A tale of two presidents: ‘Exact Opposites’

First of two parts

Nagpapasalamat na lamang po ako sa pag-amin ni Ginang Arroyo na ‘di umano’y kabaliktaran raw niya ako. Sa wakas, magkasundo rin po kami. Talagang magkabaliktad po kami. (I can only be thankful for Mrs. Arroyo’s admission that I am her exact opposite. Finally, we can agree. It is really true that we are the complete opposites.)
—President Benigno Aquino 3rd

MANY Palace watchers have long wondered how the nation’s leader conducts governance behind the guarded walls of Malacañang. On his first anniversary as president, PNoy spelled out what he was like as Chief Executive.
Not directly, but in contrast to his predecessor, who Aquino agreed wholeheartedly was the “exact opposite” of what he was, to quote the official speech translation. So before his spokespersons can say he was joking, misquoted, or otherwise misconstrued, let us have a glimpse of the kind of leader who, by his own declaration, PNoy is not.

Here is an account of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as president, from this former Cabinet member who entered the Palace in March 2001 and left on June 30 last year.
In her first few months in office, one of Arroyo’s top priorities was implementing the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act. AFMA was one of several major measures she had authored as senator, along with the Build-Operate-Transfer Law governing public-private partnerships, as well as legislation liberalizing trade, telecoms and aviation, among other statutes. Unlike her predecessor and her successor, Arroyo had significant achievements in Congress before becoming president.
To implement AFMA, which lay idle and unfunded for five years, President Arroyo called special discussions among agriculture and funding agencies, in addition to her weekly Cabinet meetings. She told departments to realign funds and the Land Bank to allocate credit, so that the P20 million a year in modernization funding stipulated in AFMA would be provided.

Eventually, P24 billion a year average was channeled to farmers and fisherfolk, as monitored by the House Oversight Committee under then Congressman Jose Salceda. Arroyo’s implementation of the law she authored was the main reason for the drop in poverty incidence between 2000 and 2003, when some 2 million Filipinos rose out of destitution.

As Secretary of the Cabinet, this writer took charge of meeting preparations and documentation, and issued and monitored directives to agencies. Every week President Arroyo set agenda for discussion after reviewing national events and developments (see January 7 column). The regular discussions also ensured constant follow-up of directives. As a micro-manager, she would call Cabinet members and other officials even past midnight to discuss policy and follow up programs and projects.
For her nine State of the Nation Addresses, President Arroyo went over drafts in countless Cabinet meetings, often typing revisions in the drafts projected on the floor-to-ceiling State Dining Room screen for comment by agency heads (see July 23, 2010, column). Every SONA pledge and commitment had to be affirmed by the responsible entity. Thus, despite the 55 timebound targets in its first SONA, the Arroyo Administration got a decent passing mark from Salceda’s oversight committee.

For the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan 2004-2010, Arroyo presided over Cabinet meetings in which key chapters were fine-tuned. She herself also edited the final draft, and compiled appendices listing schools needing more classrooms and Mindanao roads and bridges to be built.

For those voluminous infrastructure lists, she spent late nights conferring with a Department of Education assistant secretary on classrooms, and then Public Works Secretary Florencio Soriquez on the P3-billion Mindanao road program. That was Arroyo’s idea of a midnight Cabinet, unlike the evening pastimes of other presidents in the past decade.

In calamities and crises President Arroyo was a hands-on leader. As media has frequently shown, she was quick to convene meetings of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC, now NDRRMC under the disaster response law enacted under Arroyo, along with the Strategic National Action Plan for disaster response and risk reduction).

In contrast to handling of the Rizal Park hostage crisis, President Arroyo directly engaged and assigned top officials to handle the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny, the 2006 Manila Peninsula takeover, and the Manila City Hall schoolbus hostage taking—all resolved with no loss of life.

What about appointments? Like other presidents, including PNoy, Arroyo put loyal supporters in key positions. But she told them to perform or be replaced. And when some cloud came some Cabinet members, they themselves resigned. Among those who stepped down were Hernando Perez at Justice, Angelo Reyes at Defense, and Arthur Yap at Agriculture. Reyes and Yap eventually returned to the Cabinet after being cleared of charges. No “KKK” privileges then.

On Wednesday, we look at some similarities between the two presidents, and the most crucial difference between them.

The last part will be published on Wednesday.

Ricardo Saludo heads the Center for Strategy, Enterprise & Intelligence (ric.saludo@censeisolutions.com), publishing The CenSEI Report, which provides analytic research on national, business and global issues. –RICARDO SALUDO, Manila Times