Crises show us the sterling character of people we may not have seen in ordinary times.
In the case of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, the current situation has served as a showcase of his magnanimity.
“Magnanimity” is a big word. It means the combination of humility, compassion and being forgiving.
The biggest recipient of the President’s magnanimity is Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, the man previously hailed for his “political durability”.
The crisis showed that in the President’s well-knit team of doers helping him manage the situation, Duque has been the proverbial odd man out.
His pronouncements have been out of sync with the rest of the President’s team. He has courted unnecessary controversies and has contradicted in public the President himself.
Despite all these, President Duterte has never publicly humiliated Duque. The Chief Executive has graciously warded off accusations against Duque in connection with the purchase of alleged overpriced protective equipment.
Despite the President’s gesture, Duque surprisingly went out of his way to publicly imply that the President has been outright wrong in the Chief Executive’s pronouncement that classes should not open in August due to the sustained level of COVID 19 infection.
In total contradiction of what the President had already told the entire nation, Duque told the public that classes can go ahead and open in August.
We can only commiserate with the President and his team.
We can only wonder why Duque apparently continues to diminish the goodwill gains that the Administration has marked in the handling of this crisis.
Various quarters can only speculate.
There is a view that Duque may actually be sending signals that he represents certain powerful interests who are determined to keep him in his post. Could this be why he openly contradicts the President’s pronouncements?
Could he be telling us that he remains a force to be reckoned with in this administration? Is he hinting that he is “indispensable” and “irreplaceable”?
We hope this view would not hold water.
Otherwise, the situation would be grossly unfair to the Chief Executive.
The unwritten rule is that the President is supposed to be covered by his team and his official family.
It is not the other way around. The President is not supposed to clean up the mess of the people who report to him.
This is why the ratings of past Presidents would usually go up when a sitting Chief Executive does a cabinet revamp, accepts the resignation of a cabinet member or fires one.
We recall that former President Fidel Ramos fired his health secretary after the latter allegedly failed to pass the Caesar’s Wife test.
Former President Arroyo let go of key cabinet officials and heads of vital agencies when they could no longer sync with the Chief Executive’s agenda, even if they are people of sterling reputation and integrity.
President Duterte himself had allowed his chief economic adviser to go when the latter admitted that he could no longer work with the rest of the President’s team.
There are three possible reasons why the President may not have let Duque go.
The first is that he probably believes that he must keep his administration intact as his ship traverses stormy waters. This is a key leadership principle.
He wants to sustain a sense of stability. The President may have refused to fuel speculation further that there is division in the ranks of his official family.
This is laudable. This is a display of exemplary crisis leadership.
The second is that his sense of magnanimity compels him to help Duque “save face." In other words, he is not about to let a person who has served the public exit in disgrace.
This is the President’s legendary kindness in full display. This is good old-fashioned statesmanship that politicians of the younger generation have yet to learn.
The third is that he is just waiting for Duque himself to make the move to exit.
It appears that the President would not want to fire a first-liner in his cabinet. He may just be waiting for Duque to “fire himself”.
At this point, no one can say which reason is closest to reality. We can only speculate.
One thing is clear: by remaining glued to the chair of the health secretary, Duque may be missing out on an opportunity to take a graceful exit.
The association of hospitals has already given him a hint on how to do that: tell the President that he is “exhausted”.
“Exhaustion” presumes that he has actually done real work during this crisis. It gives him the benefit of the doubt that he may actually have done work that helped the President.
By asking the President to let him go due to “exhaustion”, Duque may yet get some applause from his colleagues in the Department of Health.
There are past cabinet-statesmen who had taken the exit route to protect their President.
Maybe, not Duque. At least, not yet – not while he lets the President cover for him while he publicly contradicts the pronouncement and position of the very Chief Executive who has magnanimously made sure he kept his dignity.
Perhaps, that is how the Duque Saga will be remembered by the public.
This is not the story of a Health Secretary who has become ineffective and has refused to vacate his post.
This is the story of a President who is magnanimous to a fault and who chose to ensure that Duque would keep his dignity intact.
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Ed Javier is a veteran communicator with some 30 years of professional experience both in the private and public sectors. He is also an entrepreneur, political analyst, newspaper columnist and broadcast journalist who has served in different media outfits.