Mar to be confirmed September 19

MANILA, Philippines - Unlike Jesse Robredo, who died without being confirmed by the Commission on Appointments (CA) as the secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), his successor Manuel Roxas II is guaranteed immediate confirmation.

Roxas faces the CA for the first time on Sept.19.

“Let’s confirm him on the 19th,” Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who chairs the CA, said yesterday.

After confirming Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. and Judicial and Bar Council member Aurora Santiago Lagman, some CA members moved to have Roxas confirmed immediately in the next hearing.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, chairman of the committee on interior and local government of the CA, told the panel that Roxas requested over the phone last Tuesday that the hearing on his confirmation be rescheduled from Sept.12 to 19.

Sotto said Roxas requested for a rescheduling because the new DILG chief wanted first to wrap up his work at the Department of Transportation and Communication before assuming the DILG post.

With the hearing reset to Sept. 19, the notice and publication requirements may no longer apply. Roxas’ appointment to the top DILG post as replacement of Jesse Robredo came less than a week ago. Robredo died in a plane crash last Aug.18.

It was Sen. Panfilo Lacson who moved to fast track the confirmation process for Roxas.

“Maybe we can schedule the confirmation hearing of Secretary Mar Roxas because the agency he is about to head is a very important, sensitive agency. Crime rate is fast rising, at least in Metro Manila, and we need somebody on the saddle right away,” Lacson said during yesterday’s plenary session of the CA.

“My proposal is to waive the requirements of publication and schedule him in the next hearing (of the CA),” Lacson said.

Lacson’s manifestation led other lawmakers to raise proposals for a suspension of CA rules in Roxas’s case, including foregoing the publication requirements and suspending all the rules on confirming appointments.

Nueva Ecija Rep. Rodolfo Antonino even proposed that Roxas be confirmed right away, even in absentia.

“Perhaps this may be a precedent we do not want to do, I leave it to the body, I propose to suspend all the rules that would have to do with the confirmation of Secretary Mar Roxas and I would move in this plenary session that Mar Roxas be confirmed as secretary in plenary today, even in absentia, because we have done that before so that tomorrow he can take his oath of office as Secretary of DILG,” Antonino said.

Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong seconded the motion of Antonino but this was not considered because of concerns raised by other CA members.

Sen. Joker Arroyo said the proposal of Antonino would take away one of the most important aspects of the confirmation process, which is to notify the nation of the appointment and give everyone an opportunity to challenge such appointment.

“There are certain aspects that we would not have the power to abdicate, which is notice. We cannot agree among ourselves to confirm. We have to satisfy the notice because that is a notice to everyone else that if there is anyone who may object, they can object,” Arroyo said.

“But we cannot foreclose, much as we are eager to confirm his confirmation by acclamation, but still the public cannot be deprived of the right to know and to oppose,” he added. Enrile agreed.

“The chair must be cautious here because the institution may suffer, they might think that we are unduly favoring… a tayo-tayo system is coming to play. Can we just give it one week so that the institution and the process will not be compromised,” Enrile said.