A winner in his own mind
October 15th, 2003
Former Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes claimed right after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo swore him in as “ambassador-at-large for counter-terrorism” that he expected to be criticized because “that’s the way Philippine politics goes.”
Reyes said his appointment would be criticized as furthering his political ambitions. It’s a remark that implies that he would be such a formidable candidate for senator in 2004 that his potential rivals would be leading the chorus.
This is an unfounded assumption. Although he dismissed findings by the Social Weather Stations last month of his enjoying (that may not be the right word) a negative 11 rating among the very electorate whose votes he intends to court, Reyes is not exactly as popular as Fernando Poe Jr. or Noli de Castro—or even Roilo Golez.
Reyes’ negative 11 approval rating compared to negative 5 approval for AFP Chief of Staff Narciso Abaya and National Security Adviser Roilo Golez. Still according to SWS, 70% of the respondents in that same survey believed that the charges of the Oakwood mutineers, which were primarily on AFP corruption and Reyes’ alleged role in the Davao terrorist bombings, were true or probably true.
If we were to believe the SWS results, Abaya or Golez would be more viable candidates for senator than Reyes. It would also be ironic that someone 70 percent of the public believes had something to do with terrorism is now the country’s “ambassador-at-large for counter-terrorism.”
Ironic or not, given his approval rating and the perception as of September that the Oakwood mutineers’ charges are true, Reyes would likely end up at the tail end of any roster of candidates for senator, unless he does something truly miraculous between now and May to push him into the winning circle.
But to predict that Reyes would lose in 2004 is to assume that any of the major parties would be willing to have him, in the first place. Right now there doesn’t seem to be much enthusiasm for Reyes among either Lakas-CMD or any of the opposition parties. It’s easy to see why. Both the administration and opposition parties have enough problems to compound them with the inclusion in their respective senatorial slates of a person not only with a minus 11 approval rating, but who also has the charisma and credibility of a used-car dealer.
Reyes is not as attractive as Loren Legarda, and his is not the kind of mind anyone would describe as beautiful either.
In dismissing the SWS survey results about himself, for example, Reyes also dismissed public opinion as of no consequence to a government official.
“My idea of public service,” Reyes told reporters, “is I determine what has to be done… I’d rather that what I do is determined by what I think has to be done, what I think I can contribute, than what other people or what surveys might think.”
Somebody tell Reyes quick that “what other people think” is at the heart of democratic governance and the republican system. Theoretically, in a republican system the sovereign citizenry merely delegates its powers to public officials either through appointment or the ballot. At the same time, the principle behind public opinion polls is precisely to determine what the majority of the people in a democracy are thinking so officials can obey their will.
It is Reyes’ own statements that made him an eminently unattractive appointed official when he was Secretary of Defense. Those statements are even more likely to make him unacceptable to any sane voter. Reyes believes, however, that neither his persona, his credibility, or his approval rating is of any consequence to his ambitions for 2004. He believes, for some reason no one can fathom, that he would be one of the candidates to beat come May.
Reyes is a winner only in his own mind. His appointment is not being criticized because his possible rivals for the Senate next year fear his power to draw millions of votes. It is being criticized, first, because it’s not clear exactly what he’s going to be doing, and how; and second, for its potential to erase, and even reverse, the positive response of most Filipinos to his resignation as Secretary of Defense.
Thus has his appointment—and the creation of a totally new post custom-tailored for him and him alone—not met the endorsement even of administration politicians because the latter fear that this may be another one of those Arroyo mistakes that has eroded her own approval ratings to a disastrous positive 2.
It is more than obvious that Arroyo appointed Reyes to placate him for his being asked to resign the Defense post last month, and to give him a potentially high-profile position so he can return to the media limelight. This much is evident from the fuzzy description of the job to which he has been appointed, about which Reyes himself appears to be partly clueless.
Reyes thus told reporters after he was sworn into the post that he has been tasked to “coordinate, synchronize, and orchestrate the Philippine counter-terrorism efforts with the rest of the region.”
This is a task already being discharged through the Department of Foreign Affairs in coordination with the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Presumably Philippine ambassadors in the Southeast Asian region are engaged in whatever “coordination, synchronization and orchestration” are necessary as part of their tasks, and have enlisted the help and support of the appropriate agencies.
The next day Reyes added to his own job description that of fighting domestic terror groups like the Abu Sayyaf and dismantling the training camps of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The logical question is how he’s going to do either. Other than his designation as ambassador- at- large, Malacanang has announced no plans to create an office that would perform the tasks Reyes describes. It has asked for no budgetary appropriations, no staffing needs.
Would Reyes then perform his job at home and abroad by assuming the twin roles of a super-commander/coordinator over ongoing efforts by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, and of supervisor over Philippine ambassadors to the ASEAN countries?
Would he actually be deputy commander- in- chief then, rather than a mere “ambassador-at-large”? What kind of ambassador is it who would be focused not only on coordinating, etc., Philippine counter-terrorism efforts with the other countries of the Southeast Asian region but also on combating terrorism within the country? Reyes and Mrs. Arroyo can of course say that the phrase “-at-large” after the word “ambassador” means that Reyes can be ambassador within the country as well as outside it, but ambassador to what? To the MILF? The AFP? The PNP? To Pikit, Cotabato? By obviously duplicating his role, on the other hand, what does this appointment make of National Security Adviser Roilo Golez’ role?
The policy confusion and the political infighting that could ensue as a result of this appointment can well be imagined. If Mrs. Arroyo intended to give Reyes a position whose irrelevance would be matched only by the pretentiousness of its title, she may have cause to regret it, Reyes being more likely to enlarge his domain rather than meekly accept his place in the Cabinet.
Driven by his ambitions and his erroneous belief that he can win in 2004 despite what the electorate thinks, Reyes would be focused on doing exactly that as the May elections rapidly approach. Events may not materialize as he hopes, of course. But what’s certain is that Reyes, thanks to this new appointment, will once again be inflicting his annoying views and grammar on the rest of us for the next several months as the Arroyo government lapses into further incoherence. It’s not something to look forward to.
(Today/abs-cbnNEWS.com, October 4, 2003)