Bunye on Cabinet post: I’m still here

President Arroyo is keeping her spokesman handy for now.

"I’m still here so the President has not accepted my letter of resignation," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said yesterday.

Bunye said he has no information on the status of the remaining Cabinet members, adding that it may take a while to look for replacements.

While he said he would remain to serve the Arroyo administration, Bunye noted it "is a matter of principle that everybody serves at the pleasure of the President."

Bunye became controversial after he released copies of alleged recordings between Mrs. Arroyo and former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano last June 6.

He said the President’s conversations were apparently wiretapped and the recordings seemed to have been spliced and doctored to appear as though she had conspired with Garcillano to cheat in last year’s elections.

Bunye later backtracked and said he could be wrong with regards to the authenticity of the President’s voice in the recordings.

Earlier reports said Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo and Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla would also retain their posts despite the Cabinet revamp announced by the President.

Romulo defended the President against resignation calls and said the international community also recognized the legitimacy of her administration and expressed support for her.

Lotilla, on the other hand, is one of the Cabinet’s newest members, having been appointed in March to replace Vicente Perez Jr.

As one of Mrs. Arroyo’s economic managers, Lotilla rejected calls from fellow Cabinet members led by now-resigned finance secretary Cesar Purisima to resign en masse and join calls for Mrs. Arroyo’s resignation in the wake of the poll fraud charges against her.

The President also designated officers-in-charge: Rene Sarmiento for the Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process and Bernie Ferrer Cruz for Office of the Lead Convenor of the National Anti-Poverty Commission.

Mrs. Arroyo ordered her Cabinet to tender their courtesy resignations last Thursday night, announcing on television that she was going to revamp her official family.

The move was seen as preemptive, since the group of Purisima had called for a press conference Friday to announce the mass resignation.

The President said she would announce new Cabinet picks in the coming days, saying her new Cabinet would be composed of individuals whose commitment to the nation and democratic principles would be beyond doubt.

Besides Purisima, the other Cabinet members who resigned were Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin, Trade Secretary Juan Santos, Education Secretary Florencio Abad, presidential adviser for the peace process Teresita Deles, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman, Agrarian Reform Secretary Rene Villa and NAPC secretary general Imelda Nicolas.

Bureau of Customs chief Alberto Lina and Bureau of Internal Revenue chief Guillermo Parayno also quit.

Mrs. Arroyo said her new team "will work with me to move away from political bickering, to doing what the people of the Philippines expect their leaders to do, and that is get our economy moving and ensure the delivery of essential services such as health care, education and security to all parts of the country."

The President also designated the following officers-in-charge: Mario Relampagos for the Department of Budget and Management; Roberto Tan for the Department of Finance; Thomas Aquino for the Department of Trade and Industry; Ramon Bacani for the Department of Education; Nasser Pangandaman for the Department of Land Reform; and Lualhati Pablo for the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Mrs. Arroyo also appointed Benedicto Ernesto Bitonio Jr. as chairman of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) to replace Roy Señeres. — Aurea Calica