FVR on the Presidency

“Is President Aquino not working hard enough? ... He also told the GMA 7 newsman that he doesn’t play the Sony PSP, the portable video game device which PNoy is said to enjoy playing along with the Sony PlayStation 3... His work schedule is certainly not as packed as those of Ramos or Gloria Arroyo during their tenure. Both held Cabinet meetings almost weekly, with decisions and directives shared with the nation through the Malacañang Press Corps right after.”

By: RIC SALUDO

When he was president, Fidel Ramos was said to have remarked that the six years in Malacañang was a singular opportunity and time not to be wasted by sleeping too long bet-ween work hours. So the West Point-trained former armed forces chief still kept military reveille time even as Commander in Chief.

That meant his Palace communications team had to be up well before sunrise to check the overnight news and prepare media summaries, presidential statements, and action points for Ramos to study at breakfast or soon after. On their way to the office or soon after they get there, Cabinet members and other senior officials got Palace calls and directives for the day.

Last week President Benigno Aquino 3rd and his own team were losing a bit of sleep too—over reports and remarks in media that PNoy was taking it too easy at work. Palace officials denied talk that his typical day at the office began at 10 a.m. and ended soon after 2 p.m.

The President himself cited a day last week when he flew to Cebu early morning to attend two wakes, then back to Manila for a luncheon speech to business and, at day’s end, a TV interview with Arnold Clavio. He also told the GMA 7 newsman that he doesn’t play the Sony PSP, the portable video game device which PNoy is said to enjoy playing along with the Sony PlayStation 3.

Palace spokespersons reiterated that PNoy attends Cabinet cluster discussions, but as usual, did not give much detail on who, what, when, where, and, most important, what was decided and instructed at the meetings and how that would address national concerns. Malacañang also said that the President takes thick folders of papers to his residence at day’s end.

Is President Aquino not working hard enough?

His work schedule is certainly not as packed as those of Ramos or Gloria Arroyo during their tenure. Both held Cabinet meetings almost weekly, with decisions and directives shared with the nation through the Malacañang Press Corps right after. Ramos created the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (ledac) and met with it every month. And he held frequent discussions with key sectors, including more than 30 with business leaders every year.

Arroyo also convened many meetings every year with LEDAC as well as other national councils on security, disaster response, nutrition and competitiveness. She held deliberations with the Cabinet and local leaders all over the country. From 2002 to 2008, this writer was Secretary of the Cabinet handling preparations and documentation of top-level meetings and monitoring of directives to national agencies.

At an election issues forum in January 2010, Ramos told candidates Richard Gordon, Gilbert Teodoro and Manny Villar that a president should work “25/8.” That’s 25 hours a day, eight days a week. But Ramos also underscores the need for strategic planning to manage the many complex issues which the Chief Executive has to deal with every minute (see April 27 column).

“The President of the Philippines I used to liken to a juggler balancing 10 balls in the air, which are the primary issues pertaining to economic growth, our national security, and our social reform,” Ramos told Bloomberg BusinessWeek soon after Arroyo replaced Joseph Estrada in 2001. “But the President is not on the ground juggling those balls. [He or] she is on a high wire 100 meters up, and [he or] she must not fall down, otherwise the country will go down with him or her. But on the high wire, the President of the Philippines is not on his [or her] feet, [but] on a bicycle—that’s how difficult this job is.”

Ramos’s work ethic paid off for the nation. The New York Times summed up his achievements: “In his five-plus years in office, Mr. Ramos has done more for his country and its citizens than both Mr. Marcos and Mrs. Aquino. Mr. Marcos’s corrupt economic management and outright thievery left the Philippines on the sidelines while the rest of Southeast Asia began its powerful economic boom. Mrs. Aquino managed to fend off a succession of violent coup attempts, but she showed few management skills, and the economy did not greatly improve. Mr. Ramos, a West Point-educated former general, restored military discipline, stabilized democratic institutions and introduced free-market reforms that have brought strong, though unevenly distributed, economic growth.”