No sign any Cabinet member is leaving—Palace aide

MANILA, Philippines – There is no indication that any member of President Benigno Aquino III’s Cabinet is worried about the possibility of removal or that any one of them is preparing to leave office voluntarily, a Palace aide said Friday.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte made the statement after a Philippine Daily Inquirer source in Malacañang said Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim and presidential advisers Teresita Deles and Ronald Llamas may be removed from their present positions.

“I saw Secretary Ronald [on Thursday] and I didn’t get the impression that he was packing,” Valte said of Llamas, presidential adviser on political affairs.

In a news briefing shortly before noon, Valte said Llamas even went with several Cabinet members on Thursday to meet with demonstrators near Malacañang on the occasion of President Aquino’s first anniversary as Chief Executive.

“I know [Deles] is deeply involved in the workings of the peace process…. [The Cabinet secretaries] are okay. There was an economic managers’ meeting on Wednesday and I didn’t see any change in their moods,” Valte said.

Deles was also in Malacañang on Thursday to attend the signing of the law synchronizing the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with the national and local elections in 2013.

“If you’re looking for the sign that somebody is depressed, I didn’t notice anything of that sort. But again that’s just me. That is based on my interactions with them,” she added.

Asked about whether Lim should go, Valte said it was up President Aquino what to do with the members of his Cabinet.