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By Sam Mediavilla, Reporter
Resignations from the heads of
corporations and financial firms owned or run by the government
poured into the Office of the President Monday as Malacañang
carried out the first phase of a sweeping reorganization of the
bureaucracy.
Executive Secretary Eduardo
Ermita said resignation letters started arriving in Malacañang
early morning as the chiefs of GOCCs (government-owned or
–controlled corporations) and GFIs (government financial
institutions) beat the President’s deadline for submitting their
courtesy resignations.
Ermita said the President asked
for the resignations to give her a free hand in streamlining ailing
state-run corporations.
He said among the officials
expected to submit their resignations early were the chiefs of the
Government Service and Insurance Corporation, Land Bank, the Social
Security System, Securities and Exchange Commission, the National
Power Corporation, as well as the satellite agencies of Napocor
like the Transmission Corporation (TransCo).
He dismissed insinuations that
Mrs. Arroyo ordered the reorganization following the setback of the
administration’s senatorial ticket in the May elections.
Only two of Team Unity bets won,
and the new Senate will be dominated by opposition candidates.
In an interview over DZMM radio,
Ermita said Malacañang’s Search Committee was already
evaluating the resignation letters to determine who among the
executives to retain or replace.
Mrs. Arroyo also ordered the
resignation of the chiefs of the Bureaus of Customs and Internal
Revenues, as well as the chairman of the Philippine Retirement
Authority and the Philippine Postal Corporation.
Ermita belied reports that Energy
Secretary Raphael Lotilla and Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, two
senior members of the President’s economic team, had turned in
their irrevocable resignations to the President.
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