The President’s Men and Women: Don’t call him ‘Little President’

MANILA, Philippines – Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. cringes at being called the “Little President.”

He does not intend to strut around and make people know the hat he’s wearing, no matter how flattering it may be sometimes.

Ochoa said the executive secretary is known as the “Little President” because everything passes through him before getting to the Chief Executive.

“It is the closest office to the President and the first alter ego is the executive secretary,” he said.

“Most of the time what the President wants, the executive secretary will do it. That’s why the scope of work is very wide. The executive secretary covers everything,” he said.

His stint as city administrator of Quezon City gave him good training on governance, Ochoa said.

President Aquino said Ochoa would be the one to guard his back and “form the decisions that we’ll have to make,” aside from coordinating with the various departments and agencies.

Mr. Aquino also said Ochoa would assist him in proposing laws for different purposes, “watch over the bureaucracy and go after the corrupt.”

In 2001, when Quezon City Rep. Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte Jr. ran for mayor, Ochoa headed his legal team.

Upon being elected, Mayor Belmonte named Ochoa his right-hand man and formally appointed him city administrator in 2003.

As city administrator, Ochoa helped oversee the management of Quezon City, grappling with budget shortfalls and the increasing demands of a fast-growing city.

Ochoa headed the finance committee, among others, and implemented systems that would drastically cut down unnecessary spending by the city government.

Prudent spending practices that included a thorough review of the infrastructure requirements of the city and the rationalization of its utilities expenditures – together with improved revenue collection – allowed Quezon City to successfully balance its budget and pay all the obligations of past administrations, including P33 million in arrears in premium payments to the Government Service Insurance System, dating back to 1997.

It also enabled Quezon City to become one of the local governments least dependent on internal revenue allotments, with the IRA accounting for only 24 percent of its total income – 11 percent less than in 2001.

Fiscal discipline allowed Quezon City – upon the recommendation of Ochoa – to automatically release the share of Quezon City barangays in real property tax collections.

To ensure that barangay chairmen would use their fiscal autonomy wisely, Ochoa tapped the University of the Philippines’ National College of Public Administration and Governance to train barangay officials in the proper disbursement of their funds.

His work as city administrator has earned praise from governance specialists in academe like Ateneo School of Government Dean Tony La Viña, who called Ochoa “an effective, efficient and innovative public servant.”

Ochoa’s “programs intended to improve education, health and business permitting processes” helped make better the delivery of basic services in Quezon City, La Viña added.

Ochoa said Quezon City’s health workers were trained to properly implement the Magna Carta of Health Workers.

Quezon City’s teachers receive additional training that helped increase the scores of students in the city’s public schools and freed residents from bureaucratic red tape at City Hall, he added.

He would need to employ the same strategies in a bigger magnitude as executive secretary in handling the whole country, Ochoa said.

The Executive Secretary’s Office would review an executive order issued by the previous administration stating that all contracts involving P50 million and above would be subject to automatic review under the Office of the President.

Ochoa said he would study whether the nature and not just the amount of the project should be the consideration in making a review to prevent graft and corruption.

“We have yet to determine what is a better policy,” he said.

Ochoa said it was unfortunate that Memorandum Circular No. 1, which declared all positions held by political appointees vacant, became controversial.

“We’re trying to establish what the system was under previous administrations,” he said. “Everybody in the bureaucracy was shocked but we were just imposing what was under the law and we made it clear that this was the employment status of some bureaucrats.”

“That’s the reason for MC 1, we want to give a chance for everyone to comply with the rules,” he said.

Ochoa said it would be good to “professionalize” the bureaucracy and put in the people with the right qualifications.

“That’s why it’s difficult to appoint,” he said. “As executive secretary, you want to (choose the best and the brightest) and professionalizing the bureaucracy is a very important tool in improving the system.”

“Because if the consideration will only be political (nothing will happen), it’s not a main consideration,” he added.

Ochoa said he would have to make sacrifices to help Mr. Aquino achieve his goals for the country. “Time for family is one and of course, for leisure activities (such as photography),” he said.

Ochoa said the campaign promises of Mr. Aquino were many and having helped him in the campaign, it would not be fair to turn his back now.

“Some of the promises will entail change in culture and attitude,” he said.

Ochoa said they were planning to deliver on these promises through policies, programs and projects.

“The technique there is to quantify or translate them into quantifying matters like projects. Of course you have to balance what is ideal and what is doable,” he said.

Ochoa said he did not know a lot of people especially those in power before.

“That is good because I get to avoid (trouble),” he said.

Ochoa vowed to perform his duties and responsibilities with utmost care.

“Everything will pass through me before he (Mr. Aquino) signs,” he said. “I will have to evaluate (everything), the impact on the public always. So you have to get the feeling of the public always.

“We have programs to institute change and implement the vision of good governance,” he added.

Born on Nov. 11, 1960, Ochoa took up Economics at the University of Santo Tomas and law at the Ateneo de Manila University.

He was admitted to the Bar in 1986 and his pro-bono work in his province led to his election as director and then vice president of the Bulacan Chapter of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.

He also engaged in private practice and served as partner of the De Mesa and Ochoa Law Offices and later partner (on leave) in the Marcos Ochoa Serapio Tan Law Firm.

Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. became a close friend of the senior Ochoa, former mayor of Pulilan, Bulacan.

President Aquino tapped Ochoa to handle his legal requirements when he first ran for Congress in 1998. Ochoa has handled Mr. Aquino’s legal affairs since then. –Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star)