By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas

Within a day or two, after his appointment as DA secretary, Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. started revamping that department. He shuffled senior officers, filled a vacant senior position and started occupying an office previously assiged to a senior undersecretary. The speed he acted revealed he means business. Not anymore lackadaisical the way the President was.
It was reminiscent of the way Lee Iacocca turned around the then almost dead Chrysler car company in the late 70s to the early 80s.It was the biggest business turn-around in American history.
By the way, Iacocca was reputed to be the man behind the ever popular Ford Mustang.
He did the impossible at Chrysler. He went to the American government, through the Congress, for it to loan the comapny1.5 billion US dollars. He was able to convince the US congress and the whole government.
Before the maturity of the loan, he paid the government.
In the Philippines, it is easy to get billions of pesos to support a business. Just play footsies with the person in power and all the money you need would be yours for the taking. Just a phone call to the land bank or the DBP and it would be there. The government would of course issue a sovereign guarantee. So when the crony would default from paying the debt– THEY ALWAYS DO– it would be Juan De La Cruz who will pay the loan due to the sovereign guarantee. As to repayment, never mind.
We need people like Lee Iacocca to turn around the Philippine government. But that would be an impossibility.
Let us look at some of the appointees of the President, especially the latest one. The position had been vacant for more than a year. There were speculations it was being reserved for a relative. That turned out to be false. The one appointed is a very big contributor to the president’s campaign last election.
If you want to be appointed to a national position, be a big contributor to the campaign of the nest president.
Similarly, if you want to land a position in your local government, be a contributor to the campaign of the local warlord. He will also get you government contracts to recoup your investment..
Since that is the way to get appointed in government and not having qualifications for competence, how we are is being perpetuated. Incompetence and corruption everywhere.
Will there be a change from this sad situation? Not with the present realities. I rest my case.
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