Luistro fails to hurdle CA

MANILA, Philippines - Education Secretary Armin Luistro failed to get confirmation yesterday at the Commission on Appointments (CA) subcommittee on education after Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago opposed his appointment.

Luistro said he was ready to face Santiago and would prepare to answer her point by point.

“It’s my first time to go through it. I have an idea on how the past hearings went. I prepared myself psychologically,” Luistro told reporters after the hearing of the CA subcommittee led by its chairman Sen. Edgardo Angara.

Luistro said his position is clear as education secretary to participate in the dialogue about the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill, which was being opposed by the Catholic Church.

We are part of the process and I mentioned that in the field of basic education, we are not immediately affected,” Luistro said. “I can separate my views but I think the general public cannot do that.”

During the hearing, Luistro admitted that the RH bill is a “complex issue.”

“Understandably, it is a very complex issue. And part of my own view of the Department of Education, which I think could not be separated from myself as a person, is that the department will have to participate in the discussions,” said Luistro, who was first among the Cabinet members of President Aquino to face the CA.

Luistro said he is following Aquino’s move to start a dialogue, not only with the Catholic church, but also other groups on the RH bill issue.

“My only fear is sometimes the discussions become too emotional and it deprives the stakeholders of the real objective of addressing the problem,” Luistro said, admitting that several contentious issues always come out when the RH bill is discussed.

Luistro was also grilled over his stand on the issues of sex education and proposals to extend the years for primary and secondary education.

Angara expressed belief that Luistro could hurdle the intense scrutiny of his credentials and stands on several controversial issues. The next hearing is scheduled on Nov. 23.

“No one in the commission, no one in this commission as far as I recall, really agree unanimously. One will disagree and will have a different opinion,” Angara said, referring to Santiago’s opposition.

“So far it’s not complete, especially on Reproductive Health bill and sexual education, because it will take more than one hour to explain his side because of his status as a religious. But I hope that with Sen. Miriam, who raised this principal opposition, he can discuss this more extensively,” Angara said.

Conflict of interest

Santiago formally filed her opposition to Luistro’s appointment, threatening to invoke Section 20 of the CA rules, which provides for the suspension of consideration of a nomination on a motion of a CA member.

Although still on sick leave, Santiago said that she intends to cast “my one-person veto, if necessary.”

Santiago outlined her reason in objecting to Luistro’s appointment, saying that the secretary has conflict of interest being a member of the Catholic religious, and practiced gross ignorance of the law and that he was politically deaf.

Santiago said Luistro “pilloried” her for refusing to vote in favor of the opening of the notorious second envelope at the impeachment trial in the Senate of former President Joseph Estrada in 2001.

“I was savaged, the nominee (Luistro) and his gang, despite my explanation during the trial that as a former RTC (Regional Trial Court) judge, I was merely applying the Rules of Court,” Santiago said. “I was not against opening the second envelope. I was merely pointing out that official court procedure should be followed.”

Santiago said that Luistro also objected to the invitation for her to teach political science at De La Salle University when the she was invited to teach in the school by Luistro’s predecessor, Brother Andrew Gonzalez.

Santiago said she was “demonized without cause by the nominee and his gang, in their belief that only they, as self-appointed arbiters of morality, are privileged to know the moral truth.

“They have no identifiable basis for their pretension to be the pious moral guardians of society. Yet it appears that they believe themselves to possess a monopoly of ultimate truth, and as such to be always right, while all others opposing them are always wrong,” Santiago said in a strongly worded three-page letter.

Santiago said Luistro is compromising his post as education secretary because he is a member of the Black and White Movement, and former president of De La Salle University.

“The nominee is so full of himself, that he has no room for voices other than his own. As a self-satisfied moral guardian, he wants to be a force in political society, without taking time to understand the dynamics of politics in our native culture. If that is his ambition, he should not hold an appointive post,” Santiago said, adding the education secretary should run for public office.

Lamenting that she is unable to attend yesterday’s hearing, Santiago vowed to be physically present in the Senate next week.

Santiago’s letter was entered into the record by Angara despite her request to read it aloud before the committee.