Palace: DND spokesman's resignation a personal decision

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang distanced itself yesterday from insinuations that it had a hand in the resignation of Department of National Defense (DND) spokesman Zosimo Paredes II over his “revolutionary government” remark in a media forum last week.

“I think that is something that has to be answered by him. The resignation of Mr. Paredes was a personal decision that he made,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte stressed.

The Palace undersecretary said they did not even have an inkling that he resigned. “I understand that he has already confirmed it to the media. We did not know that he had resigned.”  

“This is something that he will have to settle between himself and the Secretary of National Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin. It is better to wait for an official statement from the DND,” she said.

On Saturday, The STAR reported that Paredes unceremoniously resigned from his post after issuing a controversial statement that reportedly irritated Malacañang.

Paredes cleared his desk last Thursday and left his office without any explanation. He reportedly wrote a resignation letter but failed to talk to Gazmin, who was out of his office then.

His resignation came after Gazmin scolded him for commenting in a media forum that President Aquino can declare a revolutionary government to restore order.

Paredes at the time was reacting to questions if the President can invoke his power to declare a shift to revolutionary government in case the country falls into constitutional crisis due to the legal dispute between Malacañang and the Supreme Court (SC).

Lawmakers and critics of the Aquino administration feared a constitutional crisis looms due to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s defiance of the SC’s Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), which allows former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to leave and seek medical treatment abroad.

Paredes said the President could be empowered to declare “his own government” when national integrity or security is at stake.

The following day, Valte clarified that his view did not reflect the sentiments of the national leadership.

Paredes confirmed his boss did not like his remarks during the media forum. A radio report said Gazmin admitted that he committed a mistake when he appointed him as his spokesman.

Paredes was named defense spokesperson early October, replacing senior military assistant Col. Hernando Iriberri.

The resigned official also served as executive director of the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement for three years under Arroyo.

He resigned in 2007 in protest of the Arroyo administration’s decision to return Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, the US soldier accused of raping a Filipina in Subic, to the custody of the US embassy. – With Alexis Romero