes in handy in his work at churning out legal and legislative opinions for the Senate. His publications on parliamentary practices are gems of source materials for many researchers and for the senators themselves.
I thank Pinto for his reaction, although I smell something in his rave and rant. He has never been a suck-up person himself, but it strikes me that he is angling for something I can’t exactly pin down. I understand he wants to put in his retirement papers next year. So, might it be a good idea for Villar to give Pinto a chance to show whatever he’s got to deserve a comfortable retirement compensation?
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