Noli: Aquino camp wants me to remain as housing czar

Vice President Noli de Castro bared that the camp of President-elect Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III wants him to remain as the country’s housing czar. De Castro confirmed the offer to keep him at his current post as chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), but added that it might be unofficial as yet since it was not Aquino himself who made the offer. “Ang nag-ooffer sa akin yung mga tao niya pero si President Noy ay wala naman direktang offer," the outgoing vice president told reporters in a press conference with Vice President-elect Jejomar Binay after the latter’s courtesy visit to his office. (It’s his people who are offering me the job, but President Noy himself made no direct offer.) He refused to name who made the offer. Asked if he would accept the offer, De Castro said he would want to return to the media. The outgoing Vice President was a popular radio-television journalist with ABS-CBN and dzMM before he was elected senator in 2001 and vice president in 2004. “Sa media na lang ako. Tignan natin kung ano, hindi naman pwede i-offer sa akin ang vice president meron na e (I’ll just remain with media. We’ll see. They can’t possibly offer me the vice president’s job because that's taken already)," he quipped. He, however, promised to be a constructive critic of the next administration. “Babalik ako sa radio, di ba. Yung magagandang programa ay susuportahan ko at yung hindi ay hindi ko pwedeng suportahan of course, hihingi ako ng paliwanag sa kanila," De Castro said. (I’ll go back to radio, you know. I’ll support those [government] programs that are good, and won’t support those that are bad. Of course, I’ll ask for explanations from them [officials].) He appealed to the Aquino administration to continue the programs started by the present government. Among De Castro’s accomplishment as housing czar, according to him, were the decongestion of Metro Manila and relocation of illegal settlers and lowering the interest rate of the PAGIBIG housing fund to allow more people to avail of housing loans.—JV, GMANews.TV