Abaya to quit, give ‘President Mar’ a free hand

MANILA, Philippines - In the event of an administration victory in the May presidential elections, Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya will quit his position to give the new president a free hand in choosing people for his Cabinet. 

“I will resign first to give him the free hand to get whoever he wants,” Abaya said in an interview Monday with The STAR editors and reporters when asked if he would stay on as DOTC chief if Liberal Party standard bearer Manuel Roxas II is elected president in May.

But he maintained he would seek divine guidance as well as consult his wife and children first before making a final decision. “It is up to God,” he said.

President Aquino appointed Abaya in 2012 replacing Roxas, who was moved to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) following the death of Jessie Robredo in a plane crash. Both Abaya and Roxas belong to the ruling LP.

Abaya was a three-term congressman before his appointment to the Cabinet. 

With only less than five months before Aquino steps down in June, Abaya admitted some projects would be completed in the next administration.

“There are some projects that we could deliver within the term of the President, some are just humanly, physically, Godly impossible,” Abaya said. 

He added the DOTC under his leadership is doing its best to make sure his successor and the next set of department officials would have easier tasks.

“We will make sure the sharpest pencil is handed over to the next guy para hindi niya maranasan yung naranasan namin (so he won’t have to experience what we’ve gone through),” he said.

“I’m sure the next secretary will get to ground break (and) ribbon cut whatever we’re laying down now,” he added.

Those projects, he said, are “not that easy projects to roll out.”