Palace: No basis for NHCP chair to resign over Torre de Manila

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang on Wednesday responded to Sen. Pia Cayetano's call for the resignation of National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) Chair Maria Serena Diokno for supposedly failing to defend the Rizal Monument.

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said Diokno cannot resign just because she does not share the official stand of the government in the Torre De Manila case.

"Hindi sapat na batayan upang magbitiw ang pagkakaiba ng kanyang personal na pananaw sa opisyal na posisyon ng pamahalaan na ipinahayag ni Solicitor General (Florin) Hilbay sa pagdinig ng kaso sa Supreme Court tungkol sa Torre de Manila," Coloma said in a press briefing.

The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) recently dropped the NHCP as its client in the Torre de Manila case before the Supreme Court because of the differing positions the two have taken on the issue.

The NHCP has taken a position that the Torre de Manila is outside the boundaries of the Rizal Park and as such cannot obstruct the front view of the Rizal monument.

Diokno manifested with the SC that the NHCP had tapped her brother, De La Salle University College of Law Dean Jose Manuel Diokno to represent them in the case.

On Monday, Cayetano called on Diokno to resign, saying "those occupying the top level positions of the government's cultural agencies must be willing and able to defend national historic sites."

"If the chair of NHCP cannot get on board with this, as she has blatantly displayed, then she must resign instead of hiring private counsel to defend her inability to perform her job," Cayetano said.