Braganza resigns

After only three months in office, Press Secretary Hernani Braganza tendered his resignation to President Arroyo last Wednesday night.

The President, however, has not yet accepted Braganza’s resignation, and talked with him last night, Palace sources said.

Braganza reportedly complained to the President that certain Palace officials were behind the criticisms of him — for his being unseen and unheard from as press secretary — that appear in newspapers.

At the height of Mrs. Arroyo’s media campaign during the Iraq war, it was the communications group of presidential chief of staff Rigoberto Tiglao and his deputy, Roberto Capco, among other people, which ran her media blitz. Braganza never figured in the operations of the group.

In his letter of resignation addressed to the President, Braganza said his internal differences with certain colleagues in the Cabinet and Palace officials allegedly work against him.

He apparently alluded to his much-publicized differences with Tiglao and Capco.

Braganza, who was formerly the agrarian reform secretary, was transferred by the President to replace then Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, whom she appointed as her new presidential spokesman. Bunye took over from Tiglao.

Tiglao had just returned from his study leave in Japan when Mrs. Arroyo named him as her new chief of staff.

When Braganza moved into the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS), he had a quarrel with Tiglao over office space. The bone of contention was the former bedroom of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Braganza also did not have smooth working relations with Capco, who was then press undersecretary. Capco and Tiglao were rumored to have allegedly tried to block Braganza’s appointment as press secretary.

Even as Mrs. Arroyo has been trying to patch up differences between Braganza and Tiglao, sources told The STAR that the Palace search committee has started scouting for a new press secretary.

Press Undersecretary Milton Alingod is reportedly among those being considered for Braganza’s post. Alingod joined the OPS after Braganza was sworn into office.