Commission on Appointments confirms Abalos, Remulla

MANILA, Philippines — Two of President Marcos’ Cabinet appointees Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla and Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos have been confirmed by the Commission on Appointments (CA).

Remulla, a former House deputy speaker, and Abalos, former Mandaluyong City mayor and lawmaker, are Marcos’ first two Cabinet picks to hurdle the tough constitutional body composed of contingents from both chambers of Congress.

Remulla vowed before the CA committee on justice, chaired by Sen. Francis Tolentino, to implement reforms in the Department of Justice (DOJ) and all its agencies.

“I can assure you all that I am a man of action, willing to ignite several reforms for the improvement of the administration of justice. It is a commitment that I make before you and our people that (we) stand by the rule of law and exercise, nothing but the rule of law,” he said.

Remulla described his post as “the most challenging public office” he has ever held.

He said he has started putting up, along with other departments, the Justice Information System for real time information sharing and training of law enforcement officers on evidence-gathering with the help of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

“We are also ramping up efforts against sexual exploitation, especially against our children in all forms of cybercrimes, which had begun multiplying over the past months if not years. It is for this reason that we are also beefing up the information and communications technology capabilities,” he said.

Remulla won as representative of the seventh district of Cavite in the May elections but President Marcos appointed him to head the DOJ.

For his part, Abalos told the committee on interior and local government, chaired by Sen. Francis Escudero, that he aims to raise the capacity of local government units (LGUs) “for accountable, effective and responsive governance.”

“I am committed to put to work my experience to lead the Department of the Interior and Local Government to the best of my ability,” he said.

The committee endorsed Abalos’ confirmation after a lengthy discussion on the effect of the Mandanas-Garcia Supreme Court ruling increasing the internal revenue allotment (IRA) for LGUs and devolving some services of national government agencies to LGUs.

Escudero said that early this year, the projected IRA of LGUs will go down in 2023 and 2024 by approximately 15 percent because it is based on the internal revenue collections of the national government three years ago, or in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Because of the Mandanas-Garcia ruling, the additional IRA the LGUs will receive from the national government will be P755 billion.

However, the devolved functions to the LGUs would involve P1.4 trillion. “This is a matter that I think that the DILG, the Department of Finance and the Department of Budget and Management should address before we reach 2023,” Escudero said.

Deferred

On the other hand, the CA deferred yesterday the confirmation of the ad interim appointment of Labor and Employment Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma due to lack of time since Sen. Risa Hontiveros invoked her right to press more labor-related questions to the DOLE chief.

Some members of the CA would have liked to confirm Laguesma’s ad interim appointment, but Hontiveros’ motion prevailed to suspend the proceedings until Tuesday.

The CA had to adjourn before 3 p.m. yesterday for the plenary confirmation of Abalos and Remulla.

Rep. Greg Gayasata, chairman of the committee on labor, employment, welfare and migrant workers, asked Hontiveros how many questions she intended to ask as they need to meet at the plenary.

Saying she is well aware of the schedule, Hontiveros said she was willing to suspend the questioning of Laguesma for the day and reserve her many queries from labor groups “at the following hearing.” – Cecille Suerte Felipe