3 Cabinet members take oath

A lady in red wept uncontrollably at Malacañang yesterday while her husband took his oath as a Cabinet member of the Arroyo administration.

Mrs. Kim Camacho told The STAR it was not tears of joy, but tears of fear that her husband, new Finance Secretary Isidro Camacho, would have less time for the family.

"He will never have any more time for his family," Mrs. Camacho said between sobs.

Two other nominees to the Arroyo Cabinet who took their oath with Camacho were erstwhile finance secretary Alberto Romulo as the new executive secretary, and Vicente Perez as energy secretary.

The President administered their oaths of office shortly after she signed into law the Electric Industry Act of 2001.

As Mrs. Arroyo was delivering her short remarks prior to signing the bill, Mrs. Camacho kept crying while seated with her three sons at the presidential table.

The new secretary could only look at his tearful wife, while an aide saw to it that she had an ample supply of tissue paper to wipe away her tears.

On hand to witness the signing rites were Senate President Aquilino Pimen-tel Jr. and outgoing Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

Emphasizing that her husband was an incorrigible workaholic, Mrs. Camacho recounted a weekend trip to Subic in Zambales aboard a yacht when he shut himself in the comfort room just to have an undisturbed cellular phone interview with a radio station.

Thinking that all passengers had disembarked, the vessel weighed anchor and left port.

Much to their surprise, the crew found Camacho still in the comfort room, and the boat had to race back to Subic to deliver a very important cargo.

Mrs. Camacho dreaded the thought that her 45-year-old husband would be out of the house most of the time.

Camacho was reported to be the richest member of the Arroyo Cabinet, with a net worth of P329,077,743.88 as of Feb. 28 this year.

Before joining the government service, he held a high-paying job at Deutsche Bank AG Manila Branch.

His expertise as an investment banker took him to Singapore, Japan, New York and Hong Kong where he worked for several years.

Husband and wife are both graduates of the prestigious Harvard University.

He is an economist while she holds a master’s degree in business administration and finance. They have six children, the eldest an 18-year-old girl and the youngest, a four-year-old boy. — Marichu Villanueva