From the root of Jesse

Who should be the next Interior and Local Government Secretary?

The bureaucratic void left Secretary Jesse Robredo’s sudden death is in the spotlight not least because his stellar work lent prestige to the post.

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa concurrently heads the Department of Interior and Local Government in an acting capacity.

Hardly had Robredo been laid to rest when the jockeying to succeed him commenced.

Cut the tactless circus. Politicos would desecrate the post of DILG secretary if they lobbied for it as if it were just another of the spoils in their small-minded wars.

The next DILG chief must share, above all else, Robredo’s vision of a government participated in by the man on the street.

Under Republic Act No. 6975 or the DILG Act of 1990, the department is responsible for overseeing operations of the Philippine National Police, National Police Commission, Bureau of Fire Protection, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Philippine Public Safety College and the National Action Committee on Anti-Hijacking.

The DILG secretary is responsible for, among other things, developing the capability of local government officials, strengthening the administrative capability of local government units and assisting the President in supervising all local governments.

The department will certainly grow in effectiveness and efficiency if the next secretary continues Robredo’s legacy of carrying out the democratizing provisions of the Local Government Code, specifically the ones that assign to citizens seats in development councils from the provinces to the barangays.

Political maturity and peace and order in the locales will not find sure footing in antiquated leadership models that tolerate a chasm between rulers and the ruled.

Which is why we are appalled that certain quarters have floated names of Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Davao City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as nominees for DILG secretary.

For a time Lacson was a fugitive from the law, not to mention a collaborator in the discredited Marcos and Estrada governments. Duterte, on the other hand, is infamous for his draconian tactics when he was Davao city mayor (apparently he is still at it, having recently forced a swindler to chew sheets of paper).

Robredo the synergist would not be honored if his office would return into the hands of those who are intoxicated by power and are loathe to share it.