|
Sunday, October 03, 2004
Mercado: Angeles overwhelmed by GMA's great trust
By Ram Mercado
PAMPANGOS applaud the presidential decision in reappointing Dr. Emmanuel Angeles as president and CEO of CDC.
If one were to believe his detractors' disinformation campaign, Angeles should have been given the boot last July and even earlier. Every year in time before his term as CDC chief expires, Angeles had been subjected to sustained attacks including character assassination.
Each time, after undergoing his Calvary, he emerged triumphant with a reappointment. President Arroyo's extending his term anew last Tuesday must be Angeles' defining moment.
It is an unprecedented proclamation by the appointing power, that of the appointee given the rare option - the first time ever during the terms of President Gloria - of staying to the position for as "long as he wants."
Never has it happened that the President qualified her appointment by that phrase which for all intents and purposes means "indefinite."
I read with disbelief the news reports about Mrs. Arroyo's statement to the media on this dramatic and startling move. In a phone interview, Angeles said he "felt humbled by the words and greatly burdened by the tremendous trust she gave me, and her expectations in return."
Not that the President loves the other aspirants less but that he trusts the incumbent more, this is my perception of that episode. As the Marquis of Lossie says, "to be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved."
The President must have labored hard and long to come to her decision. Planted whisperers to denigrate Angeles, news reports on his alleged faulty performance, and an NGO drumming up community indignation against him proved futile in the end just as they did in as many attempts.
Just how much does the President trust her man at CDC? Last Tuesday she backed up her unprecedented announcement on Angeles with a P2-billion capital infusion to start a world-class airport terminal at Clark. Great words, even from a President, are subject to proof. And evidence she gave during her last visit at the shaping "aerotropolis."
I can understand the blessings of an "indeterminate sentence" on Dr. Angeles as an added punishment to him. By that trust, he must now go double-time on doable projects, facilitate the long-term ones, and relate with renewed harmony, while developing locators' confidence without compromising the law, to move CDC and shake this community to faster growth through new investments, more jobs, and more economic participation of all sectors in the great leap forward.
"As long as he wants..." This is the killer phrase that should be in the minds of Angeles' detractors and foes when they would devise a new method to slay the cat. In a candid signal, it means, do all you can want to Angeles, throw him everything even the sink and the loaded container vans, he was the President's trust!
*****
I rejoice with the President's move on her man at CDC, object of my urgent appeal to her in so many columns, including a "Letter to GMA" timed in one of her surprise visits at Clark. Now I am turning a new page where the name Levy P. Laus is boldly written in gold.
In industrialized and developed nations, the automotive industry is a primemover of the national economy. It should be an auxiliary if not parallel activity in the Philippines. Smuggling of brand new or used-vehicles is killing our own automotive manufacturing sectors.
The overhauling, reconditioning, and reconstruction of left-hand sports utility vehicles and brand name trucks and cars at Subic is well-known. This activity constitutes technical economic sabotage.
For this reason, the President should consider Pampanga tycoon and automotive marketing genius, Levy P. Laus, as a humble director at SBMA. He can be her pointman against vehicle smuggling which is the No. 1 obstacle to a thriving automotive industry in the country.
What better choice than IPL does Mrs. Arroyo have, even only in that modest position than LPL whose heart is in the industry, with integrity at that?
(October 3, 2004 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
|
