|
The Committee on Budget of the Commission on Appointments headed by
Sen. Mar Roxas endorsed Tuesday the confirmation of the ad interim
appointment of Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr.
Andaya’s confirmation, however, may have to
wait because the Appointments commission has not scheduled any
plenary session. It regularly holds its plenary session on a
Wednesday, but it has not had one in the last four Wednesday since
the First regular Session resumed its session on April 21.
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, a member of the
Appointments commission said that no plenary could be scheduled
because of the threat of Sen. Jamby Madrigal to invoke Section 20
against all nominees. Section 20, once invoked, effectively defers
the confirmation of a nominee by the plenary without any debate.
Madrigal went ballistic at the last plenary
session of the Appointments commission on March 12 and prevented the
confirmation of Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd, Elections
Commissioner Moslemen Macarambon and 24 military officers by
invoking section 20.
“Let the generals shoot me if they want. I am
doing this out of principle,” she said of her wholesale invocation
of the seldom-used rule.
While Madrigal said that she was doing this out
of principle, Sen. Rodolfo Biazon said that she did this because she
was still smarting from her rebuff in the previous Appointments
commission session where Brig. Gen. Nestor Saidarin got confirmed
despite her vow to block it. Madrigal did not hear Saidarin’s name
called and she objected only when Senate President Manuel Villar,
the ex-officio chairman, had banged the gavel to signify the
adjournment of the session.
At Malacañang, President Gloria Arroyo named
former justice secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd as the new Cabinet
secretary replacing Ricardo Saludo, who will assume his position as
the new head of the Civil Service Commission (CSC).
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said Bello will
take over from Saludo once the latter’s appointment to the CSC is
confirmed by the Commission on Appointments. Bello is the current
presidential adviser on new government centers.
Aside from being a former justice secretary,
Bello served as chief government negotiator in talks with the
National Democratic Front.
-- Efren L. Danao with Angelo S. Samonte
|
