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Steer clear of suicidal type leaders
AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR By William M. Esposo
The Philippine Star 2010-06-08
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A German leader and an able commander-in-chief would have seen the futility of further struggle during World War II after the June 6, 1944 D-Day Normandy landings. This wisdom to recognize the futility of further action differentiates Adolf Hitler from France’s Napoleon Bonaparte.
Napoleon, a genuine military genius, knew when to surrender. Napoleon first surrendered after the disastrous Russian campaign and again after he lost to the Duke of Wellington in the fateful Battle of Waterloo. While Napoleon was rational and considered the well-being of his people and country, Hitler was the suicidal type. Hitler brought unnecessary death and destruction to Germany because of his suicidal nature.
People like Pagcor’s Efraim Genuino and all those who have been categorized as “Midnight Appointees” of Madame Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) should carefully study this lesson in history and what happens to people who were tied up with suicidal leaders. Genuino et al should study very carefully if GMA is not displaying signs of having a death wish because if this is what is prompting her to make all these midnight appointments, then all of them could end up victims of the fate that she is courting.
A rational person would avoid what GMA has been doing. Why would you want to provoke the incoming president to prosecute you or even hate you? A rational person would offer an olive branch and facilitate a smooth transition for the new president, play on his good side. A suicidal person will do what GMA has been doing.
A rational person will be sending common friends to the new president to try to establish goodwill and to bridge their differences. A suicidal person will create situations — like these midnight appointments — that can be considered as provocations for reprisal and prosecution in the event that legitimate cases can be established.
We’ve heard negative things other folks say about Efraim Genuino, most notable of these are his fabled wealth and his spending during the 2007 elections and in this recent one. But the one negative remark we cannot associate with Genuino is that he is stupid or is an idiot who cannot recognize the truth.
Genuino is neither stupid nor an idiot and he would have realized that the incoming president, Noynoy Aquino, will not allow his midnight appointment to Pagcor. Genuino is neither stupid nor an idiot and he would have sensed that the person who re-appointed him is an unpopular exiting power while the incoming president who is offended by the midnight appointment is the popularly mandated president. Genuino is neither stupid nor an idiot and he would certainly know the right side from the wrong side of history in this issue.
Genuino is neither stupid nor an idiot and he should understand that Noynoy Aquino is fully aware that there are a lot of skeletons in the Pagcor closet and that this midnight appointment merely reinforces the resolve of the incoming president to bring to court all those responsible for any irregularities in the use of Pagcor funds.
If Genuino really knows what is good for him — he should be volunteering to be a state witness of the Aquino administration and thus seek a way out of being included in whatever criminal prosecution that could emanate from an inevitable Pagcor probe. By insisting that his Pagcor re-appointment is valid, Genuino is acting like the idiot in the middle of a beach who believes that an approaching 200-foot high tidal wave will hit all other areas in the shore except that spot where he stands.
Early on during the GMA regime, Genuino requested a meeting with your Chair Wrecker because somebody alerted him that yours truly was in possession of documents about Pagcor irregularities during his watch. Your Chair Wrecker was then still the Chairman and a member of COPA (Council on Philippine Affairs) and Genuino knew that COPA had the capability to prosecute graft cases that stand in court. COPA successfully exposed the Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard overprice which is now being tried in the Sandiganbayan.
What were detailed in the documents Genuino feared at that time we met is nothing compared to Pagcor fund irregularities which we have been hearing during the years that followed. Your Chair Wrecker has been informed that there are many documented cases which are just waiting for the start of the new Noynoy Aquino regime. These cases can immediately be filed in court when the justice system is rectified by the new Aquino administration.
Genuino is deluding himself if he thinks that he can hide under a technicality, hold on to his Pagcor post and conceal the truth. All Noynoy Aquino has to do is to suspend him and all other midnight appointees to make way for an investigation and an audit. With new caretakers in place, there is nothing Genuino can do to hide the facts. Any such attempts will only add to his problems.
Efraim Genuino and the other midnight appointees like him should think very carefully if they too are the suicidal types or if they share this seeming death wish of GMA. In less than a month, they will face the new reality.
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