Repaying the favor

Editorial

THERE is something almost feudal in the way the Aquino administration regularly doles out government positions to the relatives of the political allies it wishes to reward.

The latest and perhaps most blatant example of this was the appointment of the father and brother of Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., the lead prosecutor in the impeachment trial of the President’s nemesis, Chief Justice Renato Corona.

With the trial now in full swing, the Palace has designated the congressman’s father, former Iloilo governor Niel Tupas Sr., executive director of the state-owned Philippine National Oil Co. The congressman’s brother, Raul, was appointed director of the Agriculture Department in September 2011. Even earlier, the congressman’s sister, Nielette Tupas-Balleza, became a national consultant to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, a move that almost surely required the presidential imprimatur.

The fathers of two other members of the prosecution team in the Corona impeachment trial were similarly rewarded.

The father of Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III, former senator Wigberto Tañada, was appointed board chairman of United Coconut Planters Bank-Coconut Industry Investment Fund-Oil Mills Group for the Granexport Manufacturing Corp., Cagayan de Oro Oil Co., and Iligan Coconut Industries Inc.

The father of Quezon City Rep. Jorge Banal, former councilor Jorge Banal Sr., was appointed acting member of the board of Poro Point Management Corp.

The Palace has dismissed accusations of political patronage, noting that the appointments were made well before Corona’s impeachment trial began. But this is a specious argument that ignores the possibility of a quid pro quo arrangement ironed out well before the trial began. One can almost imagine the President speaking to the congressmen in gangland fashion, saying: “Someday—and that day may never come—I will ask you to repay this favor.”

Well, that day has come and the congressmen, even at the risk of breaking laws, flouting the rules of the impeachment court, and inviting public ridicule, have rendered their service to their patron in the Palace.

This political patronage is made worse by the nepotism it institutionalizes. The President may be very careful not to appoint his own relatives to government positions, but he has been perfectly willing to appoint the relatives of his benefactors and political allies to plum government jobs. This is why his budget secretary also has a daughter and a son in sensitive government positions, and why his wife, a congresswoman, has been given a spot in the powerful appropriations committee in the House of Representatives.

This is also why the father of a singer who supported Mr. Aquino during the last election was appointed chairman of Philippine National Oil Co.-Development and Management Corp.

The Palace has fended off accusations of nepotism by saying all its appointees were qualified and vetted, but we can’t help but wonder—among 90 million Filipinos, were these blessed relatives really the most qualified?

The appointment of relatives of political allies and benefactors harks back to the days of feudal marriages between members of powerful clans. These gave influential families a vested interest in the ruler’s success.

To a President who has not lifted a finger to end 50 years of feudal exploitation of agricultural land that was merely gifted to his clan, this kind of behavior must be second nature. Sadly, it is we, the public, that must pay for his institutionalized nepotism