Transport Assistant Secretary Goddes Libiran. Photo from Facebook post of Goddes Libiran
MANILA, Philippines — Transport Assistant Secretary Goddes Libiran has quit her post, she confirmed on Tuesday, citing personal reasons.
Libiran said she has tendered her resignation on Feb. 4, and it will be effective on Feb. 28.
“Since last week, I started receiving questions confirming whether or not I have resigned from the Department of Transportation (DOTr). Today, I confirm it. Yes, I have crossed my rubicon,” she wrote on her Facebook post.
Libiran said that the past three months of her life had been “daunting and difficult” as her family got contracted COVID-19 and even fell victim to robbery.
“These things happening all in a month’s time were just way too much, even for someone as resilient and as resolute as I would like to be,” she said.
“I am leaving not because I will join any campaign, or because I no longer love my job. I am leaving because I have decided to once and for all, prioritize my family, and become a MOTHER to my only child, who was barely a year old when I joined DOTr,” she added.
Libiran recounted her trials as a public servant, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic where “working twice or twice as hard is no longer enough,” making it an “absolute bittersweet decision to leave” her post, “given that we are at the homestretch of a legacy of accomplishments” under the Duterte administration.
Libiran paid tribute to her boss, Secretary Arthur Tugade, whom she said “relentlessly pursued every conceivable project, program or initiative that would enhance” the public transportation system under the Duterte administration.
“It will always be in hindsight where one will really grasp and appreciate how his tremendous work ethic and management style will benefit you in the long term,” she said.
Libiran also thanked President Rodrigo Duterte “for giving us the inspiration, and for allowing Secretary Tugade and the DOTr to flourish and extend all the leeway in pursuit of his mandate to give the Filipinos a more comfortable life.”