TUCP backs plan to bar politicians from Cabinet

MANILA, Philippines – The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) yesterday supported a proposal to bar politicians from holding Cabinet positions.

“It has become counterproductive for a president to put active politicians in the Cabinet. Political ambitions tend to distract Cabinet members in a big way from effectively performing their jobs,” TUCP president and former senator Ernesto Herrera said.

As the country’s biggest workers’ group, the TUCP also urged all presidential candidates to declare their commitment not to appoint politicians in Cabinet positions should they get elected in next year’s polls.

Herrera noted that Vice President Jejomar Binay has vowed not to select a politician for his Cabinet if he wins.

“This is a sensible and practical approach to highly improved governance. We need non-partisan Cabinet members who can put their hearts and minds into their jobs – not preoccupied politicians who simply want to use their (Cabinet) posts to promote themselves,” Herrera explained.

The next president, Herrera said, should designate vastly experienced chief executive officers, either from the private sector or the civilian bureaucracy, as department secretaries.

He said new Cabinet members should not belong to any political party so they could focus on their jobs.

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), Herrera pointed out, is in a mess because of the designation of active politicians one after the other.

“The DOTC is one of the worst performing departments – whether the problem concerns the breakdown of our light train systems, our deteriorating motor vehicle traffic jams or the congestion of our airports and recurring flight delays,” Herrera said.

He also cited, as example, administration presidential bet Mar Roxas who was appointed DOTC secretary while serving as president of the ruling Liberal Party (LP).

“Roxas was too immersed in his future political plans from day one and could not have possibly paid full attention to his job,” Herrera said.

Roxas resigned as LP chief in the same month that he vacated his DOTC post to replace the late Jesse Robredo as head of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

“The same is true with Secretary Abaya who, up to now, is LP boss. He is too unfocused. He cannot fix our public transportation problems while he is engrossed in party matters and preparations for the 2016 polls,” Herrera added.