DAVAO CITY, Philippines – President-elect Rodrigo Duterte will hold his first Cabinet meeting right after his inauguration with vice president-elect Leni Robredo on June 30.
But with two weeks left before their inauguration, Duterte is not yet changing his decision to shut Robredo out of the official family even as he has yet to appoint a Cabinet secretary for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
There are also reports that Duterte might not allow Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairperson Patricia Licuanan to finish her term until 2018.
Reports on her possible replacement circulated on Monday night when Ateneo de Davao University president Joel Tabora wrote in his blog that Duterte has designated former Lyceum of the Philippines University professor Jose David Lapuz as CHED chairman.
Tabora said that Duterte announced the designation of Lapuz in a “room filled with people” during a meeting in the wee hours of June 8.
“To the professor’s self-deprecating query, ‘Are you really nominating me CHED chair?’, the President replied emphatically, ‘Yes!’” Tabora wrote.
But replacing Licuanan would not be as easy as selecting her replacement.
Unlike other Cabinet posts, the CHED chairperson and the commissioners serve a fixed term of four years, with a possible reappointment, as mandated by Republic Act 7722 or the Higher Education Act of 1994.
Licuanan, who assumed post in 2010, was reappointed by President Aquino in 2014. Her term expires in 2018.
Sought for comment, CHED said Licuanan does not want to second-guess as the announcement of the supposed designation of Lapuz did not come from Duterte.
“She prefers that the designation come from president-elect Duterte himself,” the CHED said in a statement. “She has a fixed term of office and believes the president-elect will respect it.
In an interview with reporters in Davao City yesterday, incoming presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said he is not aware of the designation of Lapuz as CHED chairperson.
Lapuz was also not among the names of new appointments bared by the camp of the incoming president on Monday night.
Ernesto Abella, an educator and former pastor, has also been designated as spokesman for Duterte, who has been evading the media for almost two weeks now.
Abella clarified that he would not serve as “deputy spokesperson” as reported by the media last Monday, but was tapped as “designated presidential spokesman.”
He is expected to work alongside lawyer Salvador Panelo, whom Duterte previously said would serve as his presidential spokesman.
Abella, who spoke with journalists for the first time yesterday, said he wants to “act as a conduit between himself and the people through the media.”
For the Department of Health, Duterte recently named DOH assistant secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial as the new health secretary.
Ubial has been in public health for 26 years now, starting as rural health practice volunteer in Kidapawan, North Cotabato in 1998.
Ubial currently heads the Steering Committee of the Red Orchids Awards, a program of the DOH designed to recognize local government units and government offices and hospitals that have successfully implemented 100-percent smoke-free environment.
She is also vice-chair of the Integrity Management Committee that looks into corruption practices at the DOH and its attached agencies.
She has also been involved in the DOH’s promotion of maternal and child health and immunization programs.
She was the regional director for Davao City from March 2006 to October 2008 and director of the DOH Center for Family and Environmental Health and DOH-Center for Health Development from 2000 to 2006.
Former health secretary Esperanza Cabral welcomed Ubial’s appointment. Cabral described Ubial as a “pro-reproductive health advocate.”
“We welcome her assumption to office and we wish her all the best,” Cabral added.
Philippine College of Physicians Foundation Inc. president Tony Leachon also welcomes Ubials’ appointment, saying it “uplifts the DOH bureaucracy (with the new secretary) being an insider.”
“I hope her vast experience in community health as a career officer will bring the DOH to greater heights particularly in pushing for primary care system. In my brief meetings with her, I believe she is also a visionary who can steer the DOH to extraordinary levels,” he added. – With Janvic Mateo, Sheila Crisostomo, Alexis Romero