Saturday, October 21, 2006 Ex-military chief offered gov't post
RETIRED General Generoso Senga may soon join the government.
Executive Secretary Eduard Ermita said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has already talked to former Armed Forces chief Generoso Senga about a new government position but he refused to say what post Senga would be getting.
This, as Arroyo formally appointed Sergio Antonio Apostol as chief presidential legal counsel. Apostol, former chairman of the Philippine National Oil Company-Energy Development Corporation (PNOC-EDC), replaced Eduardo Nachura, who was appointed solicitor general last March.
Apostol is a former congressman of Leyte who helped catapult Arroyo to power as a member of the panel that sought the impeachment of former President Joseph
Estrada,
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita also announced the appointments of Presidential Management Staff (PMS) head Arthur Yap as agriculture secretary, National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) secretary general and concurrent Government Mass Media Group (GMMG) head Cerge Remonde as PMS director general, and Agriculture Secretary Domingo Panganiban as NAPC head. He said a Cabinet revamp is "normal" and that it is "periodically done". "A Cabinet reshuffle should be considered normal activity in a bureaucracy and the President alone determines that at certain times, when she fees it enhances the implementation of certain programs," he added.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the Cabinet changes are meant to follow the strategic reforms and programs she wants "at the soonest possible time."
"President Arroyo's guiding principle is good governance through the individual and collective performance of the Cabinet and the national agencies," added Bunye, who is also Presidential spokesman.
He said the officials affected by the reshuffle have all accepted their new positions and "will try to work as a team" towards the attainment of the goals of the President.
He dismissed the claim of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) that Yap was placed in the agriculture department because Arroyo needs another Jocelyn "Joc-Joc" Bolante in preparation for the elections in 2007. He said Arroyo wants development and poverty elimination.
He said the removal of Ma. Elena Bautista as chairperson of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) was not meant to seek favors from any sector.
He said Bautista and Land Transportation Office chief Anneli Lontoc were actually promoted, and not kicked upstairs as transportation undersecretaries. The previous posts of Bautista and Lontoc have the rank of assistant secretary.
Bautista, in a radio interview, said Malacañang listened to the "wrong" people in yanking her from her post. She said the only ones who will be happy with her ouster will be the fixers at the LTFRB and some front-line employees whose paths she stepped on during her watch.
She said there were some 80 of 400 LTFRB employees who wanted her out and that the employees are in cahoots with the syndicates.
Bunye said Arroyo will issue an executive order on the fate of the government mass media group once Remonde goes to PMS. The GMMG includes National Broadcasting Network (formerly PTV 4), Radio Philippines Network (RPN) 9, Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) 13, and other government radio stations. There were talks that the GMMG would be dissolved and that NBN 4 would go back to the Office of the Press Secretary. (JMR/Sunnex)
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