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Duterte cabinet meets, with higher education chairman excluded from future meetings
President Rodrigo Duterte convened on Monday a Cabinet meeting, sans two members of the cabinet who have links with the opposition Liberal Party.
Vice President Leni Robredo, who quit from the post, and Commission on Higher Education chairperson Patricia Licuanan, who was appointed by former President President Benigno Aquino III, did not attend the cabinet meeting.
In a statement Monday, Licuanan said she received the order through a text message sent to her by Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. She is the second cabinet member told not to attend meetings. The first was Vice President Leni Robredo.
"On Sunday, 04 December 2016, I received a text message from Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. relaying President Rodrigo Duterte's instructions to stop attending Cabinet meetings starting this Monday, 05 December, 2PM," she said.
Licuanan told Evasco she would comply.
Unlike Robredo, who received the same order from Duterte and decided to quit from the cabinet as chair of the Housing and Urban Development and Coordinating Council (HUDCC), Licuanan said she will continue her work.
Licuanan, who is serving her second term, will stay in office until 2018. She was first appointed in her office in July 2010. Under Republic Act 7722 or the Higher Education Act of 1994, the president shall appoint the full-time chairman and the commissioners for a term of four years, without prejudice to one reappointment.
The CHED chair has the rank of a department secretary.
Robredo submitted her resignation to Duterte, through the Office of Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, as HUDCC head on Monday.
She said Duterte's directive for her to "desist from attending all Cabinet meetings has effectively made it impossible for me to do my job."
"Remaining in your Cabinet has become untenable. With due respect, I am tendering my resignation as HUDCC Chairperson effective immediately," Robredo said.
Evasco earlier said the reason Duterte banned Robredo from the cabinet meetings was due to "irreconcilable differences."
Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said Evasco's new position is "on top" of his current responsibilities.
Evasco said the reason why Licuanan was also asked to desist from attending the Cabinet meeting was similar to Robredo's, which is "irreconcilable differences."
Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said: "While there may be matters they take issue with, these are to be handled consensually because it is vital for the Cabinet to be united."
In her statement on Sunday, Robredo alleged there was a "plot" to oust her as the vice president and to install former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who has been contesting her victory in the May elections.
Andanar, in a television interview on Monday, said Robredo’s accusation was just speculation.
"That is for them (Robredo's camp) to sort on that kind of speculation. It's not the job of Cabinet officials to fire public officials. Our job is to institute reforms in this government and the best person to ask that question is the VP herself," he said.
Andanar said the agenda for the cabinet meting includes culture and arts roadmap, results of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders' Meeting, and substantive preparations for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in 2017.
Also discussed were the United Nations climate change conferences held in Marrakech , Morocco ; updates on implementing the rehabilitation and recovery of projects in the areas devastated by super typhoon Yolanda in 2013; and updates on the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area senior officials and ministers' meeting held in Puerto Princesa City , Palawan . Celerina Monte/DMS.
