Solon questions presence of 'midnight appointees' in PRC

A lawmaker on Tuesday questioned the continued presence of two alleged midnight appointees in the three-man board of the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC). Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla believed the presence of Commissioners Antonio Adriano and Nilo Rosas is against President Benigno Simeon Aquino III's Executive Order 2 (EO2), revoking midnight appointments. Padilla raised the issue during the hearing of the House appropriations committee on the P6.397 billion proposed 2011 budget of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). The PRC is an attached agency of the DOLE. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz admitted that Adriano and Rosas were among the midnight appointees in her department who were still occupying their posts. She said she already submitted the names of the concerned midnight appointees to the President "for final action." "The idea being that it is possible that they can be reappointed but I'm not in the position to vouch for their competency and integrity," Baldoz said. "The midnight appointees are still in their office and awaiting further instructions from the Office of the President on the status of their appointments," she added. Budgetary implications Padilla said this is in violation of Aquino's order that "the position of midnight appointments as defined under Section 1 (of EO2) are hereby recalled, withdrawn and revoked. The positions affected are hereby declared vacant." He believed the status quo on the position of the midnight appointees in the PRC would have budgetary implications. "They would be receiving salaries coming from whatever appropriation this Congress will do. And I do not want that what we appropriate would be illegally spent by these midnight appointees," said the lawmaker. Defending the appointees PRC chairman Nicolas Lapena, however, defended the presence of Adriano and Rosas. "The function of the commission will be paralyzed if they will be immediately considered as having to vacate their respective positions," he told the committee. He said he raised this point in a letter he sent to Malacañang earlier. However, Padilla said there have been instances in the past when only the chairman of the PRC has been appointed and the commission was still able to do its job. Padilla's apprehension Padilla expressed apprehension about the presence of the two midnight appointees in the three-man PRC panel. "Imagine you are a three-man commission and two of them are midnight appointees and their positions already considered vacant but they are still lording it over at PRC," he said. He cited the recent decision of the commission to revamp all of its directors which reportedly caused unrest in the PRC. "The decision is illegal because two of them are not supposed to be there anymore. So you can just imagine the implication. It’s not just a matter of the salary given to them. There is now unrest in PRC because of this," he said. Padilla added, "if we are sympathetic to the President because he was the one who issued this, this must be resolved with dispatch considering that if ever there are movements there that would bring about chaos and unrest, it would reflect to the new president." With this, he asked the appropriations committee to withhold the salaries, emoluments and other monies due the DOLE "because we don't want these monies to be illegally spent." The panel, however, decided to set aside his request and continue with the discussion of the DOLE budget. –VVP, GMANews.TV