EDITORIAL - Assume the posts

It took a year and a half before President Aquino nominated Jesse Robredo for congressional confirmation as the secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government. Robredo died without being confirmed by the Commission on Appointments. CA members have an excuse: both chambers of Congress were preoccupied with the impeachment of Renato Corona as chief justice.

This time, Malacañang has acted with dispatch, with the President nominating Mar Roxas to the CA yesterday as the DILG head, just days after his selection as Robredo’s replacement was announced.

Still waiting to be nominated to the CA is Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, who will replace Roxas as secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications. Abaya has said he prefers to remain in the House of Representatives, where he chairs the appropriations committee, until the national budget for 2013 is approved.

After Robredo, the CA should act quickly on the new appointments, although Roxas does not need CA confirmation before he can take over the DILG. Because the appointments have already been announced, the officials should assume their new posts as soon as possible. Uncertainty in the leadership of a government agency tends to rub off on its operations.

Abaya will be the third DOTC chief under President Aquino in just two years. The department is in charge of numerous big-ticket infrastructure projects and is trying to lure major investments. The effort is hampered by perceptions among investors that business contracts in this country can be overturned not just from one administration to the next but from one department head to a new one.

The sooner Abaya gets settled into his new role, and gives a convincing impression that he – or his policies and projects – will be there at least until 2016, the better the prospects for attracting investments in transportation and communication infrastructure. The same is true in the DILG, or any government agency for that matter. They function best with stable leadership in place. The CA must act quickly as Roxas and Abaya assume their new positions.