Former South Cotabato lawmaker is new MinDA chair

President Benigno Aquino III has appointed a former Mindanao congresswoman as the new head of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) replacing former presidential adviser for Mindanao affairs Jesus Dureza. Luwalhati Ricasa-Antonino, who served as the representative of the First District of South Cotabato from 1992 to 2001, took her oath before Aquino on Monday in Malacañang. She is the mother of incumbent General Santos mayor and former South Cotabato Rep. Darlene Antonino-Custodio. Dureza, a known ally of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was appointed concurrent MinDA chairman when the office was created early this year. He offered to step down from MinDA to give Aquino a chance to appoint its next chairman despite a law — Republic Act 9996, which created MinDA — that gives him a fixed six-year term. RA 9996, signed last February by then President Arroyo, ended a five-decade wait for the creation of an island-wide body that would integrate peace and development efforts in war-torn Mindanao. Aside from Ricasa-Antonio, who is among the authors of the “Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995," Aquino also administered the oath of office of former Philippine Tourism attaché to Sydney Nelson Laluces as the new acting chairman of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB). Laluces replaces LTFRB officer-in-charge Dante Lantin who assumed the post last July 5. Lantin served as chairman of LTFRB during the administrations of Arroyo and Joseph Estrada. Aquino also administered the oath of office to new Manila International Airport Authority board member Cesar Buenaventura, the former economic adviser of Aquino’s mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, as well as the president of the Aquino Foundation. Also sworn into office was economic professor Dante Sy as executive director of the National Tax Research Center. Sy, who is a deputy director at the NTRC, taught business economics at De La Salle University, and economics and taxation at the De La Salle Professional Schools and the De La Salle Graduate School of Business. Aquino also administered the oath of office to former Philippine Ambassador to Bangkok Antonio Rodriguez, who was named undersecretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs; former Philippine Overseas Employment Administration Hans Cacdac, who was named as Labor undersecretary; and former Labor assistant secretary for legal affairs Danilo Cruz, who was promoted as undersecretary of the Department of Labor and Employment. Also sworn in were Agriculture undersecretary Segrfredo Serrano, who was reappointed to his post at the Department of Agriculture; Jeremias Dolino, a career official, as Environment undersecretary; Philippine Information Authority director general and undersecretary Jose Fabia, who was now named as acting undersecretary; and new undersecretaries George Syliangco and Christopher Rey Tio of the Presidential Communication Operations Office. The President also administered the oath of office to new assistant secretaries Guillerna Flores of the Presidential Management Staff, Ruby Rodriguez of the Department of Budget and Management, and Sim Caronero of the Department of National Defense. - KBK, GMANews.TV