“You have a lot more freedom when you're the sidekick - you can bring a lot more of your own flavor to the role, and you can get away with a lot more.”
-- Bree Turner
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- When critics did not like the way the late Ilonggo former Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez Sr. ran the Department of Justice (DOJ), they demanded his ouster.
They even coaxed then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to fire the controversial cabinet official accusing the former Iloilo City congressman of committing too many “embarrassing” gaffes.
“Sir Raul’s” detractors failed.
Amid the hailstorm of outcry from the opposition for his head, “Ate Glo” refused to be intimidated and stood by her DOJ secretary whom she considered to be “the most loyal cabinet official.”
She did not regret her decision to keep and shield the fire-spewing Gonzalez, famous in Iloilo City for his nerve-tingling “I will make life difficult for you” battlecry, referring to his political enemies who crossed his path when he was a member of the House of Representatives from 1995 to 2004.
Gonzalez himself earned Ate Glo’s trust and admiration when he professed “deep” loyalty and devotion to the diminutive President even when Ate Glo was being threatened with violent removal by extremist rebels from the left and right, and by acerbic and aggressive onslaughts from the opposition headed by another Ilonggo Senator Frank Drilon and former President Erap Estrada’s family.
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Such is the predicament DOJ Secretary Vitaliano Aguerre II is in today.
The opposition, led by Senator Pangilinan Francis Pangilinan, has been agitating for his dismissal.
“Matagal na natin hinihingi ang pagsibak kay Aguirre (We have long been asking for Aguirre’s removal). Hindi lang dapat sibakin kundi kasuhan ng plunder at kasong anti-graft sa dami ng kalokohan na kanyang pinaggagawa bilang DOJ secretary (He should not only be just removed from office but charged with plunder and graft for the foolishness he had done as the DOJ secretary),” Pangilinan, president of the Liberal Party (LP), has been quoted as saying in the news.
Will the opposition succeed?
Will they rewrite history?
Can they influence President Duterte’s thinking?
Like in the case of Gonzalez, who was DOJ boss in 2004-2009 during President Macapagal-Arroyo’s term, we doubt.
The DOJ secretary has always been one of the most trusted sidekicks of any President.
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It is assumed that any DOJ secretary possesses the charisma and influence of Grigori Rasputin, a frustrated monk who played a major role in the court of Czar Nicholas II and was the most favorite of the Czar’s wife, Alexandra Feodorovna, before the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.
He is always considered to possess the brains and abilities of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda chief.
A DOJ secretary can be used as a major “tool” to run after recalcitrant opposition firebrands.
The DOJ secretary must be the President’s most trusted henchman, especially when the administration utilizes legal machinations to mow down the opposition and other “malcontents.”
Like the late Secretary Gonzalez, Secretary Aguirre is expected to “survive” and will not be “phased out” from the Duterte administration.
At least not yet--as long as he is “effective” and knows how to “make life difficult” for the President’s enemies.
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