5 units of president's office to be directly under Ochoa

MANILA, Philippines - Five major units within the Office of the President will now be directly under Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. after an organizational restructuring.

Ochoa announced the restructuring of the OP yesterday to improve the operations and efficiency of the offices within Malacañang.

Under the new organizational structure initiated by Ochoa, five major units will report directly to the Office of the Executive Secretary, namely the Legal and Legislative Offices (formerly the Legal Office), the Government Affairs and Financial Administrative Offices (formerly the Finance and General Government and Administration Office), the Strategic Initiatives and Government Performance Monitoring Offices, the Internal Audit Office and the executive secretary’s immediate staff and support offices.

Ochoa told heads and chiefs of key offices under the OP during the workshop titled “Improving the Operational Arrangements of the OES for Better Efficiency and Effectiveness” that changes were necessary to help attain the goals of this administration.

“When I started conceptualization of the improvements we need to make, I was confronted with the old and the new. I recognized the wisdom of continuing the many practices that have been tested by time, but at the same time I saw the need to infuse new things,” Ochoa said.

Another key change under the new setup is the adoption of a case decongestion and delay reduction strategy for the Legal and Legislative Offices to allow the OP to dispose of pending cases of the recently abolished Presidential Anti-Graft Commission.

A strategy that will “provide complete statistical analysis of our caseload by type of case, and the specific measures to remove backlog within a specified timeframe” will be adopted, Ochoa said.

At the same time, the executive secretary rallied Palace employees to show more initiative and commitment so they could “strategically contribute to the President’s goals for our country.”

Ochoa also told employees following the flag ceremony that love of country should motivate them to “do more than what is required of them.” 

Meanwhile, a member of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) yesterday said that the President should make sure that he appoints credible and qualified people to his Cabinet, and not limit his options to his friends or those who served under the administration of his mother, former President Corazon Aquino.

In an interview over Church-run Radio Veritas, Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos admitted he does not know the direction the Aquino administration is heading to but said he is hoping to see changes in the President’s official family this year.

“I am dreaming, praying and hoping that he will be a real president, meaning, that he will exercise his presidency because as of now it is unclear and I don’t know where we are going the way he’s running the government,” said Pueblos.

He likewise said that Aquino’s choice of Cabinet officials should not be a form of gratitude to people who gave financial and other forms of support to him during the campaign period.  – With Evelyn Macairan