House minority hits Aquino's 'flawed' Cabinet choices

The House Minority bloc said President Benigno Simeon Aquino III's alleged flaws in choosing his Cabinet members manifest his weak leadership. Zambales Rep. Ma Milagros Magsaysay said the President should choose the best people even if they are outside his circle of supporters. "It manifest the weak leadership of Mr Aquino. No one possesses the ultimate knowledge for everything but as a President you can always tap the best from anywhere in the Philippines," she said in a press conference on Wednesday. The lawmaker added, "What President Aquino should do is to tap the best minds. He should not limit himself to those who supported him." She is referring to Secretary Jesse Robredo of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and other Cabinet officials who came under fire for their alleged failure in handling the August 23 hostage taking incident. On that day, a dismissed senior police inspector, Rolando Mendoza, hijacked a bus carrying 21 Hong Kong tourists and four Filipinos. Mendoza was demanding for his reinstatement and the dismissal of a pending case against him in the Office of the Ombudsman. At the end of an 11-hour standoff, Mendoza and eight Hong Kong tourists were killed. Call for Robredo's resignation Asked if they have someone from the previous government in mind to replace Robredo, Magsaysay said they are not pushing the ones from the previous administration. "He (Aquino) only has to open his mind," she said. House Minority leader Edcel Lagman said they don't intend to recommend anybody as "any recommendation is premature because there is no vacancy." With this, the House minority bloc reiterated their call for Robredo to resign calling him a "political eunuch." "If Robredo has any self-esteem left, he should resign with alacrity and save himself from further embarrassment and the DILG from a damaged leadership," Lagman said. He claimed that President Aquino "politically castrated" Robredo on several occasions. First, Aquino stripped Robredo of his statutory power of supervision over the Philippine National Police by designating DILG Undersecretary Rico Puno as solely responsible over “police matters," Lagman said. Second, the DILG secretary's nomination was not submitted to the Commission on Appointments on the pretext that his appointment is only in an acting capacity, Lagman added. Third, Aquino said that Robredo’s appointment is further evaluated and that the DILG Secretary is under probation because he and Robredo have differences in “work style" which surfaced during the last presidential campaign, Lagman noted. "It will be recalled, however, that when President Aquino announced Robredo’s appointment it was not subject to an acting capacity. The President’s emerging ambivalence on Robredo is contrary to his prior accolade that he is very qualified to handle so many portfolios"," Lagman said. –VVP, GMANews.TV