May 18, 2006 · Posted in: Governance, Investigative Reports
Candidates for DAP president accuse Arroyo
of railroading selection process
OUR latest one-part story, for publication in newspapers tomorrow, tells of how President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has railroaded the selection of the president of the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP).
Tomorrow night, the board of trustees of the DAP is scheduled to interview eight contenders for DAP president. But only one of the shortlisted candidates will show up, with the rest snubbing the meeting because, they said, the results of tonight’s board deliberation are “a foregone conclusion.”
The only one who will come for the interview is the candidate personally chosen by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo: Antonio Kalaw, currently DAP senior vice president and corporate secretary. In an unusual show of defiance and protest, all the rest will boycott the event.
“We cannot allow ourselves to be naïve sacrificial lambs on the altar of ‘presidential desire,'” four of the candidates said in a strongly worded letter rebuking Arroyo for interfering in the selection of the DAP head.
They expect that Kalaw will be named president because this is what President Arroyo wants, and she told the DAP board so in a March 31 letter.
This, despite the fact that Kalaw does not have a postgraduate degree and the rest have PhDs and publications to their name. In terms of qualifications, Kalaw landed seventh among the eight contenders in a ranking made by the DAP search committee.
Arroyo’s interest in the DAP presidency, academy insiders say, may have to with her desire to get a “friendly” president who will vote to oust Civil Service Commission chief Karina David from the chairmanship of the Career Executive Service Board (CESB), which had earlier rebuked Malacañang for ignoring civil-service rules and in effect politicizing the bureaucracy.
The DAP is an independent government think tank and training center. While it is under the Office of the President, the academy has had a tradition of independence from Malacañang since its establishment by President Ferdinand Marcos in 1973. DAP oldtimers say that never in the academy’s history has a president so directly and so obviously intervened in the selection of who would be at the DAP’s helm. While previous heads of state made their preferences known, they did not, like Arroyo, do this even before the search process began.
Read on at pcij.org.
11 Responses to Candidates for DAP president accuse Arroyo
of railroading selection process
Juan Makabayan
May 19th, 2006 at 2:14 pm
Thanks for posting this.
Recourse: Expose, boycott the inteview,
Isn’t there any legal recourse? This is not an impeachable offense but there should be some constitutional recourse.
Dapat pala puwedeng harangin ng CA ang ganyang level ng appointees.
gwaping
May 19th, 2006 at 2:22 pm
JM, agree with you there should be legal recourse on matters like this, but maybe it’ll be better if it’ll be modification of jurisprudence (fix law) rather than in the oversight power of Congress (CA) to avoid political intervention.
Juan Makabayan
May 19th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
Gwaping,
“modification of jurisprudence (fix law)”
Agree, this crossed my mind too. So who’ll make the law, Congress? They must call for an investigation in aid of legislation on this particular case when ” never in the academy’s history has a president so directly and so obviously intervened”. That itself is the constitutional recourse.
GMA keeps pressing on the fringes of the Constitution. When remedial processes are set into motion she blocks it with another questionable ‘calibrated response’. She can overload even the Judiciary with never-ending petitions and MR’s.
fighting
May 19th, 2006 at 11:57 pm
political patronage is the name of the game-para sa mga tuta ni GMA! shame on you! shame on you-chew your principles well
Cecile Impens
May 20th, 2006 at 12:35 am
Arroyo made it clear what she wants in her government and will do the unthinkable violations to arrive there. If DAP has in reality the total independence in decision and selection of the candidates, there is absolutely no reason why they have to “pave” the way and “nod” at Arroyo’s choice. Not unless, there is no absolute collaborations among them!
fighting
May 20th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
Kalaw is just one candidate and hindi ibig sabihin nun he represents the rest of the academy. there has been protests pero anong magagawa kung yung taong nagpapagamit is backed up by the BOT na sunod sunuran sa gusto ni GMA? actually as i read nga the whole story, this case is not an initiative of GMA alone-Malamang nagmove din itong si Kalaw na makakuha ng endorsement.
RPMD
May 21st, 2006 at 1:32 pm
This is clearly another “in-your-face” move by a power-hungry administration. Bastusan na nga talaga.
Last week at a town fiesta, I was talking to my relatives and the topic was corruption in government. They were all outraged. I asked them what are they willing to do about it, but they had no clear answer. Tsk
Principles only matter if you have the will to back them up. Are you willing to die for your principles?
maharnilad
May 23rd, 2006 at 2:03 am
maharnilad said,
This is a classic case of losing Pinoy style. Nobody loses-he or she got cheated and the winner doesn’t deserve it.
These protesting candidates failed to recognize who the appointing authority is this case. It is also unfortunate to see them make demands before participating in the selection process. The least they can do is to be thankful that they are being considered for the job.
If the President has made her decision, then they should accept it being part of her team otherwise, they would be doing DAP and eventually the country disservice by hanging on to their posts and constantly picking on her choice.
Everyone should get on the task of helping DAP fulfill its mission and help the country move forward. It is time to get back to work and serve the people. To all his supporters and critics alike, it is also time to lend Mr. Kalaw all the support he needs to succeed ..
jukey
May 25th, 2006 at 8:55 pm
Well. I do not like GMA that much. No, I flatly don’t like her – the style that she uses to run the government.
BUT I think she is not prohibited to send a letter to the DAP chair. And so is anybody. She just played her cards. Those other candidates also has the right to protest. Bad thing Arroyo does not respect traditions of respect. Philippine Presidency is highly political since it is directly elected by the citizens. If anybody claims otherwise – that is, she did not win – we had our chance through the impeachment process. And that too is political.
If there is any doubt on whether she won or lost the election, the congress is resorted to decide. What we have now is their decision. This is to prevent a highly polarized government – where the Legislative branch wars with the Executive Branch. We may never get to anywhere with this kind of governance. That is how the constitution wants it.
I still hope she will decide not to stay in power after her term expires or if they wanted a new form of government. This will mean bad on all social aspects- even her allies would leave her. Bad for you, bad for me, bad for the economy. Worse, bad for our children.
What we can do now is send the information to the Filipino people who’s got the real authority. So they will dismiss her the next she asked for a favor.
And oh, to give you some hope, our Supreme Court can still be depended upon based on their latest decisions.
horsefield
May 27th, 2006 at 8:45 pm
I think there is nothing wrong what GMA had done. The problem with the Philippine society is that they only see the negative things. I hope people especially the media will start to realized this. I am afraid things had change in the world but the media people in the Philippine had not grown better.
clemrasul
June 1st, 2006 at 2:21 pm
This story sucks! If you are trying to force connect the dots… Sorry it doesn’t add up.
The “strongly worded letter” being referred to is not even signed by any of the candidates. If this is investigative journalism, I suggest, please do a better job.
There is nothing wrong with Ms. Arroyo expressing her preferred choice for a DAP President. The process of selection is solely a prerogative of the BOT of DAP. Even if you say that the BOT has been influenced by Ms. Arroyo.
I attended today’s turn-over and oath-taking ceremony of Mr. Kalaw. I was invited as a former DAPper. I know Mr. Kalaw is equally qualified for the position. To the DAP community, I do hope that after all the “hurts” in the selection process, you will respect the “wisdom” of the BOT and help the new DAP president.
The DAP as an institution is bigger than the all of us. Its image does not deserve to be depicted this way.