Drilon defends gov’t reorganization

Senate President Franklin Drilon took up the cudgels for President Arroyo yesterday, saying the recent flurry of executive orders (EOs) reorganizing certain government agencies outside the Office of the President is legal.

The legality of the President’s orders to reorganize certain government agencies was raised during the meeting of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) held yesterday at the Palace.

Drilon reminded lawmakers present at the LEDAC meeting about an existing jurisprudence in the Supreme Court (SC) that upholds the continuing powers of the President to reorganize the executive department.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye, who attended the meeting, told The STAR Drilon mentioned the SC ruling when one of the proposed administrative measures to streamline the government and generate savings was presented to the council for discussion.

Drilon said the SC ruling was handed down during the term of then President Corazon Aquino, whom he served as executive secretary toward the end of her administration.

Bunye said Budget and Management Secretary Emilia Boncodin confirmed Drilon’s statement at the LEDAC meeting. Boncodin was still an undersecretary at the budget department when the SC handed down the ruling.

Opposition leaders, led by former senator Ernesto Maceda, have questioned some of Mrs. Arroyo’s moves to reorganize certain agencies since she started her six-year term last June 30.

Returning to his program on dwIZ after he lost in the senatorial elections last May, Maceda said the powers of the President to reorganize the government under the 1987 Administrative Code apply only to government bodies attached to the Office of the President, and does not include other agencies under the executive department.

Among Mrs. Arroyo’s latest directives are EO 340, signed last Aug. 4, which split the functions of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority administrator and created a separate position for the SBMA board chairman.

On the same day, the President also issued EO 341, reorganizing the Manila International Airport Authority and expanding its powers and functions to exercise administrative supervision and control over all international airports in the country.

She signed EO 343 last Aug. 5, transferring the Commission on Filipinos Overseas from the Department of Foreign Affairs to the Office of the President.

Mrs. Arroyo issued other EOs that transferred four agencies from under the control of the Office of the President: the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and the Cooperative Development Authority to the Department of Finance (DOF); the Philippine National Construction Co. and the Manila Economic and Cultural Office to the Department of Trade and Industry.

In another EO, she transferred the Public Estates Authority from the Department of Public Works and Highways to the DOF.

In her state of the nation address last July 26, Mrs. Arroyo said she has abolished 80 agencies under the Office of the President and that she intends to abolish or transfer 30 more in the coming weeks.