Mounting resignations signal implosion of Estrada Cabinet

Mounting resignations signal implosion of Estrada Cabinet

By Amando Doronila

MANILA: The resignation of Trade Secretary Manuel Roxas III from the Cabinet is a crippling blow to the Estrada administration. It is expected to touch off a chain of resignations, including the defection of the President's team of economic managers, signaling the implosion of the Cabinet.

Roxas' resignation followed closely the resignation early this week of four pillars of the Philippine business community -- Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Washington SyCip, former Prime Minister Cesar Virata and former Sen. Vicente Paterno -- from President Estrada's Council of Senior Economic Advisers.

Roxas' resignation and those of the economic advisers are more devastating than the resignation from the Cabinet two weeks ago of Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The resignations highlighted the rapidly disintegrating support for the President. The collective weight of these resignations puts in serious doubt the survival of the Estrada administration which is facing a snowballing public demand for the President to step down to save the economy from collapse.

These resignations are comparable in their impact as catalysts in unraveling a government as the military mutiny of former Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile and Gen. Fidel Ramos against President Marcos in February 1986.

Although Roxas' resignation letter did not state clearly the reason for his quitting the Cabinet, what matters in the balance of forces as the President's support inside his administration dwindles is that he quit. That fact alone had the impact of tons of TNT.

Estrada plucked out Roxas from the House (he was a majority leader) in a Cabinet revamp last January to show that he was determined to give the nation a "new and honest government in the new millennium." Roxas quit in the midst of scandal of corruption, triggered by allegations by Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson that the President had received more than P400 million in jueteng kickbacks and P130 million in tobacco excise taxes.

The resignations of the four leaders of the business community are equally wounding. Together with Roxas and the new members of the Cabinet announced in January during his report to the nation, the business leaders were presented as a powerful dynamo that would spark a better economic performance than that of the previous year.

The recruitment of the four was intended to introduce the private business sector into the policymaking mechanisms of government. In political terms, the President coopted the private business sector to be represented in the Council of Senior Economic Advisers and a parallel organization, the Economic Coordinating Council, to give legitimacy to his administration.

At the time, the President was under fire for maintaining a "dual" government -- the first, composed of his official Cabinet, and the other the cabal of shadowy non-salaried advisers holding sessions with him after midnight amid drinking sessions.

In his Cabinet revamp last January, he dismissed these advisers but the Cabinet overhaul and the dismissal of the "midnight" advisers did little to improve the performance of the government as an economic manager to drive economic recovery and to give the country an "honest" administration.

It has been reported that the senior economic advisers had decided to stop lending their names to "legitimize the administration." Their resignation is thus another blow to the legitimacy of the Estrada administration.

When the President announced his Cabinet revamp and his new recruits of senior economic advisers last January, he said he had read the message of the people and the message was that they wanted an honest and effective government. The President was referring to the fall of his job performance rating in public opinion surveys.

The resignation of the four representatives of the business community represents the formal withdrawal of their community's support for and active participation in the government's economic effort to lead the economy out of the devastation inflicted by the 1997 Asian financial meltdown.

Their resignation followed the rapid polarization of the business community against the administration. During the past week, 12 business groups, including the Makati Business Club, the Management Association of the Philippines, and the Bishops- Businessmen's Conference -- have joined the swirling tide of demands for the President's resignation.

The resignation of Roxas indicates that the President's line of defense in the Cabinet is crumbling. Roxas, after Vice President Macapagal, punched a big breach in the Cabinet's fagade of solidarity.

The rest of the economic managers -- including Agriculture Secretary Edgardo Angara, Finance Secretary Jose Pardo, who is the brother-in-law of Vicente Paterno, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Felipe Medalla -- have less reason to stay in the Cabinet after Roxas' resignation signaled the message that he could not serve in an administration that has lost nearly universal confidence from the citizens, the international business and media communities and from the business community itself.

These resignations could only put more pressure to weaken the President's few remaining political control mechanisms -- Congress where he is facing impeachment charges. There have already been defections from the President's LAMP coalition whose unity is fraying at the edges. After the resignations, defections can only turn into an avalanche.

The main pressure that is pulling down the Estrada administration comes from a deteriorating economy. The unrest in the street, which is developing into another people power manifestation, contributes to the pressure on the President, on Congress and the Cabinet.

But the withdrawal of the business community's support for the President is the strongest force acting on the Cabinet to abandon the President. At this point, all the President's conciliatory overtures to bring his opponents to help him overcome the crisis have become irrelevant.

-- The Philippine Daily Inquirer / Asia News Network