Weighed and were found wanting

The Commission on Appointments has turned down another Left-leaning presidential appointee to the Cabinet. Rafael Mariano failed to get the approval of the commission as secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform, bearing the brunt of the collapse of the peace talks between the government and the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Before Mariano’s rejection by the commission, Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, a former member of the communist underground that fought the Marcos regime, also failed to measure up to the standards set by the bicameral panel composed of 12 senators and 12 representatives.