President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent order to relieve all appointees by former president Benigno Aquino III had drawn some flak here and there but hardly anyone can mount a serious legal challenge against it.
It’s not like it hasn’t been done before though as pointed out by the Philippine Daily Inquirer since Mr. Aquino had also removed appointees of his predecessor including those considered as midnight appointees.
And President Duterte is well within his authority to order the relief of the presidential appointees as former senator and Local Government Code author Aquilino Pimentel Jr. pointed out.
Still, those considered as career government executives like incumbent Regional Director Ahmed Cuizon of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) who previously served at the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority were considered safe. There may be those who will protest against the President’s order.
If anything the order should cover any midnight appointees or those appointed beyond the start of this year’s election period which, so far, has not happened unlike what happened when Aquino’s predecessor appointed the late Renato Corona as chief justice.
That said, we may reasonably expect the President not to make any changes in appointments once he does pick out his replacements for those who vacated their offices based on his order.
In choosing to fire thousands of presidential appointees, Mr. Duterte said he was disgusted with the reports he received about the continuing corruption that occurred within the agencies despite his administration giving them a month’s leeway to institute changes in their operations particularly his order to expedite the processing of documents and transactions to within a week’s time.
The President’s order is similar to the house cleaning instituted by Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena at City Hall intended to remove loyalists to former mayor Michael Rama and replace them with his trusted allies.
Unlike the President however who can fire them, Osmena is handicapped and can only order the transfer of these Rama loyalists or order those who are co-terminus with the former mayor to resign.
We hope the President and his staff can ensure that performing officials be retained and non-performers or worse, both corrupt and non-performing officials be given the boot through careful evaluation of their records and not just on the say-so of his political allies.
Like the President said, the Filipino people deserve and demand premium service from the government’s bureaucracy and if their top administrators have done nothing to ensure or sustain that service, then they certainly have to go out.
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