CA body endorses Bunye as OPS chief

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye hurdled his first hearing at the Commission on Appointments (CA) yesterday after the committee on government corporations and other offices endorsed his interim appointment.

He will face the CA plenary session tomorrow.

During the hearing, Senators Teresa Aquino-Oreta and Edgardo Angara grilled Bunye for allegedly making false charges against the political opposition.

However, the former Muntinlupa mayor and lawmaker denied published reports that he had accused the opposition of waging a disinformation campaign against the Arroyo administration.

Bunye said the CA did not require him to write "letters to the editor" as opposition members had demanded.

"It’s not really a letter to the editor," he said. "It’s a clarificatory letter for purposes of record to be submitted to the Secretary of the Commission on Appointments."

Bunye said the whole thing started when he denied during a press briefing reports that the government would tax pre-paid cellphones, abolish 14 government agencies, and close down several public hospitals.

But Oreta said Bunye should have clarified later that the newspaper report was not true.

"While we have no objections to the appointment of Press Secretary Bunye, we are, however, upset that he did not bother to make a clarification about reports quoting him as saying that there was a supposed disinformation campaign against the Arroyo administration," Oreta said.

On the other hand, Angara said they would no longer oppose Bunye’s confirmation after the press secretary promised to clarify in media that he had not blamed the opposition for any disinformation campaign. – Sammy Santos, Marichu Villanueva