by JAILEEN F. JIMENO

DEPARTMENT OF Interior and Local Governments (DILG) Secretary Ronaldo Puno is in a bind. He is the last of President Joseph Estrada’s Cabinet to face the Commission on Appointments (CA) and although he says he has the President’s support, Puno is being made to go through what seems to be the eye of a needle.

The main reason: The controversial Cabinet member’s bitter—and very public—feud with Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, one of the Commission’s most vocal members. Not that there are not enough reasons to question Puno’s appointment. Santiago says he allowed the Philippine National Police (PNP) to enter into an anomalous drug-testing contract with a private firm.

But political observers say Santiago, whose privilege speech on the deal triggered a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigation, had far more personal reasons for bringing up the matter. Puno, after all, is believed to be the mastermind of the so-called "Sulu Hotel Operations" that allegedly stole the presidency from Santiago in 1992. Added to that is Puno’s ongoing feud with the senator’s husband, DILG Undersecretary Narciso Santiago.

This is not the first time that the Commission on Appointments has been reduced to being an arena for bickering politicians. But insiders and former government officials say personal spats between politicians are among the CA’s least worries. They say more than anything else, rampant favor-swapping, undue pressure, patronage and even corruption have cast doubts on the integrity of the Commission.

Santiago admits as much herself. The tart-tongued senator, who a decade ago failed to be confirmed as agrarian reform secretary under the Aquino administration, describes the CA as "basically a horse-trading agency, a completely political agency."

According to Santiago, members of the Commission, even before they are chosen to represent their parties in the body, already have a mental list of the people they want to put in certain key Cabinet positions.

"Very obviously, the only way they can accommodate each other is to observe the quid pro quo rule," she says. "I won’t object to your protégé as long as you don’t object to mine. So, it’s really horse-trading or log-rolling at work. The personal merits of the nominees take a backseat are just considered irrelevant."

Santiago blames her being rejected by the Commission in 1989 to her decision to refuse favors asked of her by some of the CA members at the time. Her own objections against Puno’s confirmation, however, seem to have little to do with favor-trading.

The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee recently concluded that the PNP drug-testing deal was indeed disadvantageous to the government, and has recommended that the Ombudsman file graft charges against Puno and a top official of the company involved.

Puno himself appears to have anticipated trouble with Senator Santiago in the Commission. Appointed last April, he is said to have tried to hold off the confirmation hearings in the hope that by the time he faced the CA, Santiago would have relinquished her post to another senator under a seat-sharing scheme.

He managed to delay submitting the documents required for more than four months, until lawmakers finally issued a ruling requiring all appointees to submit such papers within 15 days after being appointed. The DILG chief complied with all the requirements just last September 10, and it was only then that his confirmation hearings could begin.

To be sure, Puno is not the first Cabinet appointee to face objections regarding his confirmation by the Commission, which has so far approved all of Estrada’s nominees. He is also not exactly without qualifications for the job he covets, having spent dozens of years working in various ministries during the Marcos regime, and was also once counselor at the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. But Puno apparently knows that the confirmation process is far more complex than most of the public can imagine.

In theory, the Commission balances the secrecy attendant to the selection of a candidate for government posts. Since the executive branch’s process of selecting government officials is done away from the prying eyes of the public, the 25 men and women who make up the Commission are relied on to take a second look at the fitness of the candidate for the job he or she has been nominated for.

The Commission, which has for members 13 senators and 12 representatives, has the final say on appointments in the Cabinet, constitutional bodies, and presidential commissions. It also screens promotions in the military from the rank of colonel upwards. In the Department of Foreign Affairs, consuls, heads of missions and ambassadors have to be confirmed by the Commission before they can assume their posts abroad.

Senator Juan Flavier, who also had to pass through the Commission to clinch his post as health secretary in 1992, says the fear of displeasing a Commission member unhappy is great. "You are very vulnerable," he says, "because you are up for confirmation, and it only takes one to invoke section 20, and that’s one of the swords hanging over you."

Section 20 of the rules of the Commission on Appointments is the provision that can kill any nomination during plenary sessions. By simply invoking it, any CA member is able to defer the confirmation of a nominee. No explanations are needed, no questions are asked.

Flavier, like Santiago, recalls being asked by some members of the Commission for commitments regarding contracts, projects and employment of certain individuals. Flavier says he imposed two rules on those who tried to use their influence to corner contracts either for themselves, their friends or relatives. First, he demanded that the contractors become registered Department of Health (DOH) bidders. Second, they should win in the bidding process. Flavier’s role would then be to ensure that the winning bidder gets the contract without additional problems along the way.

As for the politicians who wanted their people employed in hospitals or within the DOH bureaucracy, Flavier says he demanded that all recommendees meet all requirements for the jobs they wanted. "If they wanted to be hospital directors, but they didn’t have masters in hospital administration, don’t even talk to me, because that’s first line," he says.

