Ok, here i go again. i said i wouldn’t give advice, but here it is:

       It is always bad form to give an extended interview on a Cabinet post or appointment that one expects to get (the Cabinet-secretary-apparent practically confirmed that the government office  had been promised to him, –like an exchange deal–  by not dispelling the statement of the interviewee characterizing the government post  as such — promised to him —  that may be true, as it is bad form, and journalists are just gleeful enough that the President is surrounded by the likes of these people  who give media men and women enough material for their special reports, columns, shows), before one gets that appointment or before the  appointment papers  had been signed. Anyone with any kind of familiarity with handling public perception knows this. Maybe he was trying to box out all those jockeying for the post — so… which is the worse form? 

(the one-year ban on appointing defeated candidates to government posts ended yesterday.)

     Why is it bad form? Because you are pre-empting the President. He has not  made any public announcements, and the announcements should come from him or his Executive Secretary – because the appointment is his to make, not yours. And so therefore, when you pre-empt the President, you are in effect showing the public how powerful and influential you are and that, in the vernacular, hawak mo sa tenga ang Presidente, or literally translated: you’re holding the President by his earlobes.

      Well, not everyone in the inner circle of the President is stupid. Perhaps because of his experience in diplomacy, Mar Roxas’ handling of his impending appointment deserves to be looked at as example. He just gives a curt “non-confirmation” of the anticipated post, referring to it, in jest, as rumor, and  in the past  downplaying his clout with self-deprecating humor (“waterboy lang ako”, “i’m just a waterboy”).

     All the rest who are giving loud hints that the Cabinet portfolio is in the bag (in their bag) – should give the President an idea why his trust rating is going down, down, down

     (i said i wouldn’t give advice — i had a really late lunch, baka gutom lang ito. And this is just about form and protocol, it’s not even about the essentially corrupt system of concentrating power in the hands of…. geez, that’s going to be a paradigmatic discussion…)