All the president’s men

Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.

More than any Philippine president maybe, Joseph Estrada has been criticized severely for the friends that he keeps. Consider some –– Eduardo `Danding’ Cojuangco, Mark Jimenez, Imelda Marcos, Atong Ang, Jose Luis Yulo, Lucio Tan –– all have been accused of a variety of wrongdoings.

Cojuangco is said to have been one of the closest cronies of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos; Jimenez has been indicted in the United States for tax evasion, wire fraud, conspiracy, giving false statements and illegal campaign financing of Democratic party candidates; Atong Ang has been linked to illegal gambling; Lucio Tan has been accused of non-payment of taxes and also acting as Marcos’ business dummy; Imelda Marcos needs no description.

In a country where perceptions are important, the reemergence of Estrada’s circle of friends from the blue has set off charges of Marcos-style cronyism under his presidency. Cojuangco is back at the helm of food and beverage conglomerate San Miguel Corporation, once reclusive Tan is flying the country’s flag carrier and appearing often in the news, and Imelda Marcos is again throwing parties in places like the Waldorf Astoria.

Estrada has denied in the strongest terms that cronyism is back like a resurrected dead under his rule and that he helped his friends back to business. A recent sharp plunge in his popularity, however, indicate Filipinos maybe harboring doubts.

Estrada’s immense popularity, earned from years of playing hero in action movies and demonstrated in a landslide victory in the 1998 presidential elections, is his most important asset. Knowing this, he has distanced a bit from his friends apparently to ease public and media criticisms. Yulo was relieved as housing adviser,
Jimenez is no longer Estrada’s adviser for Latin American affairs and Estrada has recently uttered not so pleasant remarks about the Marcos era.

Initially not willing to buckle under public criticisms, Estrada has learned the value of shifting in the direction of the wind to avoid being swept by it. In his first months in office, he has held on to his cabinet despite calls for the resignation of some department heads either because of their being linked to irregularities or because of incompetence.

Recently, he removed a couple of cabinet members in the first-ever cabinet revamp. This week, he gave hints that he is considering laying off his executive secretary, Ronaldo Zamora, one of his closest political lieutenants, because of a public outcry over a presidential pardon given to Norberto Manero, one of several men convicted of killing an Italian priest in 1985 in North Cotabato province. Manero and the others, apparently dead drunk, were said to have eaten the brains of the missionary priest, Tullio Favali, after killing him. The presidential pardon was acknowledged as a mistake, which was traced to Zamora’s office.

Estrada’s moves should placate public criticisms. Problem is, it’s not sure how long the wounds inflicted by the criticisms on his image would heal, or if they would ever heal at all. Combined with other problems in his administration, some are predicting Estrada’s downfall before his six-year term expires. Estrada is laughing at such dire predictions and thinks his popularity would recover.

“I have faced more serious crises before and I have always managed to bounce back. A public opinion poll is a snapshot. A nation’s life , if you will, is a motion picture. With proper direction, the next scenes will change. The main character may have taken a beating but he will recover,” Estrada said recently.