GMA gets Cabinet revamp rolling

President Arroyo started the changes in her Cabinet yesterday, transferring three of her officials to new positions and appointing a new social welfare secretary.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes would now heads the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), a post previously held by Michael Defensor who now officially becomes the presidential chief of staff.

Defensor, who was campaign spokesman for Mrs. Arroyo in the 2004 presidential elections, had filed a leave of absence as DENR secretary to try his new role as palace chief of staff.

He has been called Malacañang’s "troubleshooter" in leading reconciliation efforts of the administration with the opposition and other sectors.

Ermita also announced the appointment of noted cardiologist Esperanza Cabral as secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) while presidential adviser for external affairs Edgardo Pamintuan will be the new chairman of the Subic-Clark Area Development.

Cabral, president of the Philippine Society of Hypertension and former director of the Philippine Heart Center, was the national campaign manager of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago in the 1992 and 2001 elections.

Cabral will replace Corazon "Dinky" Soliman, one of the "Hyatt 10" group of former Cabinet officials who resigned July last year and asked the President to do the same.

The DSWD is currently headed by Lualhati Pablo as officer-in-charge.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the appointments were made based on "trust and confidence" of the President on the appointees’ capability to implement her reform agenda.

Ermita earlier bared the President’s plan to make new appointments for this year but clarified that it would not necessarily cause a major Cabinet revamp.

Antipolo City Rep. Ronaldo Puno was earlier rumored to replace Reyes as DILG chief. Reyes was initially considered as the next ambassador to Washington.

Puno, however, said he was not inclined to give up his job in Congress since the position was not offered to him in the first place.

Budget Secretary Romulo Neri, for his part, bared plans to bring him back to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) currently headed by Augusto Santos, but that the President has yet to make a decision.

He said there are plans that he would be replaced by Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya.

There are also reports that Philippine Information Agency director general Renato Velasco will take over the position of Presidential Management Staff chief Rigoberto Tiglao, who was appointed Philippine ambassador to Greece.

Mrs. Arroyo recently appointed Mindanao Economic Development Council chairman Jesus Dureza as new presidential adviser on the peace process to replace Teresita "Ging" Deles, another "Hyatt 10" member.

The President also named Jose Mario Buñag as commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Former agriculture secretary Arthur Yap has returned as presidential adviser for job creation.

So far, the departments of education and agrarian reform, the Bureau of Customs and the National Anti-Poverty Commission are still headed by officers-in-charge.

The President will also need to appoint a new chief presidential legal counsel since Merceditas Gutierrez was appointed Ombudsman.

She also needs to appoint a replacement for the late Reynaldo Wycoco as National Bureau of Investigation director.