Defensor to quit Cabinet

Less than three weeks after his appointment, housing czar Michael Defensor wants out of President Arroyo’s Cabinet.

Defensor has reportedly prepared a letter tendering his "irrevocable resignation effective immediately" as chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) due to "recent developments in the housing sector."

He said such developments have made his continued stay as HUDCC chairman "untenable."

He is due to submit his resignation letter to Mrs. Arroyo this week.

However, sources said Defensor has conveyed to Palace officials his intention to quit his job.

He did not specify the "recent developments in the housing sector" that he said have made him decide to call it quits.

But judging from Palace announcements last week, these recent developments were three major appointments in agencies under Defensor.

These are those of former Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan as general manager of the National Housing Authority, Zorayda Alonzo as president of the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. and Ramon Palma Gil as head of Pag-IBIG Fund, the private worker’s housing fund.

Pamintuan had earlier been appointed member of the board of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.

Malacañang was abuzz yesterday with the rumor of Defensor’s resignation, but Executive Secretary Renato de Villa said he was not aware of it.

De Villa said Defensor might just be encountering many problems in his new job.

"I have no reports on that (Defensor’s resignation). Mike Defensor is still young but he is aging fast because of his so many problems," he said.

Presidential Spokesman and Mrs. Arroyo’s chief of staff Roberto Corona could not be reached through his cecullar phone for comment yesterday.

From the tenor of Defensor’s resignation letter, he has differences with the President on major appointments in his turf.

His reasons for quitting are similar to those of former Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado, who resigned in protest over the appointment of former Armed Forces chief retired Gen. Lisandro Abadia as national security adviser.

Mercado, now an opposition senatorial candidate, said he could not work with one who he had charged with misusing millions of pesos in soldiers’ pension funds.

The President was eventually forced to withdraw Abadia’s appointment.

Defensor, a former congressman representing Quezon City’s third district, took his oath of office on Feb. 8 along with Agrarian Reform Secretary Hernani Braganza, a former Pangasinan congressman.

The two are among the youngest members of the Cabinet. They helped the 11-member House panel that prosecuted ousted President Joseph Estrada in his impeachment trial. They were members of the former opposition’s "Spice Boys."

Besides the two, the other former members of Congress who were drafted into the Cabinet are Pantaleon Alvarez as secretary of transportation and communications, Simeon Datumanong as secretary of Public Works, Leonardo Montemayor as agriculture secretary, Eduardo Ermita as acting defense secretary, and Roilo Golez as national security adviser.

If Defensor pushes through with his irrevocable resignation, he might run for re-election in his Quezon City district. The deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy for congressman and local posts is on Wednesday.

His potential opponent is Nikki Coseteng, one of the 11 pro-Estrada senators who voted against opening the second Equitable-PCI Bank envelope.

The controversial vote triggered people power 2 that toppled Estrada on Jan. 20. — With Paolo Romero