Anxiety hits Cabinet

Cabinet members will have to bear the uncertainty and anxiety of not knowing President Arroyo’s decision on their fates a while longer.

The President earlier announced that she will implement changes in her Cabinet within the month, but she may wait until the Commission on Appointments (CA) is constituted.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said yesterday that he has heard his colleagues in the Cabinet speaking of their obvious anxieties over whether they will remain in or be removed from the President’s official family after the President said she will bare her new Cabinet appointees either tomorrow or as soon as the 25-member CA is constituted.

"We believe that she has good reasons for setting that event (the organization of the CA) as a benchmark for announcing her appointments," Bunye said.

"The President has her reasons," he said. "I’m sure these are well-studied. I think it’s a matter of just days (before) the President makes her announcement."

He dismissed concerns that the President’s deliberately withholding the announcement of her new Cabinet appointees has affected transactions of the departments concerned.

"I think the wait will be over very soon," Bunye said.

As this developed, former National Food Authority (NFA) administrator Arthur Yap finally assumed his post as secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA), replacing Luisito Lorenzo.

Yap will take his oath of office before the President on Friday at Malacañang.

Lorenzo assumed his new post as chief of the newly created Office of the Presidential Adviser for Job Creation. He is also concurrently chairman of the governing boards of the state-run Land Bank of the Philippines and Quedancor.

Bunye said there are no announcements of new Cabinet appointees. "There are no announcements as of today," he said. "As a matter of fact, we had lunch with some other Cabinet officials and everybody was asking one another" questions.