CA defers OK of Camacho

After an executive session, the Commission on Appointments decided yesterday to defer the confirmation of Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho by the CA plenary session, a decision that the finance chief said he welcomed.

Camacho was at the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office when he was informed that he would not be confirmed yet. He said he was not disappointed by the CA decision not to submit his name to the plenary.

"I see the wisdom of that decision," said the finance secretary, whose friends came in droves expecting to see him confirmed.

When pressed to explain what was the wisdom in the CA decision, Camacho replied: "The need to bring down the level of tension."

Senate President Franklin Drilon, the CA ex-officio president, refused to explain the reason for deferment, a decision arrived at after a closed door caucus, but a CA member said that Drilon bared a formula which he wanted the opposition to agree to before submitting Camacho’s confirmation to the CA plenary session.

At Malacañang, Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said President Arroyo remained confident that Camacho will eventually pass the CA gauntlet.

"We’re still hopeful, the President is still hopeful that with the recommendations of the finance committee (of the CA), she’s very confident that the Commission on Appointments itself will confirm, finally approve Camacho as finance secretary," Tiglao said.

The CA committee on finance headed by Sen. Ralph Recto endorsed Camacho’s confirmation only last Monday. Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta said that the committee action indicated that the majority wanted to railroad the confirmation.

Drilon said that the decision to call off yesterday’s plenary session was "for the best interest of everyone." He stressed that the decision was reached in consultation with everyone, including Senators Edgardo Angara and Blas Ople and Aurora Rep. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo, opposition members of the bicameral body.

"I was trying to avoid a bloodletting, if you may call it, on the floor of the commission. Hopefully, all’s well that end’s well," Drilon explained. "We are trying to avoid a highly politicized situation."

Drilon said that the CA decision merely delayed Camacho’s confirmation, as he expressed confidence that the 14 CA members who voted at the finance committee to endorse Camacho’s appointment would not change their vote in the plenary.

He stressed that Camacho is not the first Cabinet member who was not immediately confirmed by the plenary after a favorable endorsement by a CA committee.

Cebu City Rep. Raul del Mar said that there is no stopping Camacho’s confirmation despite the decision of the caucus. He predicted that Camacho would eventually be confirmed before the end of the month.

Actually, Camacho would not have been confirmed yesterday even if his name were submitted to the plenary session because of a CA rule that gives any member the privilege of deferring the consideration of a nominee.

Section 20, once invoked by a member, would effectively bar the consideration of a nominee for a particular session as it is not subject to debate. However, it may be invoked by a member against a nominee only once, but not on the last day of session.

Oreta said she was prepared to invoke Section 20 had the plenary session pushed through as scheduled.

"But with the cancellation of the plenary session, there is no occasion to invoke Section 20," she said.

Camacho’s friends from the business sector also came in droves, filling up almost half of the Senate gallery, but left without witnessing the awaited confirmation.

Industrialist Raul Concepcion said that he was not at all disappointed over the delay.

"We don’t question the decision. We accept it," Concepcion said.

The CA will not have a plenary session next Wednesday, so the earliest possible time for Camacho’s final confirmation would be on Feb. 27.

In a related development, the Caucus for Development for Non-government Organization Networks (Code-NGO) brushed aside yesterday any criminal charges that could be filed against its officials over the controversial Poverty Eradication and Alleviation Certificates or PEACE bonds.

In a forum sponsored by the Manila Overseas Press Club, Code-NGO chairwoman Ma. Socorro Camacho-Reyes, a sister of the finance secretary, said their group’s procurement of the PEACE bonds was aboveboard as it underwent "acceptable and legal processes of government borrowings."

She said the P1.4 billion their group earned from the government bonds was a "trading gain" for its innovative concept.

"We cannot be charged with plunder because there was no ill-gotten wealth involved here. We can show how the money was acquired and where it went. We can account for every centavo of this money," Reyes said.

On the other hand, the opposition Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) urged the watchdog group PlunderWatch to initiate the filing of plunder charges against what it called the "PEACE bond conspirators."

PMP spokesman Jesus Crispin Remulla said that even former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, a former tax lawyer and finance secretary and undersecretary, had decried the PEACE bonds as "a raid on the Treasury" which could make those who participated in it liable for plunder because it was designed to benefit a private group while leaving the government at the losing end of the deal. — With Marichu Villanueva