Lacson says Roxas’ appointment as DILG chief ‘perfect’

Senator Panfilo Lacson. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines –Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson welcomed the reported appointment of Transportation Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas as the next chief of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and congratulated him even before the news came out this Friday.

“Early last night, I had a missed call from Secretary Mar Roxas which I immediately returned,” Lacson said in a text message early Friday morning.

“I congratulated him and assured him of [my] support in my humble capacity as a senator of the republic,” he said.

Lacson said President Benigno Aquino III’s decisions to appoint Roxas in the DILG post and Congressman Joseph Abaya as next head of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) were “perfect.”

“Thee choices for the DILG and DOTC posts cannot be any more perfect,” he said.

“Sec [Secretary] Mar and Cong [Congressman] Abaya are two very competent and honest individuals who without doubt can steer their departments along the straight path that President Aquino has been carefully treading during the past two years or so of his presidency.”

“At least the days of speculation are over and all those who in one way or the other were affected by it can move on from the discomfort and distractions brought about by all the rumors related to such appointments,” Lacson added.

With his second term as a senator about to end in 2013, Lacson was among those who were persistently being reported to be in the running for the DILG post after Secretary Jesse Robredo died in a plane crash in Masbate last August 18.

Ask if he was dispappointed he wasn’t chosen, Lacson said, “I feel relieved more than anything else.” Norman Bordadora, Inquirer

Originally posted: 8:07 am | Friday, August 31st, 2012