MMDA workers wait as agency chief bucks Malacañang

MANILA, Philippines - Officials and rank-and-file employees of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) have adopted a “wait and see” attitude as they anticipate the issuance of an order from Malacañang that would affect the leadership of the agency.

MMDA Chairman Oscar Inocentes, who was appointed by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, did not step down when President Aquino officially assumed office and named the members of his Cabinet.

Inocentes insisted that his term as MMDA chairman is not co-terminus with that of Arroyo. He also said he would remain at his post until he is ordered replaced by Mr. Aquino.

The MMDA is an agency under the supervision of the Office of the President and its chairman is vested with the rank, rights, privileges, disqualifications, and prohibitions of a Cabinet member.

But according to a ranking official of the MMDA, Inocentes should have stepped down when Mr. Aquino officially took control of the government as he was appointed by the previous administration.

The official also said Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa has already been made aware of the quandary at the MMDA and is expected to remedy the situation by tomorrow.

“I am sure the Executive Secretary has been made aware of what is now happening at the MMDA through newspaper stories. We are expecting him to announce something about it,” the official said. 

Inocentes, a former Quezon City regional trial court judge, was appointed as MMDA chairman by Arroyo when then chairman Bayani Fernando resigned to pursue his vice presidential bid in last May’s polls.