5 Cabinet members, Melo, Yano hurdle CA

MANILA, Philippines – Before sine die adjournment, the Commission on Appointments (CA) has confirmed the regular nominations and ad interim appointments of five Cabinet secretaries, two constitutional officials, eight ambassadors, 47 diplomats, and 40 military officials including the Armed Forces’ chief of staff.

CA concurrent chairman and Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. led the confirmation rites for Health Secretary Francisco Duque III; Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr.; Finance Secretary Margarito Teves; Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez and Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano nominated former justice Jose Melo as chairman of the Commission on Elections and Reynaldo Villar as chairman of the Commission on Audit. 

Cayetano expressed hope that Melo would live up to CA expectations that he will reform the Comelec and rid it of corruption as the country gears up for another presidential election in 2010.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson sponsored the confirmation of Gonzalez, whom the senator described as a person who “defies odds, strikes back at adversaries with bravado, and proves that he can outsprint the Grim Reaper.”

“Our appointee spews acid right in the faces of his critics when he talks, his acerbic tongue spares no one... (not even) those whose tragedies in life and tragic deaths had brought the nation (to) grief and shock,” Lacson said.

At the start of his sponsorship speech, Lacson even kidded that Gonzalez’s detractors would say that outside his family, nobody seems to like him except the President of the Republic.

The CA also confirmed the appointments of Villar as chairman of the Commission on Audit with a term expiring on Feb. 2, 2011; Melo, whose term will expire on Feb. 2, 2015; Ambassadors Francisco Benedicto to India and Nepal; Noe Wong to Cambodia; Cristina Castañer Ponce Enrile to the Vatican; MacArthur Corsino to Cuba and concurrently to the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica; Wilfredo Cuyugan to Syria; Minda Calaguian Cruz to Singapore; Francisco Ortigas III to Mexico and concurrently to Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama; Antonio Manuel Lagdameo to Spain; 47 other diplomats; Armed Forces chief Alexander Yano; and 39 military officials.

However, the commission disapproved the ad interim appointment of Jesus Anquilo to Army colonel as the court had convicted him.

Feisty Jamby

But the proceeding was overshadowed by Sen. Jamby Madrigal’s walkout and the ensuing threat to bring the issue to the Supreme Court. She said she would ask the high tribunal to nullify the actions of the CA.

“Our Constitution empowers the members of the Commission on Appointments to serve as a check and balance on whimsical, impractical, scandalous, or unworthy executive appointments, designations, and promotions,” Madrigal said, quoting Dante’s Inferno and comparing the commission to the gates of hell.

As she walked out in the middle of the plenary confirmation, Madrigal complained that her concerns remained unacted upon under Villar’s leadership.

“I have written the Senate president several times and until now the issue remains unresolved by the Senate Committee on Rules. Unless and until this prejudicial question is resolved, there is a cloud of doubt on all actions being undertaken by this illegal and anomalous Commission,” Madrigal said.

The feisty lady senator also noted that the CA spends P292 million a year, which she believes is the reason why members of Congress refuse to give up their seats.

“Sadly, however, the present commission itself does not observe the Constitution. What right do we have to raise issues on corruption, when this commission is not observing the Constitution? What right do we have to serve as serious checks and balance to the executive, when this commission itself through its padrino and bata-bata system refuses to follow the proportional representation requirement in our Constitution?” Madrigal added.

But Villar remained unfazed by Madrigal’s attacks. The Senate president merely sipped coffee as his female colleague lambasted the CA in her speech.

Villar disputed Madrigal’s insinuations that he has become Pontius Pilate. Unlike Pontius Pilate, Villar said he has been working hard at the Senate.