Cabinet members stay in acting capacity

Until they are shown the door, the present batch of Cabinet members will remain in office.

This was disclosed yesterday by Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye Jr., who said President Arroyo has no immediate plans to implement changes in her Cabinet.

"We will be what are considered as holdover officers, so that’s provided for by law (and) that’s allowed by law," Bunye said.

"So we will be holding over until we are told that the office is already vacant," he said.

Bunye also shrugged off reports that a number of Cabinet members supposedly expressed interest in returning to the private sector.

"These are all speculations," Bunye said, adding that some of his colleagues in the Cabinet have already drafted plans on what they intend to do with their respective departments for the next six years.

Early last month, members of the Cabinet submitted their courtesy resignations to Mrs. Arroyo well ahead of the expiration of her term on June 30.

The move is intended to give the President a free hand to choose who will remain under her new administration.

But Mrs. Arroyo indicated she will retain most of her present officials as part of continuity.

"So anyway, these reorganizations, since I was the past President and I am still President, so we don’t need a complete break," Mrs. Arroyo said during an interview with ABS-CBN’s "Rated K" news program last Sunday night.

Early this year, Mrs. Arroyo reorganized her Cabinet after some of her officials resigned to run for public office in the just concluded elections.

The newest Cabinet members are Trade and Industry Secretary Cesar Purisima and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Jose Tenefrancia.

Tenefrancia took over from Avelino Cruz, who resigned to become Mrs. Arroyo’s lawyer in her cases before the Commission on Elections.

Purisima replaced Manuel Roxas II who was later elected as senator in the ticket of the pro-administration coalition.

Richard Gordon also resigned as tourism secretary and was also elected as a member of the Senate.

Gordon was replaced by former Bulacan governor Roberto Pagdanganan. — Marvin Sy