Major Cabinet revamp coming

The impending revamp of the Cabinet will be announced this week by President Arroyo or Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Environment Secretary Michael Defensor said yesterday.

Defensor, who has been picked to head the Presidential Management Staff (PMS), said during the weekly radio program of Vice President Noli de Castro that the powers and responsibilities of his new job as Mrs. Arroyo’s chief-of-staff will be defined this week.

"The (Cabinet) announcement will come from the President or the Executive Secretary this week," Defensor said.

He denied that he would also serve concurrently as social welfare secretary. "I was asked, but I’ll focus on the official functions of the President," he said.

His appointment to the Presidential Management Staff was made following the appointment and confirmation of its former head, Rigoberto Tiglao, as ambassador to Greece.

Malacañang officials said the purpose of the revamp — the first since the electoral fraud allegations hounding Mrs. Arroyo led to a mass resignation of 10 Cabinet members last July — was to make the government more efficient.

In July 2005, 10 Cabinet officials and advisers resigned in protest over the opposition’s claims that Mrs. Arroyo cheated her way to victory in the 2004 presidential election.

The mass resignation was triggered by Mrs. Arroyo’s admission of impropriety in speaking with an election official over the phone during the presidential vote count.

She denied, however, that she conspired to rig the election outcome.

Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes is reportedly one of the few being considered as Defensor’s replacement at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

"I don’t know about that," Reyes told reporters seeking comment. "All I can say now is that the appointment of Cabinet members is a presidential prerogative."

It was also reported that Reyes could be appointed ambassador to the United States.

"I am not leaving for the United States. I don’t want an ambassadorial post but I don’t have any control over any Cabinet revamp. It’s a presidential prerogative," the former Armed Forces chief said.

Reyes was appointed defense secretary after retiring from the military.

He resigned in 2003 after being accused by several mutinous military officers of planning bombings in Metro Manila to create an image of instability that would eventually give Mrs. Arroyo an excuse to stay in power.

Reyes was cleared but he quit to spare Mrs. Arroyo from possible criticism. He was later appointed head of an anti-crime task force and named interior secretary. — Pia Lee-Brago, Jaime Laude