This column continues our assessment of President Be-nigno Aquino 3rd’s performance, based on three key aspects of presidential leadership. The first article, in my March 30 and April 1 columns, covered how he formulates, promulgates and pushes major policies and programs. This article looks into his designation, direction and disciplining of top officials. A third report will evaluate crisis and inspirational leadership.

There are two kinds of top-level appointees in government. There are highly qualified officials with sterling records in public service, private sector, or both. Aquino’s technocratic backers got Cabinet posts, as some of them did in past administrations.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, finance czar Cesar Purisima, Social Welfare’s Corazon Soliman, and for a time, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo had shown their mettle under then President Gloria Arroyo and did so again under Aquino. Transport and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas handled Trade and Industry creditably in the past two governments.

From the first Aquino presidency came economic planner Cayetano Paderanga, Roxas predecessor Jose de Jesus, and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin. Hailing from business, meanwhile, are Energy’s Jose Rene Almendras and the past and present tourism chiefs, Alberto Lim and Ramon Jimenez. Also with solid credentials is multi-awarded former Naga mayor, now Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo.

Then there are political appointees whose main qualification is Aquino’s high trust and close ties with them: Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation Chairman Cristino Naguiat Jr., Interior Undersecretary Rico Puno, and erstwhile Ambassador to China-Nominee Domingo Lee, among others.

As a general rule, presidential appointees should get the benefit of the doubt, since they still need to prove themselves, however impressive or inadequate their credentials are. Moreover, high positions are vetted by the Commission on Appointments or the Judicial and Bar Council.

But PNoy made a few postings that were problematic right from the start. For lack of China expertise, family friend Lee got the thumbs-down even from Palace allies. Amid the Scarborough Shoal standoff, the President finally had to heed to calls to put a real diplomat in Beijing. One wonders what he was thinking in wanting to place the nation’s interests in neophyte hands.

Aquino’s first Customs Commissioner Joselito Alvarez also raised hackles over reports that he cheated in golf. Critics feared how he would act with stakes far greater than 18 holes on the fairway. They also noted that the other candidate shortlisted, interviewed but passed up by PNoy was the widely respected 1990s Customs Commissioner Guillermo Parayno. Alvarez eventually quit after more than 2,000 containers were lost in transit — the worst spate of smuggling ever in the country.

A third disturbing appointment was that of Commission on Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. Being an election lawyer is normally a good Comelec credential. But given the imperative for impartiality, designating his own attorney cannot but worry opponents of the President’s camp. What’s worse PNoy named another of his poll counsel: Christian Robert Lim. The nation will see a year from now how these two partisan appointments affect election fairness and credibility.

How well the President directs the Cabinet was covered in March articles on driving major policies and programs. In general, he leaves them alone unless problems erupt in media, like the Mindanao power crisis. That leaves one last aspect of installing and harnessing key officials: accountability, especially in good governance.

Here, sadly, President Aquino falls short. Instead of imposing strict standards on his people, PNoy often dismisses allegations without full, impartial investigation — the exact opposite of his swift condemnation of his predecessor and her former officials, often without solid evidence. Ditto cashiered National Bureau of Investigation director Magtanggol Gatdula, whose patron Iglesia Ni Cristo has irritated PNoy.

Early in his term, he absolved Undersecretary Puno of jueteng payola charges from Archbishop Oscar Cruz. The President also refused to sanction his shooting buddy despite the Rizal Park hostage crisis report recommending it. By contrast, on the crazed claims of the murderous hostage taker, the Palace blamed the carnage on then Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and her deputy with decades of dedicated service.

Other suspicions or dubious actions involving presidential associates were repeatedly set aside: Executive Secretary Ochoa’s alleged P40-million White Plains mansion, Secretary Purisima’s missing tax returns, Land Transportation Office chief Virginia Torres’s interference in an LTO contractor, the shady goings-on in the Bureau of Corrections involving not one but two PNoy choices. Add to that Alvarez’s missing containers, P400 million lost last May by Naguiat’s casinos, and the candid-camera gun and video exploits of Political Adviser Ronald Llamas.

Most recently, the Palace swiftly justified as “industry practice” the hundreds of thousands of dollars in holiday freebies, including shopping money, given to Naguiat and cited as improper in a former US Federal Bureau of Investigation chief’s investigation. Only after public and media grumbling did the President agree to look into the charge. As in several other PNoy probes, however, expect the one on Naguiat to end in a whitewash, a wrist slap and a wink, or oblivion.

Plainly, in holding his friends in government accountable, President Aquino has not practiced Tuwid na Daan.

(The evaluation of crisis and inspirational leadership will be published next week.)

Ricardo Saludo serves Bahay ng Diyos Foundation for church repair. He heads the Center for Strategy, Enterprise & Intelligence, publisher of The CenSEI Report on national and global issues ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ).