What is the basis?

Columnist Amando Doronila asks the hard question in his recent piece in the Inquirer.net, "If [Interior Undersecretary Rico E. Puno] had no experience and training on hostage situations, what was the basis of the President’s decision to designate [him] as [Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)] undersecretary?" This is in light of Puno's admission that he, as it turns out, was "not capable of handling hostage situations" despite being delegated the task of "supervising the police" by his boss, DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo.

This "raised eyebrows" as the spectre of cronyism was summoned up by Puno's admission. Doronila explains...

Puno is known to be a shooting buddy of the President. Both he and Mr. Aquino are gun enthusiasts. Puno was appointed interior undersecretary for peace and order on July 5. He claims he had "verbal instructions from the President to oversee the PNP."

The tragedy here is how this otherwise straightforward question surrounding the appointment of a person to a key government post was asked after the fact. The fact here, I might emphasise, is the eight foreign tourists that are now dead.

What was the basis?

Perhaps this is the question we should now be asking with regard to the other members of the cabinet most of whom were handpicked by President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III to surround him for the next six years.

And while we are at it, perhaps it is an opportune time that we re-visit the accountability of the Biggest Boss of all -- the Filipino People who if we are to believe the words of the President himself is The Boss he himself answers to:

What was the basis for selecting the man who now sits on that lucrative seat in Malacanang?

The hardest questions are often the easiest ones to answer.