FALLEN FOUR: Secretaries we’ve lost so far
At the beginning of his term, President Duterte promised he would only appoint the best and brightest for his Cabinet. Cabinet members are considered the alter ego of the president, appointed to help him execute good governance and forward the goals of his administration. However, the Commission on Appointments (CA) has already rejected four out of 23 from the President’s “the best and brightest” list: Former DFA Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Former DAR Secretary Paeng Mariano, Former DENR Secretary Gina Lopez and Former DSWD Secretary Judy Taguiwalo.
Perfecto “Jun” Rivas Yasay Jr. is a Philippine Diplomat. In 1993, he was assigned as an Associate Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and later became the commission’s chairman from 1995 to 2000. Yasay is also well remembered for testifying in the impeachment trial against President Joseph Estrada on charges of corruption.
Later in the 2010 Philippine elections, he ran as Bangon Pilipinas Party’s Vice-Presidential candidate and loses the candidacy over Former Vice President Jejomar Binay (PDP-Laban) earning only 364,652 votes with five other candidates above him in the election results.
Yasay started serving as Secretary of Foreign Affairs on June 30, 2016, under the Duterte administration. He notably represented the country in the 34th Session of the UN Human Rights Council on March in Geneva, Switzerland.
However, his term as Secretary was short-lived, on March 8 the Commission on Appointments’ 15 members unanimously voted to reject Yasay’s confirmation. He lost his post over eligibility concerns and from lying under oath before the Commission on Appointments about his United States citizenship. The commission obtained documents showing that Yasay acquired US citizenship in 1986 and renounced it at the US embassy in Manila only last year, shortly before he was named foreign affairs chief.
*****
Regina Paz “Gina” La’O López is an environmentalist, a pioneer for corporate social responsibility and a philanthropist. She is also the incumbent Chairperson of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission. She is the Chairman Emeritus of Southeast Asian Children’s Television. She also became the Vice-Chairperson of ABS-CBN Bayan Foundation, which provides microfinance assistance to micro-entrepreneurs.
Lopez had a reputation in serving the underprivileged. After leaving her privileged life in Manila, she severed as an Ananda Marga missionary where she taught yoga, ran pre-primary schools and children’s homes for the underprivileged for 20 years. When she returned to the Philippines and became the Managing Director of the ABS-CBN Foundation, she initiated corporate social responsibility programs for the environment and Filipino communities, some of which are way too familiar to the common ear. Like Bantay Bata 163, the country’s first media-based hotline and Bantay Kalikasan which merited her international recognition.
On her concern for the environment, Lopez initiated the Kapit Bisig para sa Ilog Pasig Project which geared the rehabilitation of the Pasig River. The project earned her the Chairmanship of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission on 2010 by Former President Benigno S. Aquino III. She was also responsible for the reforestation of the La Mesa Watershed Reservation, the last remaining forest zone in Metro Manila.
With her reputation and impressive track record, she was appointed as Secretary of the Philippines’ Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on an ad interim basis under President Rodrigo Duterte.
In her term as Secretary, she advocated a 100% renewable energy Philippines and fought for the Indigenous People (IP). She established forums for consultations between the DENR and the indigenous people sector in the Philippines.
However, Lopez was mostly noticed for her hard-line stance against mining. Her anti-mining sentiment is backed by years of Philippine research on mining.
In February, under her orders, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) audited and found that some mining firms did not comply with minimum requirements for sustainable mining. She then ordered the closure of 23 mines and suspended five others. That’s more than half the country’s 41 mines.
After this rampage against mining, miners urge the Commission on Appointments (CA) to reject Gina Lopez over the legality of her orders. The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) maintained that Lopez failed to explain the legalities of her recent decision and policy making, including the collection of additional fees from mining companies which should have been consulted to the Congress. Miners have also noted that they never saw the audit results of their mines, nor were they given the chance to address the supposed violations. All of which were raised in the CA.
Unfortunately for Lopez, she has lost the CA’s thumbs up on May 3, 2017. The commission formally rejected her appointment as environment secretary.
*****
Judy Marigomen Taguiwalo, Ph.D. is a social worker, an activist and a University of the Philippines Professor.
