P-Noy supports bills limiting his power of appointment

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino is supporting bills in the House of Representatives that seek to limit his power to appoint key Cabinet members and officers in the military and diplomatic service.

Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs Ronaldo Geron told the House committee on revision of laws yesterday that the President, as a member of the Senate in the last Congress, had introduced a similar proposed law.

“He filed Bill 1719, which proposed to limit the reappointment of nominees bypassed by the Commission on Appointments (CA). Malacañang cannot turn its back on that stand publicly taken by the President,” he said.

He said then Sen. Aquino’s proposal sought to ban the president from reappointing Cabinet nominees who have been bypassed three times by the CA.

However, he said the definition of a “bypass” under Bill 1719 is different from that in the proposals pending in the House.

“To him, a bypass takes place at the end of every regular session (in June),” he added.

Under CA rules, a bypass happens when the commission fails to approve or reject an appointment before Congress goes on recess.

In its calendar of session, the legislature has several breaks, like its month-long Lenten vacation starting next weekend.

Apparently, then Sen. Aquino introduced the measure to curb the practice of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of recycling Cabinet members who have been bypassed several times.

This is also the purpose of at least three House bills which, according to Geron, the President is supporting.

Representatives Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City, Joseph Victor Ejercito of San Juan and Reynaldo Umali of Mindoro Oriental separately filed the measures.

Rodriguez and Ejercito lamented that while then Sen. Aquino wanted to put a limit to Cabinet reappointments, he is doing what former President Arroyo did with nominees or appointees.

“The reappointment of Cabinet members bypassed by the Commission on Appointments several times is still happening now under the new administration,” Rodriguez said.

Ejercito said President Aquino has been appointing Cabinet members in an “acting” capacity which, he added, Arroyo did during her nine-year presidency.

He cited the case of acting Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo as an example. Another acting secretary is Ramon Paje of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Ejercito said the President is skirting the CA confirmation process by appointing “acting” Cabinet members since these appointees need not go through such process, though they are exercising the full powers of permanent full-fledged appointees.

He said Arroyo did the same in the case of several Cabinet officials, including one “who was bypassed at least 15 times.”

For their part, Reps. Rodel Batocabe of the party-list group Ako Bicol and Mel Sarmiento of Samar said banning the president from recycling appointees bypassed several times would be a limitation of his “absolute” power to appoint. They said such power is limited only by the constitutional requirement that the appointees go through the CA process.