Cabinet revamp can't save GMA image until her term ends

MANILA, Philippines – Several senators believe that no amount of Cabinet revamp could save President Arroyo’s image before the end of her term in 2010.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. yesterday said Mrs. Arroyo has been the center of anomalies in government.

“She should be the one revamped because Cabinet members are just her aides,” Pimentel said in a text message.

“Whoever she places in government for 2010 (elections) or whatever, it will not serve anything,” he said.

Senators Loren Legarda and Francis Escudero said a revamp would work only if Mrs. Arroyo considers qualifications of those whom she would appoint to government positions.

Escudero said Mrs. Arroyo obviously could not do away with some of her men because of political debt of gratitude.

Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. said announcing possible changes in the Cabinet might alarm those in positions at present and start working better.

Asked whether former senator Ralph Recto, who lost in the May 2007 senatorial elections under Team Unity would be appointed, Villar said he was not sure whether his fellow member of the Senate’s Wednesday Group would become “finance or executive secretary.”

Sen. Pia Cayetano, for her part, warned against the Arroyo government’s reported plan to appoint losing administration candidates to Cabinet posts once the one-year appointment ban against them lapses this month.

Cayetano said the plan “smacks of patronage politics where personal loyalties and connections, instead of a person’s qualifications and competence, become the primary consideration for putting people in crucial Cabinet posts.”

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago earlier said the administration probably wants to give its likely candidates in the 2010 elections maximum exposure by giving them Cabinet positions.

Meantime, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno defended the possible appointment to Cabinet positions of some losing candidates in the 2007 elections.

“The best politicians do not always make the best managers and the best managers do not always make the best politicians,” Puno said. “So if a  manager loses an election because he is a bad politician, it does not mean that he can’t become an efficient and good Cabinet member.”

Puno, who is also the Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs, maintained that he has no personal knowledge about President Arroyo’s planned revamp in her official family.

“I don’t know what the President is thinking, honestly,” Puno said. “I know that everything that she is doing is to expedite the completion of all the projects within her term.”

When asked if he would not mind getting a different position in the Cabinet, Puno said he does not want to second-guess the President.

“We will cross the bridge when we get to it. I don’t want to anticipate any decision of the President. That’s completely within (her) discretion,” Puno said.

However, Puno said earlier that based on his experience and history, he is probably best equipped to run the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) more than any other department.

Puno also said he is embarrassed with reports that he would replace Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita in the impending revamp.

“I have always considered ES (executive secretary) to be my boss. To me it’s a little embarrassing that these rumors are circulating. I don’t know where it’s coming from,” Puno said in an interview.

There have been reports that Puno will replace Ermita who will be given ambassadorial position, while the DILG portfolio will be given to former environment secretary Mike Defensor. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Nikki Angulo, Ana Mae Roa