Berroya named to DOTC post

President Arroyo swore in yesterday controversial police general Reynaldo Berroya as assistant secretary for special concerns at the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

Berroya, who headed the Civil Security Group of the Philippine National Police prior to his retirement, is the latest retired PNP general to join the DOTC. He bowed out of the service last March 14.

The DOTC is headed by former PNP chief director general Leandro Mendoza.

Berroya’s appointment to the DOTC brings to five the number of former PNP generals serving in the department. Aside from him and Mendoza, the others are Undersecretary for Transportation and Security Cecilio Penilla, Assistant Secretary for Land Transportation Roberto Lastimoso, who is also concurrently general manager of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT), and Assistant Secretary for Finance Domingo Reyes Jr. Berroya’s appointment has raised concerns that the department is becoming "top-heavy" with the creation of positions to accommodate mostly retired police generals "crossing over" to the department.

Sources at the DOTC told The STAR that rank-and-file employees belonging to the DOTC employees association may forward a manifesto to Malacañang protesting the creation of special positions like the portfolio given to Berroya.

Last month, Malacañang appointed former presidential liaison officer for Central Visayas Elberto Emphasis as DOTC undersecretary in a portfolio also allegedly created for the appointment.

Emphasis, it was learned, was given by Mendoza "supervisory and monitoring functions over all special projects of the department on airports and seaports in Central Visayas."

Emphasis was reportedly a political detainee during the Marcos regime. He resigned as presidential liaison officer for Central Visayas but remains as deputy spokesman for the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats in the region.

Emphasis is a civil engineering graduate of the Cebu Institute of Technology and has taken up graduate studies at the University of the Philippines. He was once a scholar of the Rockefeller foundation and served as president of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry for four terms.

Reportedly also appointed to newly created positions are Penilla and Agustin Bengzon.

Penilla’s position was created through an executive order last January, while Bengzon was given the position of undersecretary for special concerns during the middle of last year.

The DOTC sources said that in the space of a year the number of DOTC undersecretaries had increased from four to seven. Before the three new positions, the DOTC had four undersecretaries: Arturo Valdez (undersecretary for land transportation), Jose Cortez Jr. (railways and maritime transport), Edward Harun Pagunsan (air and staff services) and Virgilio Peña (communications).

The ranks of assistant secretaries had also increased with the retention of Dante Lantin and Lastimoso, despite their removal from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, and the creation of Berroya’s portfolio.

Berroya was among several appointees sworn en masse at Malacañang yesterday supposedly to beat the deadline for the ban against new appointments last March 16.

Also sworn in yesterday were newly confirmed ambassadors Farita Aguilucho-Ong (East Timor), Antonio Modena (Israel with concurrent jurisdiction over Cyprus), Belen Anota (Singapore), Petronia Garcia (Egypt with concurrent jurisdiction over Sudan), and Acmad Omar (Oman).