Palace ignores speculations over ‘flip-flopping’ PNoy

Malacañang on Saturday brushed off speculations that some people may be making decisions for President Benigno Aquino III, after he was perceived to be flip-flopping over Cabinet matters. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said Aquino never said conclusively he was going to replace some members of his Cabinet, particularly acting Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo. “There is no need to go into speculation that someone is making decisions for him, the president makes his own decisions," Valte said on government-run dzRB radio. Speculations of Aquino not making his own decisions stemmed from a television interview Thursday, where Aquino hinted at changes in the Interior and the Environment departments. The President said he may replace Environment Secretary Ramon Paje, amid rumors that he will appoint defeated senatorial bet Neric Acosta to the post. Acosta is barred from taking the post at this time because of a constitutional one-year ban on appointment of losing candidates. But Valte noted Aquino made the “clarifications" shortly after the Thursday interview. She cited a text message from the President saying "no plans of transferring (Robredo) anywhere." “After the entire thing [Thursday interview], people made conclusions on what the president said. [But] he did not make a conclusion," she said. — LBG, GMANews.TV