NEWSFLASH

GUINGONA IS OUT, THEN HE'S IN

Manila, June 28, 2002 (STAR) By Marichu Villanueva - He’s out, he’s in.

Only hours after accepting the purported resignation of Vice President Teofisto Guingona as foreign affairs secretary, President Arroyo flip-flopped anew and retained him in his post despite "honest differences of opinion" on foreign policy issues.

The Palace released to reporters Guingona’s walking papers — a June 26 letter from the President accepting his "relinquishment" of the foreign affairs portfolio — at around 1:30 p.m. yesterday.

"You are relinquishing the position of Secretary of Foreign Affairs and I join our people — especially those who follow your dedication to duty — in saying that we express gratitude for a job well done," read the letter signed and authenticated by the President.

However, Guingona appeared to have been surprised by the announcement. He denied he resigned or was dismissed from the foreign office, then went to the Palace at 6:30 p.m. to meet with Mrs. Arroyo and acting Executive Secretary Avelino Cruz.

Emerging after their 40-minute meeting, a smiling Guingona, accompanied by Cruz and acting Press Secretary Silvestre Afable, told reporters that he remained the foreign affairs secretary.

"I am still the secretary of the (Department of Foreign Affairs). I reiterate my position that I have not resigned and I’m not resigning," Guingona said, adding that the President even directed him to represent her in a meeting of the Filipino community in San Francisco, California on Aug. 30-31.

Afable, whom the President herself described as her "strategic thinker," explained that it was all a mistake.

He claimed that he "mistakenly" released the signed letter that he got from Cruz. Afable said that although the letter was signed by the President, it was "meant to be torn up and not sent."

"It was really meant to be torn up because it was not really meant to be sent to the Vice President. So after I released it to the press and after the Vice President denied it, I checked back with the President and was told that the letter was not supposed to be sent," he said.

But a highly reliable Palace source was enraged by Guingona’s denial and told The STAR that the draft of the President’s letter was crafted by Guingona himself when he met with Mrs. Arroyo on Wednesday.

"(Guingona) crafted the draft of the letter for the President. So how can he deny something which he himself wrote," the source said.

"He and the President met yesterday at the Palace when he wrote that draft letter and they talked about his desire to be moved over to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources," the source added.

The source disclosed that Guingona was well aware of the plan for him to "eventually" move over to the DENR.

Guingona admitted on Monday that he had been asked to accept the DENR portfolio and replace Lakas-NUCD secretary general Heherson Alvarez, whose appointment still has not been confirmed by the congressional Commission on Appointments.

"He would ultimately be going to the DENR," the source said, adding that Guingona wants to be moved to the DENR because of "sentimental reasons" – his deceased father used to head the Bureau of Plant Industry – and to shore up sagging ratings as well as resolve an impasse in the Senate.

Other sources confirmed that Speaker Jose de Venecia, who held a caucus with his House coalition partners on Tuesday, has discussed with the President changes in the Cabinet as part of the solution to the Senate impasse.

Ople eyed as DFA chief

A source in the House earlier yesterday confirmed that opposition Sen. Blas Ople, chairman of the Senate committee on foreign relations, is being eyed to replace Guingona.

The source said the President is sending an emissary to the United States today to talk with Ople, who is undergoing a medical check-up at the Stanford University Hospital in California.

"The Palace wants to offer him the Department of Foreign Affairs post because it knows that he will be a good secretary of foreign affairs," the House source said.

Ople’s daughter Toots Ople-Osorio, who accompanied her father in the US, expressed surprise at Guingona’s supposed termination and said her father had no comment on the Palace "invitation."

Ople’s appointment to the foreign affairs portfolio would also effectively cripple the opposition "majority" in the Senate and restore administration control.

"That could be the effect but that is not the objective," the House source said.

Already, opposition leader Sen. Edgardo Angara has slammed Malacañang’s recent moves of offering Cabinet positions to opposition senators to break the opposition’s political momentum.

Angara claimed the Palace has offered the tourism and, lately, the interior portfolios to Sen. Vicente Sotto III to persuade him to jump to the administration.

"The administration is, let’s call a spade a dirty spade, offering bribes to entice members of the opposition to jump to the administration," Angara said in a press conference.

He said that Malacañang has offered Sotto, "at a minimum," a new position of "drug czar" that will be created under the newly enacted Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

Earlier, he claimed that Mrs. Arroyo had been calling up Senators Rodolfo Biazon and Robert Jaworski, enticing them to bolt the opposition and ensure that the administration bloc would regain control of the Senate.

Unless there are changes in loyalties, the chamber would remain deadlocked at 12-12.

Angara said Biazon and Jaworski were assured of inclusion in the senatorial ticket of the administration in the 2004 elections if they would leave the opposition.

"But that is an assured slot for defeat, I think," Angara said, claiming that the continuous drop in the popularity of the Arroyo administration indicates its growing unpopularity and that the people would throw it out in the 2004 presidential elections.

Angara asked the administration to stop all efforts to break up the opposition in the Senate.

"This is anti-democratic and anti-good government," he contended, as he cited the positive accomplishments of the Senate when it was controlled by the opposition.

But even administration legislators said that even if Ople agrees to join the Cabinet, the administration bloc in the Senate would still need one or two more senators for a strong majority.

Nonetheless, Ople’s possible recruitment into the Arroyo Cabinet is expected to revive the administration’s legislative program which was derailed when it lost majority control of the Senate on June 3. Boost to RP-US ties? Ople’s appointment to the foreign affairs portfolio is also expected to boost resurgent Philippine-US relations.

In her letter to Guingona, the President hinted that the Vice President’s public opposition to the Balikatan 02-1 joint RP-US military exercise was among the reasons for Guingona’s dismissal.

"When you brought to me your reservations about Balikatan in Basilan, I asked you to help craft the terms of reference... You did. And looking back, the exercises there were a success... Our unity prevailed despite honest differences of opinion," Mrs. Arroyo wrote.

Guingona, a leftist activist during the Marcos dictatorship, has consistently opposed US military presence in the country and, sources said, has cultivated an "anti-American" image even in the diplomatic community.

On the other hand, Mrs. Arroyo, who was educated in Georgetown University in Washington D, has espoused a "globalist" foreign policy and publicly supported calls for expanded RP-US military and economic cooperation, especially against international terrorism.

Like Guingona who voted against the Visiting Forces Agreement in 1999, Ople has also taken a nationalistic stand on RP-US relations but is widely viewed as being more open to the "globalist" foreign policy of the Arroyo administration.

Palace sources said Ople is perceived to be the "right man" to push such policy which is expected to be tested when the proposed Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) is presented to the Senate for approval. - With reports from Pia Lee-Brago, Efren Danao, Jess Diaz and news services