CA bypasses 4 Cabinet appointees

MANILA, Philippines - Four Cabinet members will be considered bypassed by the Commission on Appointments (CA) this weekend when Congress goes on a three-week Halloween break.

Lawyer Kenny Dichavez, chief of staff of Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez , said the commission did not hold its regular weekly meeting yesterday.

Rodriguez is a member of the CA-House contingent.

“The commission will meet again perhaps after the recess,” Dichavez said.

The legislature will resume session on Nov. 18.

He said since the CA is going on adjournment this weekend, this means that all pending appointments, including those of four Cabinet members, would be bypassed.

He said no hearing has so far been held on any of the pending Cabinet appointments.

The four are Secretaries Leila de Lima of the Department of Justice, Ramon Paje of Environment and Natural Resources, Corazon Soliman of Social Welfare and Development, and Jericho Petilla of Energy.

Among the four, Petilla is the newest Cabinet appointee. It is not clear why De Lima, Soliman and Paje have been failing to hurdle the CA confirmation process.

The justice secretary is expected to be in hot water with senators who have been charged by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) with plunder before the Ombudsman in connection with the misuse of billions in pork barrel funds.

Those charged were Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon Revilla Jr.

Charged with them were alleged pork barrel scam brains Janet Lim- Napoles and the officers of state corporations which served as conduits of the three senators’ pork barrel funds that ended up with bogus foundations associated with Napoles.

According to the NBI, Estrada, Enrile and Revilla received some P581 million in kickbacks from the Napoles foundations.

Estrada and Enrile are among the three representatives of the Senate minority bloc in the CA. The third is Vicente Sotto III, who, like his two opposition colleagues, has been linked to irregularities in the use of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocation.

President Aquino will have to reappoint De Lima, Soliman, Petilla, and Paje on Saturday, unless he wants to replace them.

However, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa has said that there would be no changes in the Aquino Cabinet.

Also bypassed this weekend is Audit Commissioner Heidi Mendoza, who is being opposed by certain CA members identified with Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Mendoza has authored audit reports on alleged fund irregularities in Makati City when Binay and his wife Elenita alternately served as mayor.