Gazmin: No talks on possible DND reorganization yet with PNoy

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin on Thursday said he is willing to step down from his post should President Benigno Aquino III decides to appoint somebody to it. “We serve at the pleasure of the President. If the President is not satisfied, then he has the right to reorganize and remove the Cabinet secretary," said Gazmin. Gazmin said this after former Muntinlupa Rep. Rufino Biazon admitted, in an Inquirer.net report, that he is eyeing the defense portfolio. Biazon, Aquino’s party-mate in the Liberal Party, was a defeated senatorial bet in last year’s elections. He is also the son of former Armed Forces chief and incumbent Muntinlupa Rep. Rodolfo Biazon. Gazmin said Aquino has yet to talk to him regarding his job at the Department of National Defense (DND). “There was no meeting, but you know the Cabinet secretary serves under the pleasure of the President. If he is not satisfied, then he has the right to cause a reorganization in the Cabinet," he said. “But as of the moment, I have not had a meeting regarding this issue so I guess I must be doing all right," added the Defense chief. Biazon, if ever, can already be appointed as the one-year ban on appointment of people who ran in the last elections had lapsed last Wednesday, May 11. While at the House of Representatives, he served as vice chairman of the committee on national defense. Gazmin, meanwhile, was a former Army chief and commander of the Presidential Security Group during the term of Aquino’s mother, the late President Corazon Aquino. — KBK, GMA News