by Malou C. Mangahas

THE FILIPINO values pride as much as life itself. But to the brave if rowdy Batangueño, like Justice Secretary Hernando 'Nani' B. Perez, one lives for so long as one does not lose pride, and face.

The Nani Perez psyche is all that, friends and foes alike say. Explaining why the moustachioed secretary seems oblivious to the pile of charges of case-fixing, politicking, infighting among his protégés and major bungling by his department, one associate quips, "Mawala na ang lahat, huwag lang ang yabang (Everything be damned, except pride)."

Another lawyer friend seconds that, although he elaborates that aside from pride, what Perez fears losing the most are power and pelf. Yet another buddy says Perez actually agonizes less over the allegations against him and his office and more over losing the respect of his four grown-up children, and receding from the limelight and into the dark yet again, as had happened a few years back.

After years of basking in glory and light, Perez, a dapper dresser quick with quips and with seemingly boundless energy for flirting with women and crowds, suddenly found himself living in political blight. This came after his stunning defeat in the 1998 congressional elections, on his first bid for a Senate seat. Perez lost big—not just money but also the fealty of friends and allies. According to those who stuck it out with him, those dark days prompted Perez to restructure his loans, let go of some of his former staff in Congress, and trade meals in expensive restaurants for sandwich lunches in his office. He also soon figured in a serious car accident that sent him to hospital for days, and left a scar on his pretty-boy face.

But today, as the head of one of the more powerful departments in the country, Perez is back bigtime.

The problem, observers say, is that Perez is so much an unabashed political peacock that every day at his office unfolds like it is always showtime for Nani Perez the politician. It is common to have interview schedules fixed at the same time that the Secretary is supposed to meet with three or four other parties. And just as he has become a veteran of press conferences, so too is Perez a fixture in coffee shops around town and in cocktail circuits. Now more than a year old in his job, Perez has yet to call a decent meeting of all his bureau and program chiefs and share with them his vision and policy-reform goals for the department. What he has done, say his critics, is centralize discretion and decision-making in himself and his few most trusted appointees, virtually immobilizing the Department of Justice (DOJ), which traces its beginnings to a decree issued on September 26, 1898 by President Emilio Aguinaldo.

The department has both a grand tradition and a grave mandate to "uphold the rule of law and ensure the effective and efficient administration of justice." Indeed, it is vested with broad powers and functions as "the principal law agency… and legal counsel and representative" of the government. Its functions nclude investigating crimes, prosecuting offenders, and administering jails. It is also supposed to aid poor litigants, oversee land registration, and arbitrate land disputes involving small landowners and indigenous peoples. The DOJ runs the immigration and naturalization-regulatory services and implements laws governing citizenship and the admission and stay of aliens. Moreover, it acts as lawyer for the national government and its subsidiaries.

The justice secretary himself manages a huge organization with a budget of P1.72 billion this year, with millions of pesos allocated for intelligence, confidential, and extraordinary expenses. He appoints and disciplines public prosecutors and fiscals across the nation. He administers the Witness Protection Program, including its P84-million budget that does not have to undergo rigorous audit, as well as the Commission for the Protection of Children and the Victims Compensation Program. He presides over the country's national prosecution service and jails. He is boss of the bosses of the National Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Pardons and Parole, Bureau of Corrections, Bureau of Immigration and Deportation, Public Attorney's Office, Land Registration Authority, Commission on the Settlement of Land Disputes, Office of the Solicitor General, and Office of the Government Corporate Counsel.

Appeals and complaints of any and all sorts may be submitted for review by the justice secretary. Over 400 cases are pending review at any given time, ranging from the simplest to the most complex criminal and civil suits, and involving the lowliest to the most prominent litigants. A most powerful weapon he wields—the DOJ opinion—can reverse decisions of the lower courts, stop investigation into an alleged corruption case dead on its tracks, or even grant performance guarantees or undertaking for government contracts with the private sector.