Why the sudden resignations of many GMA officials

From Ninez Cacho Olivarez:

Gloria's ship is sinking and her civil society allies know it, which is the very probable reason one by one, they have been abandoning her.

Former Finance chief Lito Camacho, leading Gloria's economic “dream team,” certainly saw it coming even earlier than November, which is why he quickly jumped ship. Mar Roxas was also part of that economic team and saw the opening for his exit through the senatorial elections. It is to be noted that Roxas resigned much too early and way before the polls. All the others in the team knew the big fiscal bang would be coming soon, and had expressed their desire to leave her government. But for some reason, they stayed on and are now, along with Gloria, getting it from the public.

When Gloria announced, quite prematurely, that she had asked all her officials to resign even before the canvassing started, it was mainly because there had been too many officials in her Cabinet who had expressed their wish to resign, although she and her propagandists made it appear, it was she who wanted their resignations.

But after the proclamation and her inauguration, it was evident that she had no takers from the private sector, or even from existing public officials, except of course the dregs in her government, most of whom were political payoffs.

It took Gloria an inordinately long time to announce her Cabinet change and when she finally did, on a partial basis yet, the change turned out to be no change at all, since all that occurred was a rigodon of her appointed officials. It was proof that she couldn't attract others to join her administration. This was cemented when she announced that she would be keeping her current economic team, owing to the fiscal crisis. The truth was that she just couldn't get anyone in the private sector to join her team — not even those businessmen who were rooting for her during the polls. They also knew the government was going to face a serious crisis everywhere — a crisis of leadership, of confidence, of debt, of fiscal discipline and an economic meltdown, all of which none of her allies in the business sector and in Congress, was willing to be identified with, when Gloria's ship finally sinks.

If these Gloria officials resign one by one, while giving out silly excuses like “personal reasons” for leaving her government, it is being done, one suspects, to prevent the spread of a public perception of their withdrawal of support from Gloria, as this was the very means they engaged in to create that false perception of then President Joseph Estrada losing the support of his Cabinet members. It is to be recalled that the Gloria letter to the Supreme Court for her assumption, said to have been written by Antonio Carpio, Gloria's first appointed SC justice, was based on this “withdrawal of support by civil society, the military and the Cabinet (which was a false claim, since the majority of Estrada's Cabinet were with him to the end).

If these Gloria officials were to be perceived as having resigned en masse, the collapse of Gloria would come faster.

But try as Malacañang and Gloria's propagandists might hide it, too many of her allies — whether in Congress or in the Executive department — have, in essence, already withdrawn their support from Gloria.

It is hardly the political opposition in the Senate that is criticizing her and airing warnings of her collapse. Those who do and loudly too, are her allies in the Senate.

Most amusing is Mar Roxas, who has been criticizing the economic policies of Gloria, when he was part of her economic dream team and, to put it bluntly, should share the blame and responsibility for this debt and economic crisis.

The same is happening in the House of Representatives, although some of these House allies, who have a streak of cowardice running through their veins, prefer to talk under the blanket of anonymity.

Gloria's ship is sinking, and all of them know it. Camacho got out early and even aired warnings of the impending crisis after leaving the Gloria administration, more to save his hide, even when he was definitely a major player in plunging the country into a fiscal crisis. National Treasurer Mina Figueroa can deny it all she can, but most everyone knows the reason are hardly her claimed “personal deficit.” Why wait so long before resigning if the private sector beckoned with higher pay? Why even accept the position of National Treasurer after Edeza left, if the reason was better pay?

Even Dionisio Santiago, Bureau of Corrections chief, and a Gloria loyalist, resigns and gives burnout and death threats as a reason. Burnout in a prisons job? Afraid of death threats, when his background is the military and having been chief of staff? But don't the military officers live their lives knowing that death may just be around the corner for them?

Gloria has lost control. Her ship is sinking fast and there is nothing she can do to plug the leaks while her allies start abandoning her, and this time for real, with no one pulling the strings.

Amen.