The President’s appointments to key Cabinet and military posts are based on merit and fitness and must not be whimsically treated in this manner by the legislature.
The Chief Executive is responsible for executing the laws of the land and must not be unduly hampered in the selection of her subalterns who are supposed to implement her programs of governance.
Secretary Gonzalez and General Esperon have shown solid performance and courage from Day One in their respective offices.
Let us not allow personal or partisan reasons to prevent able and competent people from serving the people.
Both enjoy the confidence of the President and no amount of black propaganda and character assassination will prod her to drop their appointments.
Solid performance at courage? O partisan loyalty to Mrs. Arroyo?
Sabi ni Mlq3: "Must? Must!? In a system with the separation of powers? And in the face of congressional disapproval she will insist on her appointments? And no one wonders how a president can go against 12 administrations’ precedents and the very idea of the executive having to submit its appointees to congressional scrutiny and possibly, rejection? And you still doubt we have authoritarianism waiting in the wings? No democratically-minded president, ever, would have permitted such a statement."
Tribune reports: GMA ignores CA, promotes Esperon
President Arroyo has again defied the Commission on Appointments (CA) by promoting controversial Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. to the rank of four-star general despite his pending confirmation as a three-star general.
Esperon, one of the four top ranking officials in the military implicated in the allegedly massive cheating in the 2004 presidential elections as evidenced in the “Hello Garci” tapes, yesterday took his oath as a full-fledged four-star general before Mrs. Arroyo in Malacañang along with 16 newly promoted generals and senior flag officers.
Back to Mlq3's comment. Come on, Kuya Manuel, appointing officials with questionable characters without going thru a vetting process and approval from the COA has worked well for her in the past.
Palace firm on Barcelona,
Garcillano reappointments
Posted: 7:27 PM (Manila Time) | Jul. 06, 2004
By Maila Ager and Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQ7.net
AMID criticisms, Malacañang stood pat on its decision to reappoint Virgilio Garcillano and Emanuel Barcelona as Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioners.
Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye pointed out on Tuesday that the appointments went through a thorough evaluation before they got President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's nod.
"We will not go into legal details but I assumed that these appointments had been carefully screened," Bunye said at a press briefing.
The Palace expressed confidence that the officials would finally get the confirmation of the Commission on Appointments (CA).
Both Garcillao and Barcelona were first appointed to the Comelec in February but the CA did not confirm their appointments.
But opposition Senator Aquilino Pimentel immediately questioned the appointments, saying that it could be part of the President's alleged "payment of political debt."
Pimentel had linked Garcillano to "special operations" in Mindanao where he allegedly "manipulated" election results to favor the President.
Meanwhile, Pimentel said Barcelona's independence was "under a cloud of doubt" because he claimed that the official was a campaign donor of Mrs. Arroyo when she ran for vice president in 1998.
"What the Comelec needs are people with integrity, not those who are subservient to the appointing authority," Pimentel said in a statement.
The senator said the two officials did not deserve to be reappointed after their ad interim appointments lapsed on June 11 because of their alleged bias for the President in the last election.
"The President missed an opportunity to repair the shattered image and credibility of the Commission on Elections by reappointing Commissioners Garcillano and Barcelona," he said.
"He (Pimentel) is entitled to his opinion but the President believes that the two gentlemen will be able to fulfill their functions," Bunye said.
See, you don't need CA approval to work for Arroyo. What Arroyo wants, arroyo gets. And those two partisan COMELEC appointees did a good job in the last elections naman diba? Lol.
Can you imagine, kung hindi lumabas ang "Hello Garci" tapes, malamang Commissioner Garci pa rin ang tawag natin at ni ComelecAko sa kanya.
More from the PDI on Arroyo's "recess appointments":
2 new Comelec commissioners
'capable,' says Palace
Posted: 7:22 PM (Manila Time) | Feb. 11, 2004
By Joel Francis Guinto and Veronica Uy
INQ7.net
(UPDATE) PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's two new appointees to the Commission on Elections have the "capability and potential" to ensure honest and peaceful elections in May and must be given a chance to perform their duties, government officials said Wednesday.
"Nothing is uppermost in the President's mind than the credibility of the May elections and she has selected two officials who have the capability and potential to contribute to that goal," Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Ms Macapagal named lawyers Manuel Barcelona Jr. and Virgilio Olivar-Garcillano to replace former Comelec commissioners Luzviminda Tancancgo and Ralph Lantion, who retired early this month.
"Let us give them a chance to prove their worth and we are confident they will pass the test of public duty," Bunye said, adding it was unfair to pre-judge the appointees.
Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos shared Bunye's position amid the negative reactions over the appointments of Barcelona and Garcillano.
Abalos singled out Garcillano who he said was a "graduate" of the Comelec.
"With his experience, what more can you ask for? The accusations against him are unfair because he has not been charged," Abalos said.
Senator Aquilino Pimentel had described Garcillano as a "Comelec operator" who was allegedly responsible for the vote shaving scheme in Mindanao where the senator claimed he was a victim, robbing him of a Senate seat in the 1995 elections.
But Garcillano on Wednesday denied Pimentel's allegations.
"I don't do that. I already asked (him through an intercessor) to sit down with me. I think (his accusations) are just a carryover from the past. He is a respected legal jurist.
"I'm sure he knows that the removal of names from the list of voters is not an administrative function of the (Commission on Elections) but a judicial function of the courts. I know the senator is a reasonable man," said Garcillano who called on Abalos a day after his appointment.
Earlier on Wednesday, Pimentel said the opposition bloc would ask the President to justify her appointments that were made while Congress was on recess.
Under the Constitution, Pimentel said Garcillano and Barcelona should go through the Commission on Appointments.
Abalos defended the appointments, saying, "There was only a vacancy on February 2. You must give the President a chance to screen the applicants.
"I doubt if Congress would still have time to act on his appointment.And even if they bypass his appointment, the President can still appoint them again."
Sounds familiar?
UPDATE: Roundup later...
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