GMA eyes former MBC head as new anti-graft czar

President Arroyo is eyeing lawyer and businessman Ricardo "Dick" Romulo as her new anti-graft czar following the resignation of the chairman of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission.

Chairman Eufemio Domingo, an appointee of deposed President Joseph Estrada, quit reportedly because he could no longer work in the "high-tension" job.

"I’m sorry that he (Domingo) is quitting. So we’re looking for a good replacement with a good reputation," Mrs. Arroyo said.

She, however, doubted if Romulo would accept the position of PAGC chairman because he is a highly paid corporate lawyer and even has his own law firm.

"So for the next chairman, I am asking Dick Romulo if he is available. Maybe he will decline, but we will ask him," the President said.

"He (Romulo) is a lawyer anyway. So he knows what he has to do and what he does not have to do. We’ll just offer him the job and wait for his answer," she added.

If the former Makati Business Club president accepts, he will be the third Romulo in the Arroyo administration.

His younger brother Roberto, a former foreign secretary, is presidential adviser for international competitiveness. A cousin, Alberto, is executive secretary.

It will be recalled that Estrada accused Romulo of helping engineer, through the MBC, the black propaganda campaign against him which he dubbed a "3-D" plot –meaning, disaffection, disinformation, and destabilization.

Romulo was then also board chairman of Equitable-PCI Bank which cooperated with the Senate impeachment proceedings against Estrada. The bank’s top executives led by Clarissa Ocampo testified that Estrada signed his name as Jose Velarde in transactions that betrayed unexplained wealth.

Romulo is now one of the regular members of Mrs. Arroyo’s delegation representing private sector businessmen who join her in official travels abroad.

In her weekly press conference at Malacañang yesterday, the President said she was saddened by Domingo’s decision to quit government.

A former chairman of the Commission on Audit, Domingo was first appointed to the PAGC post by Estrada. When Mrs. Arroyo took over in January, she reorganized the anti-graft body and gave it more specific powers to go after grafters in government even at the highest levels.

But she pointed out that the post of PAGC chairman should be much easier under the new setup as outlined in Executive Order No. 12 issued last April 16.

"We actually have two other commissioners. In the past, he was all alone. Actually, it’s a three-man commission," she said.

The other two commissioners are Teresa Baltazar and former Civil Service Commission official Cesar Buenaflor. And from the labor sector, Sonny Matula serves as executive director.

"So at least it is much organized than it used to be," she said.

In EO 12, Mrs. Arroyo tasked the PAGC to lead her administration’s all-out war against corruption in government.

The EO empowered the PAGC to investigate and conduct hearings of administrative cases and complaints against all presidential appointees and other personnel in the executive department, including "non-presidential appointees." – Marichu Villanueva