The senator admits that he and the favor-seeking politician were both aware that the request had "an element of pressure," which he says he took as "part of the game". He recalls others had legitimate requests because "they were asking it for their constituency" and involved mostly the procurement of medicine and ambulances for local hospitals.

Santiago, for her part, says it is best to be wary of the times when a CA committee asks for an executive session, which is held behind closed doors and during which time no notes are taken. Under CA rules, these sessions are allowed "whenever the security of the state or public interest so requires." The members or the appointees may ask for it, "whenever the integrity of the nominee or appointee may be unduly or unnecessarily or unduly prejudiced."

According to Santiago, though, the CA’s doors often need to be shut not because of the sanctity of state secrets or the need to protect the nominee, but because furious "wheeling and dealing" takes place during the executive sessions.

"You don’t talk across the table," she says, describing what goes on at these meetings. "When it’s like that, you come closer. It’s very informal and personal, there is nothing systemic about it." She says either the nominee or his "champion" in the CA "talks" to those who may have reservations in voting for the confirmation.

"It doesn’t mean a discussion of the merits of the nominee," says Santiago. "You don’t go over the resumé. That is a very theoretical view of the process. The two politicians will compare the commitment level of reward or punishment that is involved in that appointment."

"Assume it’s a secretary position," she continues. "O sige, I’ll withdraw my objection pero puede ba ang isang undersecretary niya akin naman (but in exchange can I get one of my people in as undersecretary)? At least you still have your pride. The chairman does not intervene there."

Former Senate President Ernesto Maceda has also admitted that there have been instances in the past when, in his presence, a congressman would present a Cabinet member undergoing confirmation with a request. But while he says the nominee would simply promise "to look into it," Maceda claims that only "one or two out of 200 congressmen" would threaten not to vote for an uncooperative appointee. He says, "Politicians who are really crude are rare."

Former Civil Service Commission (CSC) chair Patricia Sto. Tomas, who had to go through the CA in the late 1980s, puts it differently. "Ang matatapang ‘yung mga bobo (The bold ones are the dimwits)," she says, "The smart ones will approach you very nicely."

Sometimes, however, the confirmation process does skid to low levels. According to a Senate staffer, the confirmation of one of Estrada’s Cabinet nominees nearly got derailed after a senator moved for a deferment. It did turn out later that the nominee’s financial records had some questionable figures that merited a second look, but the motion for deferment had nothing to do with that.

Rather, the staffer says, the senator wanted to ensure that the nominee would later hire a political ally in his department. But the ally neither wanted to go to Manila for an interview nor to really assume the job for which he was going to be paid. All he wanted, say people who were privy to the "negotiations," was the title—and of course the salary that went with it.

A former member of the Ramos Cabinet, meanwhile, echoes Flavier in admitting that he did accommodate some of the more "legitimate" requests of some CA members, including those dealing with jobs for supporters. But he recalls one representative in particular who broached something that he describes as "distasteful."

According to the ex-Cabinet member, the congressman had first persuaded him to host a dinner for the CA’s Lower House contingent. When the table was being cleared for coffee and dessert, the congressman pulled the would-be department secretary aside and bluntly asked for P1 million. The then nominee says he protested that he didn’t have that kind of money. But the congressman was insistent, he says, and even told him that "sa department mo, madali mong makukuha yan (you can easily get that from your department)." The ex-department secretary says he blanched, but managed to blurt out, "Well, I am not getting into government to do that."

"Iyon ang pinakagarapal (That was the most crass)," says the former Cabinet member of the P1 M demand. "It was as if you were buying, or had to buy your confirmation."

Even military officials who are up for promotion are apparently not spared from such requests. A current Cabinet member says one high-ranking officer, who happens to be his friend, complained to him that he was being asked to fork over an undisclosed amount by someone from the Commission.

The Cabinet member’s advise to his friend: "E di barilin mo (Shoot him)." No CA member has been shot as yet by a military official, indicating that the department secretary’s friend found a more peaceful way of handling the request.

But there have also been cases in which the nominees themselves have been said to be the ones offering all sorts of things just to ensure their confirmation. This was what newspapers implied Puno was doing when they reported that two months before he faced the Commission, he had set aside P1 billion in local government funds for realignment to the pork barrel funds of CA members. The money was supposed to have come from the P25 B Local Government Service Equalization Fund.

Puno has since denied the reports. A high-ranking CA member, though, recalls that an appointee to the education department during the Ramos administration had employed a somewhat similar tactic. The nominee, he says, met with all the lawmakers and without being asked, promised to provide budgets for their projects that would fall under the education department’s jurisdiction.

"He behaved so small," says the Commission insider. "He was literally bowing and kowtowing to CA members."