Fajardo eyed to replace Yap?

CABANATUAN CITY , Philippines   – Deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo is being eyed to replace Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, who is running for Congress in Bohol in next year’s elections, according to a Malacañang source.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said Fajardo, a godchild or “inaanak” of Mrs. Arroyo, was also asked to seek the position of secretary of the interior and local government as Secretary Ronaldo Puno is running for vice president in 2010.

Fajardo is reportedly weighing her options on whether to seek the DA or the DILG post.

She is reportedly having reservations about Yap’s post because of the various controversies hounding the department, particularly the issue on the fertilizer scam.

A close aide of Fajardo said that the DA may be too “problematic” for the deputy spokesperson to handle.

If appointed DA secretary, Fajardo, who is also the presidential assistant for Central Luzon, would have to deal squarely with the fertilizer scam issue, which involved her provincemate, Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali.

Umali was embroiled in the fertilizer scam when he was a member of the House of Representatives.

When The STAR asked her for comment during her birthday celebration at the New Executive Building in Malacañang Wednesday, Fajardo said that there had been reports about her possible ascension to the DA post.

“But until I have received the appointment papers from the appointing authority which is the President, we are delving on speculations,” she said.

Fajardo, daughter of former Light Railways Transit Authority administrator and former three-term House member Pacifico Fajardo and former three-term Palayan City mayor Leonora Fajardo, was earlier rumored to be eyeing a congressional seat in the third district of Nueva Ecija.

But the one-time Palayan mayor said she is preoccupied with Palace matters at the moment, although she admitted there had been a clamor for her to seek an elective post in her home province.