20% president
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Mar Roxas appears to have surmounted all the hurdles thrown at his path toward Malacañang as the Palace itself announced his imminent posting as the Chief of Staff early next month.
Mar had to tiptoe through the criticisms strewn along his path. He was accused of aching to have his hand officially on Noynoy’s nape to turn his head where Mar desires.
There was this much talked about 80-20 pact between him and Noynoy in which Mar would take over 80 percent of the functions of the presidency, reserving the rest to Noynoy, thus offering him more room to slacken up.
From the time of his stunning loss to darkhorse vice presidential candidate Jojo Binay in the elections last year, Mar was constantly tagging along with Noynoy in nearly all of his important functions, including his travels abroad.
Thereafter he was named chief troubleshooter and his most memorable non-achievement was placating Taiwan after the deportation of 14 Taiwanese to China, where he was practically dismissed by a “livid,” in Mar’s own words, Taiwanese president.
A few weeks later, the Palace issued a statement that all things have been patched up with Taiwan despite the fact that it had suspended the entry of Filipino workers into the territory.
While waiting for his Palace slot, Roxas meanwhile had his allies posted in key government posts and his presence had increased to include nearly all the functions of Noynoy.
The entry of Mar as Chief of Staff will formalize observations of his being the de facto president and the 80-20 sharing of the presidency that Noynoy himself had promised Mar during the campaign period.
Even without Mar, the nation is already getting far less than what it hoped for in having Noynoy elected to the top post of the land.
For nearly a year of his presidency, Noynoy has been defined by his aversion to hard work, preferring to dish out tough talk not followed up by action, while being described as outright lazy and spends late night outs almost every day.
With such daily pursuit, it is no wonder why his administration appears rudderless.
Based on those who see the President’s usual day, he wakes up past 10 a.m. and is usually late for morning functions. He then is said to have lunch at 12 and after a siesta that lasts up to 2 p.m. he goes back to the Palace until 4 p.m., after which he declares it is his private time for the rest of the day.
Thus, he works for three hours a day on average for five days a week since Noynoy is usually incommunicado on Saturdays and Sundays.
His office hours averaged would more or less be 20 percent of the workload expected of his kind of a president and is thus what he had committed from the campaign period.
There is also very little to wonder then why even his press releases churned out by his communications group are all puff.
With Mar as Chief of Staff, Noynoy is expected to offload more of his functions to Mar and indulge in his passion which is to spend the day slackening and perhaps driving his fast cars.
With the posting of Roxas in the Palace despite an outcry against it only shows that Noynoy as much as possible wanted to evade the responsibility that goes with the presidency, handing over to Mar such mundane tasks while engaging in his more spiritual nightly gigs.
The set up is ideal for both, one who was fortunate to have a popular birth lineage and another who is too eager to be president but unfortunately does not have the capability to raise support from the population.
The 20-percent president and an also ran managing the affairs of the nation.
It’s a frightening prospect.
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