Arroyo taps Romulo’s wife to head office for disabled

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo named Rosie Lovely Romulo, wife of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, as the new chair of the Council for Welfare of the Disabled (CWD), Malacañang announced Sunday. Mrs Arroyo transferred the CWD from the Department of Social Welfare and Development to the Office of the President upon her arrival in Manila Saturday night. Mrs Romulo is the president of the Presidential Cabinet Spouses’ Foundation, the chair of the DFA Ladies Spouses and of the International Bazaar Foundation. She was also the chair of the national subcommittee on spouses program during the Association of Southeast Asian Nation ministerial meeting in Manila. The President, who arrived at 10:38 p.m., also named Mateo Lee, deputy executive director of the National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons, as executive director of the CWD. The President made the changes after her visit to China and India. In China, Mrs Arroyo attended the opening ceremonies of the Special Olympics World Summer Games 2007 at the Shanghai Stadium last October 2, where 52 Filipinos participated in the international sporting event. She said her decision was based on the suggestions of non-government organizations involved in intellectual disabilities in the Philippines. She said the changes are necessary to institute reforms and eventually improve the CWD. “However, the Secretary of Social Welfare and Development (Esperazna Cabral) shall continue to oversee the Council in my behalf," Mrs Arroyo said. She said the chief presidential legal counsel and the Presidential Management Staff would prepare the documentation to set the changes in motion. Mrs Arroyo said aside from attending the Special Olympics she also met with Dr. Timothy Kennedy Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics, while in Shanghai. Shriver offered to raise foundation money to support special education for Filipino children with intellectual disabilities. “We accepted his offer with a counterpart commitment to build school buildings to house the special education programs," she added. The President, in the same arrival statement, said she also followed up large investment prospects “and addressed the fate of concessional China loans for infrastructure" that the country needs like the controversial and now canceled National Broadband Network deal. Mrs Arroyo said Shanghai is the center of commerce of China, which has been experiencing double-digit growth for the past 15 years and is currently the home of some of the wealthiest businessmen of China. She said some of them have been invited to invest in the Philippines. - GMANews.TV