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The next secretary of Education could be former Sen.
Teresa Aquino-Oreta under a Cabinet revamp set for this month.
But Oreta, who lost in the May
2007 senatorial polls under President Gloria Arroyo’s Team Unity
ticket, declined to confirm reports that she will replace Jesli
Lapus as Education chief. Election also-rans can only be given
government posts a year after their defeat.
The former senator, who until
last year’s elections was a member of the political opposition,
explained that there had been no formal announcement yet from Malacańang
on her reported takeover of the Education department.
“The President has not said
anything yet. So I can’t react or comment on it,” she told The
Manila Times on Wednesday.
The reports said Oreta, the
former chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Arts, and
Culture of the Eleventh Congress, will be appointed to the
Department of Education once the one-year ban on appointments of
election losers expires this month.
It was earlier rumored that Oreta
will head the Commission on Higher Education. The commission’s
chairman, Romulo Neri, supposedly will make a return to the National
Economic and Development Authority.
It was also reported that Oreta,
however, wanted the Education portfolio instead.
Lapus seemed unaffected by his
supposedly impending removal.
“Only President Arroyo knows
what’s on her mind,” he told The Manila Times.
Lapus was said to be appointed as
Finance secetary but talks have it that he will simply be eased out.
The Cabinet revamp that was
confirmed by Mrs. Arroyo on Tuesday will be nothing but political
payback, according to the political opposition.
Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay,
also president of the United Opposition (UNO), also on Wednesday
said the looming shake-up will reward the President’s “blind
loyalists,” referring to those who ran under the
administration’s Team Unity, particularly its losing senatorial
aspirants, in the 2007 polls.
The mayor belittled the
reshuffle.
He said it will have no positive
impact on the economic conditions of poor Filipinos. “We do not
need a change in personnel, what we need is for the Arroyo Cabinet
to change and reform its anti-poor policies and values.”
Lawyer Adel Tamano, the spokesman
of the United Opposition, said they had expected the President “to
cast a wider net beyond the unelectable members of the
pro-administration Team Unity and look for new faces who are truly
qualified to be members of the Cabinet.”
UNO stalwart and San Juan City
(Metro Manila) Mayor Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito said he had
received reports that those who would be named to the Cabinet would
be “political operators” who will push for Charter change in
order to extend the term of Mrs. Arroyo until after 2010.
The President last week said
Charter change, or “Cha-cha,” is not a priority with her.
Effecting economic reform, she added, is.
Like Lapus, Interior and Local
Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno also seemed unfazed by the Cabinet
revamp. Rather, he told reporters also Wednesday, he was
“embarrassed” by rumors that he will be replaced in the
department and will be appointed as the new executive secretary.
The rumors also have it that
Michael Defensor will take his place as Interior secretary. Defensor,
running under Team Unity, also lost in the 2007 polls.
Francis Earl A. Cueto, Jayson
Cruz Luna and Jefferson Antiporda
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