Ping Lacson’s new job

Former Sen. Ping Lacson has been appointed rehabilitation czar of Eastern Visayas, which was battered by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” recently.

As rehabilitation czar, Lacson will oversee reconstruction efforts in the calamity-stricken region.

Lacson, former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), seems to be a square peg in a round hole as rehabilitation czar.

He was expecting the position of law enforcement czar, but had to make do with another to fill a vacant slot in the Aquino Cabinet.

President Noy had to bow to opposition from Justice Secretary Leila de Lima who didn’t see the need for a law enforcement czar, according to a Palace insider.

De Lima told the President that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), which is under her, and the PNP were doing an excellent job of fighting crime.

So what’s the use of a law enforcement czar? she reportedly told the President.

The justice secretary’s opposition to Lacson being appointed law enforcement czar carried a veiled threat she would resign if the President pushed through with his plan, said the Palace source.

De Lima and Lacson have been at odds over the latter’s past criminal cases, which the Court of Appeals has extinguished.

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Ping Lacson said his task as rehabilitation czar was daunting. “It’s not my area of expertise,” the former senator said, adding he didn’t want to do a haphazard job.

“I want to do the job with flying colors. I want to do the best for the job,” he said.

To be fair to Ping Lacson, he will do well at any job given to him. He’s intelligent, hard-working and honest, which are qualities needed in a job where he will be making hard decisions and handling billions of pesos.

In the years he was in the Senate, Ping Lacson never collected his pork barrel, which was a source of corruption for some of his colleagues.

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But the President should be able to rein in Lacson when he goes out of bounds in the performance of his job.

Gratitude was never one of Ping Lacson’s virtues.

His other defect was that he was not a team player; he always wanted to have his way.

Perceptive people saw that when he worked under then President Erap.

What he did to Erap he might just do to P-Noy.

But perhaps time and the humbling experience of being a fugitive from justice have changed Ping Lacson.