CABINET REVAMP AIMED AT ENHANCING CHANCES OF 2010 BETS - MIRIAM
MANILA, MAY 2, 2008 (STAR) By Christina Mendez - President Arroyo’s Cabinet revamp could be aimed at enhancing the image and public exposure of possible administration candidates in the next senatorial elections in 2010, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago said yesterday.Santiago made the statement amid reports that a major revamp is in the offing with the President’s official family.
The President, however, has assured that Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro and Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez will be keeping their posts.
“What will happen is this: her allies whom she sees are worthy administration senatorial candidates in 2010 will be appointed as Cabinet members to give them exposure,” said Santiago, whose nephew, former secretary Michael Defensor, is reportedly being tapped to return to the political mainstream as press secretary.
Defensor lost in the 2007 senatorial elections.
“Read the list of the new Cabinet members once it is revealed. You can see whom the President is supporting to run as senatorial candidates in 2010,” Santiago said.
She said it has been a practice under every administration to pay back political favors through appointment to government posts, so there should be a law that would prohibit this.
“But some of them (Cabinent appointees) are truly qualified and competent,” she said.
The United Opposition (UNO) is also not optimistic over the looming revamp.
“Judging by the names being mentioned as possible Cabinet replacements, it is apparent that the goal of the revamp is not better governance but rewarding blind loyalty,” Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay said in a statement.
“We hope President Arroyo will cast a wider net beyond the unelectable members of the pro-administration Team Unity and look for new faces who are truly qualified to be members of cabinet,” UNO spokesman Adel Tamano said.
UNO stalwart San Juan Mayor JV Ejecrcito said he received reports that those who would be named to the Cabinet would be “political operators” who will push for Charter change in order to extend the term of President Arroyo after 2010.
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, for his part, described the looming revamp in the Arroyo administration as “transactional politics.”
Cruz, a former president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), called it transactional politics because “those who ran under the administration but did not win, after one year are again eligible for appointment in the executive.”
But Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Bayani Fernando said even he is not certain whether or not he will be kicked out of the Arroyo cabinet this month.
“Nobody’s safe. That has no bearing,” he told The STAR with a laugh referring to how he was deemed assured of being retained after he sang for the President during an event in Camiguin Tuesday night.
“We were requested by the crowd to sing. The governor, congressman, and the mayor of the town asked us to perform,” Fernando said, adding that members of the official family are “ready to move out when ordered” in respect of the presidential prerogative. – With Evelyn Macairan, Non Alquitran, Michael Punongbayan
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
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