(UPDATE 2) Recto named NEDA chief
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 15:26:00 07/23/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- The principal author of the expanded value added tax (VAT), which some groups wants scrapped, is now the director general of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita on Wednesday announced the appointment of former senator Ralph Recto, who will assume the post effective immediately.
Recto replaced Augusto Santos, who will go back to his old post as deputy director general of the agency.
Recto is the third losing administration candidate in the May 2007 polls given a post by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo few months after the ban on their appointment lapsed.
The President earlier appointed former senator Vicente Sotto III as chief of the Dangerous Drugs Board and former chief of staff Michael Defensor as head of the task force on Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.
Ermita said people will always have something so say about the President's appointments, when asked if it was Arroyo’s way of giving posts to her losing candidates.
"It can't be helped that people will always have something to say on appointments made by President. Every time there is an appointment we get reaction,” he said.
“We must recognize that the President is the appointing authority, the President knows the qualities of people who can help her in governance," Ermita told reporters in an interview.
Recto who served a six-year term from 2001 to 2007 in the Senate and nine years in the House of Representatives, authored the 12-percent EVAT in 2005, which he said would sharply reduce the country's fiscal deficit and make the Philippines attractive anew to investors.
Many believed he lost his reelection bid in 2007 because of the controversial law.
Several groups, lawmakers, and even Catholic bishops have called for the review of the VAT law amid the surge in prices of oil and food, saying the people should not be burdened even more by the tax.
The President, however, has thumbed down the proposal.
As one of the members of the President's economic team, Recto will head the country's premier social and economic development planning and policy coordinating body. NEDA also approves and reviews government projects and has a say on policies concerning growth targets.
Ermita said there should be no question about Recto's qualifications for the post, saying he is an expert in economics.
Asked if Recto's appointment signals that more tax proposals are coming, Ermita said, "Let's put it this way, I'm very sure the President knows the qualifications of the former Senator, and secondly, Senator Recto also knows what is expected of him.”
“So let's just say that now that he will be in the executive branch, maybe he can study well the kind of actions, measures, policies that he can craft to help the President," he said.
"As a member of the economic team, NEDA is very, very important. Let's just observe the conduct of the former Senator," he added.
The President signed Recto's appointment on July 10, at about the same time reports circulated that he will be given the post. Malacañang, however, refused to confirm the appointment then.
At the Senate, Recto was known as a member of the Wednesday Group, with Senate President Manuel Villar, Senator Francsi Pangilinan and Senator Joker Arroyo.
Recto's wife, actress Vilma Santos, is governor of Batangas.
Recto will replace Augusto Santos, who has been in acting capacity in NEDA since July 2007.
Santos took the post of Romulo Neri, who was then transferred to the Commission on Higher Education, supposedly for a temporary tenure of six months.
Few months after Neri left NEDA, controversy erupted over his approval of the $329-million national broadband network deal.
Meanwhile, Ermita also announced the appointment of Thelma Santos as assistant secretary of the Department of Education and Antonio Romero II as undersecretary of the Department of National Defense.
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