On 1970, Taguiwalo notably helped in organizing the militant group Malayang Kilusan ng Kababaihan (MAKIBAKA) that paved the way to her jail time. Upon release, she served as an educator in the University of the Philippines Diliman. She used to head the University for Women’s and Gender Studies, served as Director of UP Center for Women’s Studies and as a member of UP Board of Regents from 2009–2010 representing the faculty. She also served as a Vice-Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of IBON Foundation where she now serves as the Chairperson.
On 2016, Taguiwalo was nominated by the National Democratic Front (NDF) to the Duterte Cabinet and was appointed by the President as Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on June 30 of the same year.
She served for more than a year as DSWD Secretary, and on July 28, 2017, she delivered the department’s “Ulat ng DSWD Sa Bayan”. A one-year report to the Filipino people containing highlights of the DSWD’s accomplishments from July 1, 2016, to end of June 2017.
Sadly for Taguiwalo, it will be her last “Ulat ng DSWD Sa Bayan” as thirteen of the 25-member Commission on Appointments (CA) voted against her confirmation on August 16, 2017. After the commission’s rejection of Taguiwalo, the body gave no clear reason for the decision, leaving us to speculate on the reasons behind her rejection.
The public’s suspicion was that Taguiwalo was rejected because of her ties with the left or her fight against pork barrel. Taguiwalo herself believes her stance against the discretionary funds and the tax reform bill caused her downfall.
*****
Rafael “Ka Paeng” Vitriolo Mariano is a Filipino politician, an activist, and the Chairman of both the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), a farmers’ militant group and the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan which he assumed on 1998. Mariano has a reputation for being an activist in forwarding Agrarian Reform and farmers’ rights.
Mariano was 20 years old when he joined the Bisig ng Kabataan, a local youth activist organization. At age 25, he was elected as councilor of Quezon, Nueva Ecija. He then became the Regional Vice Chairman of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon in 1984 and served as Secretary-General of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas in 1985. He then served as the movement’s National Vice Chairman and later earned National Chairmanship.
He is notably known for being one of the survivors of the 1987 Mendiola massacre, an incident where state security forces violently dispersed a farmers’ march to Malacañang Palace in protest of the lack of government action on land reform.
Later on the 2004 General Elections, he was nominated to the Anakpawis Party-List and served as the party’s representative in the Philippine House of Representatives since then until 2013. During his term as a congressman, he pushed for the passage of the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill which aimed to distribute land to farmers for free.
Mariano also spend some time detained. It was for 2 months, with five other legislators in 2006 in the Batasang Pambansa Complex on charges of plotting to overthrow the government of then President Gloria Arroyo.
On 2016, Mariano got the nomination of the National Democratic Front to be part of Duterte’s Cabinet and on May 31 of the same year, it was announced that Mariano will be joining the Cabinet of the President as Secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). He assumed the secretaryship on June 30, 2016, replacing Virgilio de los Reyes.
Secretary Mariano, during his service in DAR has made impressive pronouncements and policies in favor of poor farmers struggling to own their lands and have worked in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), the social justice program of our country. Mariano complemented his commitments through his actual visits to heavily contested areas. He scheduled and installed numerous farmers to their lands, encouraged Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) to be firm in protecting their acquired lands amid challenges of resistance, obstructions and even harassment against them. Farmers also reported that Municipal Agrarian Reform Officers has become more cooperative and approachable.
His passion for Agrarian reform caught the eyes of the Catholic Church, winning their support on his bet for approval by the Commission on Appointments. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) publicly expressed that they are “one with farmer’s organizations and agrarian reform advocates” in supporting his appointment as Secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform.
However, behind major public support, his appointment as Secretary of Agrarian Reform was rejected by the Commission of Appointments on September 6, 2017. The reasons remain a blur, the CA gave no clear answers. According to Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella, the Commission on Appointments simply pointed that there were certain factors that led to their rejection of Ka Paeng, but made no reference to Mariano’s involvement with the Communist Party of the Philippines. So, what were these factors? It is yet known.
Writer: Earl Padayao, Graphics: Gad Bautista, Editor: Calvin Teodoro
